Masangin and Sepeda Berhias Alun-alun Kidul Yogyakarta

Alun-alun is Indonesian for an open space or field. A kraton, or palace (the kraton grounds is actually a city with the palace within the confines of a perimeter wall) must have two alun-alun, a north court (called Alun-alun Lor) and a usually smaller, southern alun-alun, called Alun-alun Kidul, with kidul meaning south. The Alun-alun Kidul in Yogyakarta is a place where locals go to on weekends to let a bit of their hair down and have some healthy, family fun.

The colourful, LED-lit rides that is part of the attractions at Alun-alun Kidul, Yogyakarta. Whoa, make way for the Angry Birds pimp-mobile.

Also, the Alun-alun Kidul is home to a pair of Banyan trees (pokok beringin – most likely Ficus benjamina) that local folklore has it that whosoever can navigate between the pair of trees without any mishap whilst blindfolded, then he or she has a pure heart and whatever they wished for will come true.

This ceremony is called Masangin, which means to walk between the two banyan trees in the middle of the square (masuk di antara dua beringin). Nowadays, many local youths come to the Alun-alun Kidul on Friday or Saturday nights and give this activity a try, usually girlfriend egging the boyfriend to try or vice-versa, perhaps as a test of their partners’ purity (most of them end up disappointed though).

Masangin

To carry out this activity, one is advised to stand approximately 15-25 metres from the trees on the northern side (at the Gedung Sasana Hinggil side facing south – i.e. facing the Jalan Gading city gates), and be blindfolded. Some suggest that the person be turned 360 degrees and then made to face due south, straight in line between the two banyan trees. The blindfolded person now must walk towards the gap between the two trees, without any assistance or interference from his/her friends. It is good to have friends around to silently move the crowd away from the path of the blindfolded person, as the grounds do get pretty busy. Blindfolds can be rented at IDR 3000, which is approximately RM1 at the time of visit.

The base of the two Banyan trees are surrounded by an ornate perimeter. I am standing at the endpoint of my attempt to cross between the two trees. Obviously I am a little quite way off to the right of the gap between the two trees.

When I tried it, I veered to the right, just passing the perimeter of the right banyan tree. Guess my wish won’t come through then. So after you’ve tried doing Masangin, another fun thing to do is to watch people doing it and laugh at them. Some will immediately start to veer so much to the left or right that they end up going in circles and back to where they started from. During my time there, I did not see any single person who managed to get between the gap of the twin Beringin trees.

I think it is almost an impossible task to be able to walk straight whilst being blindfolded, as it has been shown in one of the episodes of Mythbusters that without visual clues; most people will tend to veer to one dominant direction.

Sepeda Berhias (Decorated bikes/rides)

Besides the Masangin, there are also brightly pimped out rides that you can rent at the Alun-alun Kidal. These LED-lighted, bicycle-converted family or couple-ride thingies have illuminated cartoon characters such as Angry Birds, Donald Duck, Hello Kitty and even Doraemon, as well as cute froggies and I Heart Yogya ones. As people ride along the square, the lights from these vehicles gives the square a carnival-like atmosphere. If you do get in one of these rides, make sure you do not ride these vehicles outside the square; they are only meant to be used within the alun-alun.

A multitude of LED-lighted vehicles transforms the road into a river of lights.

Angry Birds ride, anyone? The best rides to go crash on some bad piggies.

If you do get hungry and worn out after all the walking and cycling, do not fret, for there are plenty of peddlers selling food and drinks all along the square. You can sit on the ground and use a low table to enjoy the local food sold by these peddlers.

An, An An tottemo da-isuki Dora-e-mon. Notice the lady that is about to cross the street - she is a peddler heading back home as she has had a sold-out night.

Most of the visitors to this square are locals or domestic tourist. It is their form of a weekend entertainment. However, I feel that this place has a sort of charm that should be made known to more people.

How to get there

Tell any taxi driver or bechak (trishaw) driver that you want to go to Alun-alun Kidul and they will get you there. If you are staying at the Jalan Prawirotaman 1 area, you can even walk there. Just head westwards on Jalan Prawirotaman 1 towards the intersection of Jalan Parang Tritis-Tirtodipuran-Prawirotaman1 (the Wisma Gajah guesthouse end) and turn right into Jalan Parang Tritis. Walk until you reach the end of the road and come to a major intersection where you can see the walls of the kraton (a white wall with a bastion at the corner) on the opposite side.

Turn left into Jalan Mayor Jeneral Sutoyo. You will have the kraton wall on your right, parallel to the road. Walk down this road until you reach a crossroad and an opening appears in the kraton wall on your right. Turn right to cross the road and go through this city wall entrance – this is Jalan Gading. When you the end of Jalan Gading, you will see the open field and the pair of banyan trees of Alun-alun Kidul. For the sake of trying a bechak, J whom had graciously hosted us, paid for our trip back to his place in a bechak.

Going back home on a bechak (trishaw). That is the southern kraton entrance (or rather the exit, as I am leaving the kraton grounds).

Bishop's Crown and Bird Chillies

This is a chilli pepper post as I end up harvested two kinds of chilli peppers today; the Bishop’s Crown pepper, which is a cultivar of Capsicum baccatum, and the Bird Chilli pepper, which is a Capsicum frutescens.

Bishop's Crown chilli peppers (Capsicum baccatum var. pendulum) from the balcony. Only the centre part of this chilli is hot, the wings are sweet. They are also known as Friar's Hats or Monk's Hat peppers.

Bird chillies - they are of moderate heat, and can be dried easily. I prefer them pickled in vinegar, which is how these will end up.

The fruits on both of them have all turned red (well almost all for the Bishop’s Crown peppers). As the amount of peppers produced is small due to weather and severe spider mite attacks, I had left them on the plant since the ripened fruits add colour to the plants in the balcony instead of picking them off as they ripen. Now that almost all of the chillies have turned red, it is time to remove them to get them to produce the next flush of fruits (and deny passing birds a quick meal on the 13th floor).

From greenish yellow to orange to red - Bishop's Crown peppers under different stage of ripeness.

The Bishop's Crown chillies before being snipped off the plant - a bit like flying saucers hovering around the mother ship. If you want to see how the flowers look like, please click here.

The bird chillies will be pickled in vinegar, which helps to kill some of the heat of the peppers, thus making it more palatable whilst the Bishop’s Crown peppers will be seeded and dried. When dried after reaching ripeness, Bishop’s Crown peppers have a nice sweet, fruity taste.

Enticing birds in the neighbourhood - red bird chillies (Capsicum frutescens) for grabs on the 13^th floor.

The Bird Chilli plant sans the ripe fruits. It won't be long before the next flush of flowers comes out.

The taste of dried Bishop's Crown peppers is somewhat akin to that of dried Goji berries but with the sweetness of dried tomatoes. After all, they are all members of the Nightshade family (Solanaceae) – Goji berry belongs to the boxthorn family of Lycium, tomatoes are now a Solanum (together with potatoes and aubergines), and chilli peppers are Capsicums.

Doritis pulcherrima var. champorensis 'White'

Doritis pulcherrima, literally the beautiful Doritis, is a small dainty orchid that is easy to grow and if grown en-masse, can be quite breathtaking. In the wild, they are terrestrial or lithophytic, found along streams and by the coast where the humidity is reasonably high. They can be found growing on leaf litter and rock crevices but are equally adept as an epiphyte, as long as they get enough moisture.

The light requirements can vary from dappled sunlight to full sun if slowly acclimatised. Under stronger sunlight, the leaves grow smaller but take a more fleshy appearance and may become marked with purple spots. They also flower more freely when exposed to stronger light. For me, Doritis pulcherrima is an easy orchid that can stand a lot of neglect and abuse.What I am showing here is a Doritis pulcherrima var. champorensis 'White' or alba.

Doritis pulcherrima var. champorensis 'White'. This white peloric form of Doritis pulcherrima has attractive yellow edged petals that somewhat resemble the lip.

This peloric form of Doritis pulcherrima is often referred to as var. champorensis. There are variations to the varietal name, some give it as champornensis or chumporensis. As with the usual Doritis, they come in both the normal pink-lilac and the white version or alba (technically not a true alba, for the yellow coloration of the lip is still present). Doritis pulcherrima var. champorensis is more showy than the usual D. pulcherrima, as the other two petals becomes ‘deformed’ and takes on the colouration as well as the shape of the lip.

Close-up on Doritis pulcherrima var. champorensis 'White'. The lateral petals have the yellow markings similar to that of the lip. The shape of these petals are also more spear-shaped and fleshy like the lip.

In orchids, the peloric forms can range from mild, where the petals take on some of the colouration but not the shape of the lip, to full peloricism, where you get three lip structures instead of one (no normal petals). In D. pulcherrima var. champorensis, the petals take on the colouration and some of the shape of the lip. Hence the petals appear bigger and showier than a normal D. pulcherrima.

The lip of Doritis is interesting, as there are yellow calli on the claw of the lip as well as side lobes that have yellow blotches, looking very much like the pollen mass of a flower. These pseudopollinia (false pollen mass) possibly play a role in the pollination biology of the flower.

The green arrow points to the calli on the claw of the lip whilst the blue arrows indicate the yellow coloured tip on the lobes of the lip. These structures are supposed to look like pollen masses (pseudopollinia) that is used to entice pollinators to the flowers.

According to Jin et al. (2012), Doritis pulcherrima is a con artist, i.e. it employs deceptive pollination (generalised food-deceptive orchid). The flower is nectarless, and the pseudopollinia (pollen mass) are not collected (or rather, is not food) by visiting pollinators. They merely look like co-blooming flowers that will reward the bee with pollen/nectar, thus tricking the bees into visiting the flower.

Recent molecular reworking of Phalaenopsis have resulted in Doritis being considered as part of Phalaenopsis, thus the correct name for this orchid would be Phalaenopsis pulcherrima. However, the RHS Orchid Hybrid List still recognises Doritis as a genus for hybrid registration purposes, thus a hybrid between Doritis pulcherrima with a Phalaenopsis will still be considered as a bigeneric hybrid with the genus name of Doritaenopsis.


REFERENCE
Jin Xiaohua, Li Dezhu, Ren Zongxin and Xiang Xiaoguo (2012). A generalized deceptive pollination system of Doritis pulcherrima (Aeridinae: Orchidaceae) with non-reconfigured pollinaria. BMC Plant Biology, 12:67
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3388949/pdf/1471-2229-12-67.pdf