July 10 - The Affendi Museum

July 10 Day 146

                We got up and had another great breakfast and chat with our Andorran friend.  When we asked what his name was he said that he has had many names and then changed the subject.

                Meg wanted the morning off as she had fallen behind in her work by spending hours the previous day trying to upgrade our flight using her airmiles (not surprisingly, she couldn't).  She stayed behind and the hotel got me a Grab to the Affendi museum.

                Affendi was a much beloved local artist with a quirky side.  The buildings on the site were all based on the shape of banana leaves and were nice, large curvy spaces.  The first building was the largest with samples of his work (mainly paintings, a few sculptures) in order from the earliest to the latest.  He had talent, and you could see how he went from a less distinctive style to using colourful, thick outlines of paint to frame his subjects to splattery grotequeries in his later work.  Also sitting in the gallery was a customized car which was supposed to be stylized to look like a fish but not really.

                The next room had sketches and oddities such as dressed and posed skeletons.  A third room had the work of his ex-wives and children, some of which was quite good.  Outside was a tower to look around the area (the gallery was right next to a river) and a cafe where a free drink came with your ticket.  Below was a gallery for local artists, a restaurant and a nice pool with strange creatures fixed onto it.

                The whole place was worth about an hour and the front office was able to get me another Grab to the National Gallery.  I was the only visitor there the whole time and there were at least a dozen people working there.  maybe they get tour buses as the restaurant space was built to accommodate large groups.

                The trip to the gallery was long and I should have checked it in advance as it as closed.  My Grab had gone so I walked back into town to check out the main shopping street.  The town is not an attractive one as the walk was hot and dusty with little to distinguish it.

                The main shopping street starts off basic with sidewalk space and racks of clothes in front of shops with lots of touts.  The restaurants along the other side are heavily touted and mainly empty with pre-cooked food ready to be re-heated, not a good sign.  As you continue south it becomes more crowded with locals and sidestreets with carts and makeshift stores going off in all directions and probably much better prices.  I wasn't in the market for anything so continued down until I got to the market.  There was lots of food and supplies and a few people doing satay over open flames.  Very busy with locals.

                I continued walking towards our hostel and ended up on our street after the time I suggested Meg get her own lunch and so had decent satay and beer at a place on our street.  When I got back to the room Meg hadn't been out so she headed out on her own to grab lunch.  She had used the woman at the front of the hotel's phone to call ahead for a pickup once we arrived in Bangyuwangi.  Johan, who was supposed to arrange pick ups, said he was busy but wanted our details in case he could make it.  Kind of a confusing message so Meg told him that we would make our own way.  Back in our room,  packing and readying ensued and we were on time for our Grab pick up for the train station.

                The ticket line was nothing so we had our tickets in 30 seconds after being told to be there an hour early.  In the station were plenty of seats and lots of shops so we loaded up on snacks and read our books while waiting for the train.

                All of the trains were pretty much exactly on time and we were in executive class this time with reclining seats.  We got comfy and ordered a cold dinner with dry chicken but decent rice in a box.  The old guy next to us was loud in talking on his phone and to the guy beside him, who might have gotten in about 5% of the conversation so we were glad we had earplugs.  The seats were much more comfortable than economy class (really, the price difference is minimal between them, it's all what's available when you book) but still hard to have a really good sleep on.  It also didn't help that they kept the lights on in the train car and there were long, loud announcements at every stop we came to.

The main gallery in the museum.  i don't see how the car resembles a fish.

A grotesque carving outside.

Huge Affendi sculpture in the cafe.