It is said that a Javanese man must have a kris, a horse (I guess a motorbike is the modern-day equivalent), a perkutut (a turtledove), a house, and a wife. (I have heard variations on this in different Southeast Asian countries. In Cambodia we were told that a family must have a house, a motorbike, and a television. In Singapore, you reportedly need cash, a car, a credit card, a condominium, and country club membership...)

It's the bird thing that is particularly fascinating here. As I have already noted, birds are an important part of life (as indeed they are in Thailand). People often hoist their bird-cages up to the top of a high pole, to give the birds (I guess) fresh air and sun. Birds routinely ride motorbikes, their cages held aloft by the pillion passenger, or converted into a backpack. On our way to work, there seems to be a defined space in the middle of a field, where men gather to release their pigeons.

A really good place to witness this proclivity is PASTY, Yogya's animal and decorative plant market. Yes, there are plants, and yes, there are all kinds of animals. (We longed to take home some incredibly appealing cats, or maybe a dozen of the billion or so hamsters; we noted with surprise that uh-oh geckos have orange spots on their tummies; we felt sorry for the monkeys; and I was completely grossed out by the absolutely MASSIVE python curled up in the corner of a big enclosure...)

But what's REALLY big is birds. On a Sunday morning, PASTY is heaving; the most crowded part is the bird area; and that crowd is 99% men. Birds are a guy thing.

This is an extremely photogenic place. The bird cages are a work of art in themselves. And the birds within them are a riot of colour: iceberg blue, emerald green, sunburst yellow, tangerine, and so on...

But photos can't remotely convey the soundscape. Songbirds trill, turtledoves coo, chickens crow, puppies yap, kittens wheedle...

We're seeing all this from the far side of the river, as it were. Our itinerant lifestyle does not permit the acquisition of a bird. We can't really convert the carport into an aviary, and populate it with a few pairs of lovebirds. Would be nice, though...