Pet Market

A vendor who matches her electric lilac bird cage smiles at her child underneath hanging rows of chirping creatures.

This is the beauty of travelling without an itinerary.

The pet market is not a destination you’ll find in guidebooks, or even travel blogs. I went on a whim with fellow backpackers, which never would have happened had I stuck to my original, half-baked idea of only spending a couple of days in Jogja.

I bought a ticket to Yogyakarta—known amongst locals and backpackers as Jogja—with one thing on my “to-do” list: visit the temples of Borobudur. It wasn’t that the temples were so enticing that I decided on my destination because of them; they simply acted as an anchor. I set off with that one intentional plan and took it from there.

And then I found myself across the world, waking up with an infinite number of days, thanks to a one-way ticket, and nothing to fill them with. At times this caused intense anxiety. What was I doing spending all this time and money and missing out on whatever was happening back home, when I didn’t even have a purpose or any idea what I wanted to do or see in this land of seemingly endless places to go and sights to see?

But, more often than not, these days without plans were absolute blessings that led to adventures I never would have thought of, had I created an itinerary in advance.

The pet market was one of those blessings. It wasn’t necessarily a wondrous experience. Realistically, it was somewhat disturbing to see large, wild animals in cages far too small to live comfortably. But it was a small glimpse in to life in Jogja. Animals we might not consider worthy of marvel here—racoons, squirrels, pigeons—were gazed upon with excitement by rambunctious kids and adults alike. Just in time for Easter, vendors sold bright, pastel-coloured baby chicks, who more resembled the decorated shells of their unborn womb-mates than their actual form. In short, this bustling zoo/market was straight up strange.

My compassion for animals prevents me from considering my experience at the market a “joyful” one, but the strangeness fulfilled a curiosity to see something new and different, fascinating and outlandish in a corner of this vast world.

To appease my previous rambling, rhetorical concerns, that is the purpose of travel itself.