There are two Gamelan scales Slendro and Pelog. Slendro, I think is the one which is close to Pentatonic, though a couple of notes in the scale are not quite the same. I can play along with our Gamelan at work on my steel guitar, but not on a fretted one.
Incidentally Dick, I believe you used to live next door to my brother Steve. His house was called Twites cottage.
Cheers
Dave