Solo is one of
the most popular cities in Indonesia, located in Java (Central) Island and has a
good reputation as a vacation destination, especially for its local culinary
delicacy. Solo is also very popular among Indonesians and foreigners for its
Batik clothes. This is not my first visit to Solo, as I lived in Yogyakarta
once which is about 1-hour drive to Solo, yet I never really explored Solo.
This time, I had
approximately 24 hours to explore Solo (downtown). With 2 friends of mine, we tasted
some culinary and looked around couples of interesting destinations around the
downtown of this small historical city.
These were my 24-hour
highlights and recommended destinations in downtown Solo:
Pasar Triwindu
aka. Ngarsopuro (Pasar means market)
It is a quite
big traditional art and antique market, located in the central of Solo. A
market that I found very interesting and exotic with its millions of
collections of handicrafts (from woods, glass, irons, other metals, clay),
antique household tools and furnitures, whether they’re new or used. It’s like
a mini heaven for collectors and antique lovers.
The excitement didn’t
stop here. When the evening comes, the market will close, but the street in
front of the market will be closed for any vehicle then becoming a pedestrian
with tens of stalls offering you souvenirs, clothes, street foods, and many
more. Yep, it becomes a night market.
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| The Market's Sign |
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| Inside The Market |
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| Triwindu Night Market |
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| Street Foods, fried tofu with shrimp paste |
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| Chicken Satay |
Batik Danarhadi
Museum
Still in the
same area (short walking distance), there’s a museum owned by Danarhadi family
which is famous for their batik industry in Indonesia and foreign countries.
Thousands of batik collections from around the world and various eras were displayed.
Some say The Danarhadi family has around 10,000 batik clothes collection half
of which, alternately, will be displayed at the museum.
The entrance
ticket is included guide fee. Visitors are not allowed to walk around among the
collections without a guide, and also restrictedly forbidden to touch and
photograph the collections. I have to swallow my skeptical of this museum
because it literally displays a wonderful and beautiful collection of batik
clothes with their own story of the pattern and of the creator or the owner,
which partly were owned by the Royal Family of Solo monarchy. Well recommended,
especially for Batik lovers.
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| You can watch, live, the making of Batik Clothes |
Es Puter (in
front of) Pasar Triwindu (Es Puter is a traditional coconut ice cream)
This ice cream
absolutely brought back many good memories of little me enjoying this kind of
ice cream which is one of popular street foods among kiddos in the land of
Java. This ice cream was well perfect in a hot sunny day. Smooth, melted in
your mouth and it has rich of coconut flavor. It usually serves with fragmented
sweet sour green rice. It’s heaven!
The ice cream is
sold in a cart with short cups hanging down on the top of the chart. Nothing
fancy, the price is very cheap and you have to stand or sit on pavement while
enjoying this ice cream. This is definitely one of the best and popular
Indonesian cold desserts.
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| Es Puter |
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| The Cart with hanging cups |
Soto Triwindu
(Soto means beef or chicken stew)
Soto is one of
popular and favorite dishes from Java Island. Every district has their own
signature of their soto delicacy. Usually yellow soup with choices of beef or
chicken (including the offal), in some district the soup, instead of yellow,
it’s clear or brown clear.
Soto Triwnidu is
a beef stew with clear soup and fresh bean sprouts, served with steamed rice.
It’s very tasty and refreshing. The meat is very tender and the soup is heaven.
This dish is commonly enjoyed with many side dishes which are served on your
table, from fried fragmented bean cake (Tempe), fried beef offal, fried mashed
potato, etc. Well recommended for breakfast or and brunch.
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| The Restaurant's Sign |
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| Soto Triwindu |
Warung Selat
Mbak Lies (Warung means simple and small restaurant, Selat is the name of the
dish, mbak means miss/ms. in Java Language and Lies is the name of the owner)
One of the
authentic of Solo delicacies, Selat Solo is slices of steamed spiced beef with
vegetables and potatoes in sweet brown gravy. Usually, the choices of the meat
are beef meat or beef tongue. It’s uniquely delicious and very popular among
locals and tourist. Besides Selat, Mbak Lies also serves other Javanese
(Central) dishes.
Warung Mbak Lies
located in a narrow street, so during lunch time there will be traffic and
queue line to enter the restaurant. The restaurant itself is an entertainment.
It’s a unique restaurant with its own style of decorations and furnitures. Some
of the things that we thought were just of decorations, turned out were the
things that we could buy.
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| The Warung |
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| Selat Solo |
Radya Pustaka
Museum
Based on my
assumption, this museum is the main museum in Solo. A museum which has various
collections from ancient era to colonial era. With (too) cheap entrance fee, I could
get all access to all collections in this pretty small museum.
Inversely proportional
to its collections, I think visitors need to notice the safety and the
preservation of the collections. It is all because I do not think that the
museum has a good security system to protect its artifacts. In my opinion, the
museum should increase their standards of maintenance, as well. Yet, I believe
that this museum has a high percentage potential to be one of the finest
museums around Central Java.
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