In love with Solo

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Yes, in love with Solo...well, a few nights at the Novotel helped, after the grime and skank of Pacitan. Joni wasn't well at the end of our time in Pacitan - a bit of a cold and a fever, she had a tough day on the public bus, we were set upon by many pushy becak drivers at Solo bus station, but it seemed that in no time we were swanning about in a beautiful swimming pool, contemplating a buffet breakfast of champions the next morning. But, glorious nest of capitalist enterprise aside, Solo is a great city. We weren't sure of what to expect - the sad fact is that all most of us hear is that this is the home of JI. Maybe it is. But we found it surprisingly liberal, easy to get around, with better food than we've encountered elsewhere and, it seemed, always something going on. Each time we wrenched ourselves out of that hotel, we seemed to encounter a puppet show, a band playing in the street, a photo exhibition....Some of our Solo highlights include:
Food. We drank gallons of fresh juice ( we have all over Java), starfruit, mango, soursop are favourites. We ate lots of srabi, little pancakes with jackfruit, banana and chocolate toppings. We finally ate satays ... stalls are a little, shall we say dodgy in Yogya. We tried more, the Novotel waffles notwithstanding.
Flea market. Imagine a south-east Asian Camberwell market. Lots of old and fake-old stuff, we didn't really buy up big but it was fun to look.
The VW Club meet. Yes. The Dub is a classic here, and we were a little startled to find a glorious collection of maybe 30 Beetles and Kombis in the street, being preened by their owners, gleaming under the pretty street lights.
The amusement park. We went to the local amusement park twice. It is clean, friendly, has cute gentle rides, nightly performances at which locals dance in formation. But the real pull for us was the amusements - there was an eccentric collection of games at which you could win packets of chips, biscuits, bottles of nasty blue Fanta, packets of coffee whitener, washing detergent and cartons of fags. The kids came away thrilled, with an assortment of colourful foods we'd never let them have at home.
Batik. It is everywhere here, of course, but we went to a museum with a great display and had a look at their factory and saw the amazing way they worked. The English-speaking guide there explained that the reason everyone stares and thinks we're cute is that they love our kids' pointy little noses.
I thought Truman would weep when we left the breakfast waffles behind and hopped on the train for our final few days in Yogya, but he was pretty content to be coming back here. Edi says she will miss the noise, the feeling that something is happening all the time. Couldn't have said it better myself.
But for us, the best part of Solo was the openess of the people, very much up for a chat and always willing to help in any way as we bumbled about looking for things to see and do.
Team Schlechta

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Photos

Lady in blue
Batik making in Solo.

Eat, eat, eat
A favourite Solo dessert, Srabi

Winners are grinners
Prizes from the amusement park.