I just have the right opportunity to write about it now, haha…
We (me and my 3 other friends) reached the Solo Balapan Station, the main train station in Solo in the morning of 1st August. Completely blur of the situation and without any relatives, we decided to rent some kind of taxi to go directly to the factory office, where we were going to finish our internship. The factory is situated in big village outside Solo town, called Kemiri Village. It was, in fact, part of Karanganyar regency, beside the Solo-Sragen highway.
When we reached the factory, it was a total mess, with people in the factory mistaken us for tourist searching for airport because of massive luggage in hand. Geez! The factory itself was pleasant, if it wasn’t good, it was neat and meticulously arranged, since it is also currently biggest plant in South East Asia. Everything was nice, except Solo is darn hot! The sun stung our skin while we walked that afternoon. Lucky we got the dorm right-away, since we cannot imagine where to stay for the day. We practically were out of nowhere, half an hour from Solo town, plus we didn’t have any vehicles to bring us there. Here, I show you what my place looked like…
Yes, we had wet rice-field a.k.a. sawah right in front of the dorm, haha…
One thing I observed about Solo people is that they are very humble, friendly, and helpful. My dorm owner for instance, he let us borrow his car and motorcycle on the first day we met! Wow! Surely people here don’t know any temptation, ahaha… And my most favorite thing of all is EVERYTHING WAS SOOOO CHEAP! Haha… With same sum of money I live in Bandung for one month, I can stay in Solo for almost 3 months, wah! You can even find breakfast of nasi pecel komplit with only Rp 1000, unbelievable isn’t it? Where else in this part of this world can you find such a cheap price for food? And believe me, the pecel was very delicious, even Rp 10000’s pecel in Jakarta cannot beat that one *shake head*
One of might be few of bad things happened while we were in Solo would be my team friend, mr stonehead. Actually I wasn’t very close with him at college, but I heard few rumors about him being so unconditionally perfectionist and opportunist (meaning he will try, by any chance, drag you down with him when something goes bad for him). And they all were right! Only FIRST FEW DAYS after we arrived, he already protested that he’s being the one with unclear task about report. You see, my internship supervisor at campus assigned us with specific task to do, since the factory is very big and consisted of few different plant areas. So it was obvious that we cannot report ALL the plants within one month. So he assigned us each to report about only one particular area. And mr stonehead, being the one given the task to report the smallest plant there, ngerasa nggak rela and insisted that we all should report about the WHOLE factory. HELLOOOOO, there was someone who actually tried to be graduated soon here! (it was me FYI). And the funny part was, he himself even addressed us, the rest of the group, as opportunist and selfish. And I was just like “Kok dia bisa nggak ngerasa kalo dia sendiri yang begitu sih??” Gosh, I redefined the meaning of word “selfish” and “opportunist” in my lexicon after I met him.
And as a plus, he is kinda queeny and selfish! Duh! Couldn’t imagine there was someone who was not gentle AT ALL to the girls. Saw my other friends, ms itje and ms nenep brought some heavy cotton bed, he even didn’t have initiative to help. Letting the girls do the heavy chores. As a cherry-on-top, we must share one room in that dorm! One month! Worked with him was hard enough and I still had to bear living with him for a month flat. ARGH….
But we did revenge on him once, lol. Well, we intentionally pushed him into one small pond on his birthday. Actually it was ms nenep who pushed him hard enough until him finally “kecebur” (it was akumulasi dendam for her, lol). But you know, it’s not an ordinary pond at all… Sometimes people in small village still have their “big business” a.k.a. BOKER on the river, since they don’t have appropriate MCK. And the pond we pushed mr stonehead into was such of a pond, where people threw shit every morning. Yes, you can imagine how it was like. YIKES! Must be an unforgettable birthday bash EVER for him! Ewwwww…. And to add more the funny part, the next morning after mr stonehead got “kecebur”, he got acquaintance with someone from the neighborhood. Then I told him that the one he was just known about is the one who threw shit every morning in that pond. Oh, how I wish I can take the picture of his face when he heard that, haha…
Of course, it’s not “afdol” to visit Solo without visiting famous places there… (And this is actually what I’ve wanted to write about since two months ago, haha).
Only two days since we arrived, we went to Solo using public bus for a little shopping and touring around the town. If you happen to visit Solo, don’t forget to drop by at these famous traditional markets there, PASAR KLEWER and PASAR GEDE. Pasar Klewer is really famous all around Java Island for its Batik crafts and fabrics. People from Jakarta and Yogyakarta usually redistribute the Batik from Pasar Klewer to outer parts of Java, even exported it oversea. And there, as long you can barge in Javanese language, you would certainly find cool stuff with unreasonably cheap price. Take a Batik shirt for example; you can obtain a decent one for only Rp 20000, while normally it will take more than Rp 50000 in other places. While Klewer is a Batik central, Pasar Gede is more like foods and fruits central. There you can always find something for your friends, like traditional snacks, or maybe fresh fruits with such an affordable price. As for traditional snack, Solo is well-known for its “intip”, snack made from dried cooked rice (FYI, the best intip of all is actually the one made from burnt rice at the bottom of the stove).
A week passed by, we were introduced with one of the residents of the village, Mr. Ward. He was so kind, offered to brought us around Solo for the weekend. Didn’t want to miss the chance, we accepted the generous offer. We headed toward Keraton Mangkunegaran, the Solo’s “emperor” house, or you may say a castle. But nowadays, being a Keraton member in Solo is a mere status. People don’t care whether you’re blue-blood or not. There is two “emperors” in Solo, one is Mangkunegaran, whose castle we visited that time, and other one is… Paku Alam. Paku Alam’ Keraton one is more extravagant than Mangkunegaran one, they have more money I think, lol. Solo used to be governed under feudalism system, and there were two (or even more?) sovereign in Solo. Here are the Keraton pictures…
After the not-so-awesome Keraton tour, (btw one of the “abdi dalem – some sort of servant” in that Keraton, yelled at me for standing on the emperor’s stage, darn him!) we went to fill our hungry stomach. Talking about culinary delight in Solo, we can’t forget about Galabo. It is located in front of Beteng Trade Center, on Slamet Riyadi road, and it’s only open from sundown (about 6 pm) until midnight. Why? Because in the afternoon, Slamet Riyadi is actually a big and busy road, but to attract tourist from all around, the governor has introduced this some kind of food festival. In the evening, there are many food vendors, selected by mr governor himself from all around Solo. So you will find many famous one there, such as Oseng-oseng Mercon (chicken or beef sauted in “cabe rawit”, superhot!), Bandeng Segar Ibu Mar (I recommend this one), and many more. About 200-300 metres of the road covered by food stalls. Nice! And of course, not so expensive compared to food courts in Jakarta or Bandung (that expensive Paskal Hypersquare, lol). Here are the pictures of the place, censored, lol…
To be continued…
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