A street vendor selling mie ayam noodles in Solo, Central Java, near the Karaton. Right behind the fence there was a paddock full of pungent goats who kept sticking their noses through gaps in the tarpaulin, trying to get some lunch from diners and making lots of noise when they were denied a meal.
Below is the product of this man’s labor. It was quite tasty, but I don’t really eat bakso (seriously, who knows what is in that stuff?) so I didn’t really touch those, only a little taste. But the rest was good.
But after a couple of mouthfuls… CRASH. A goat had stuck his head through a gap in the fence and knocked over a whole tray of vegetables. It was certainly a unique way to dine.
Tweet 
Delicious 
Digg 
Facebook 
Ping 
Stumble
Historic painting of a man. Historic painting of a woman. Animal skull?
Items on display at the Keraton, Solo, Central Java. This museum had no signs in Indonesian, English or Javanese. There were also no tour guides around when I arrived.
Unfortunately, this is pretty typical for Indonesian museums. So much history, so little money for it to be preserved and displayed in a way that is meaningful and interesting.
Tweet Delicious Digg Facebook Ping Stumble
Mount Lawu, around 30km from Solo city in Central Java, is covered with farmland and tea plantations along its plunging valleys. Women pick the leaves that are just right from the plants, working hard long days outdoors, scrambling up and down the slopes carrying their pickings on a basket on their back.
Along the roads on Mt Lawu, tiny little stands, not much more than a bamboo roof, a table and a few stools, sometimes with tarpolan awnings, sell hot cups of tea. Instead of using the processed tea, which gets sent to the factory before being processed and sold back to locals in shiny silver packets, some of the stalls pick some of the fresh leaves themselves, then fry them up so they are crisp and dry.
Then, for Rp 1,000 (roughly 9 cents), you can get a piping hot glass made up of this super fresh tea, with a far more robust flavour than anything processed in a factory. This is Central Java, land of the supersweet, so it comes served with a little rock of gula Jawa, the local palm sugar. There’s no touch of bitterness in the drink, none of that strong tannin kick. The caramelly local sugar and “bam!” of the fresh tea flavour make this something pretty special. You stand and drink it by the roadside, taking in the brilliant views. Happiness, indeed.
Tweet Delicious Digg Facebook Ping Stumble
