Our group had a breakfast in the hostel at around 7.00am. At 7.35am, our tour driver came and pick us up at our hostel for our visit to Solo city. We told the driver that we had to back to Yogya by 2.00pm as two of our travel friends had to catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur and another to Jarkata.
Most older Malaysians had probably heard or learned to sing the Bangsawan Solo folk song during their school days. So today we look forward to seeing the Solo city and the Solo river. After a 2 hour drive, we arrived in the Solo city.
As we were tight with time, we focuses our visit mainly on 4 places ie Mangkuneharan Palace / Kraton Museum, Triwindu flea market, Pasar Klewer & Solo river.
1) Mangkunegaran Palace & Kraton Museum - We paid 8,000rp (Rm2.50) each to enter the Mangkunegaran palace and Kraton museum. A young student tourist guide from the College of Tourism was assigned to show us around the old palace and the museum. The present Sultan of Solo (No 12th in succession) is still staying in the new palace which is not opened to the public. There are a number of exibihits, artefacts, pictures, art and photos relating to the past Sultans which gave us some understandings of the Solo culture and lives of their royalties in the old days ! We were told the volcanic sands which layed the entire palace's compound were brought in from Yogya !
Most older Malaysians had probably heard or learned to sing the Bangsawan Solo folk song during their school days. So today we look forward to seeing the Solo city and the Solo river. After a 2 hour drive, we arrived in the Solo city.
As we were tight with time, we focuses our visit mainly on 4 places ie Mangkuneharan Palace / Kraton Museum, Triwindu flea market, Pasar Klewer & Solo river.
1) Mangkunegaran Palace & Kraton Museum - We paid 8,000rp (Rm2.50) each to enter the Mangkunegaran palace and Kraton museum. A young student tourist guide from the College of Tourism was assigned to show us around the old palace and the museum. The present Sultan of Solo (No 12th in succession) is still staying in the new palace which is not opened to the public. There are a number of exibihits, artefacts, pictures, art and photos relating to the past Sultans which gave us some understandings of the Solo culture and lives of their royalties in the old days ! We were told the volcanic sands which layed the entire palace's compound were brought in from Yogya !
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2) Pasar Klewer traditional market - This place is like our Chow Kit market - stalls and shops on both side of the main roads selling all sort of traditional wares, basic household items, hawker food, fresh fruit eg snake fruit, bananas , duck eggs sold in rattan baskets and clothing etc. Rickshaws are popular mean of transport here and we saw a row of rickshaws neatly parked along the main road ready to offer their services to customers.
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3) Triwindu flea market - Another popular place for local residents selling mainly old and used items at low prices. In front of the flea market, there were some food stalls and Ng bought some snack food ie deep fried chicken skin (very crispy but after one bite , I gave up eating !) and the brown sugar coated coconut candy (kid stuff ). If you are adventurous on food, come to this place and you will not regret !
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4) Solo River - As our travel office did not specify in the official receipt a visit to Solo river, our tour driver appeared not very keen to take us to this place. Lee who was sitting beside the driver decided to hand over a 50,000 rupiah note (Rm15) to the driver and requested that he took us to this spot. Indeed this did the trick ! Solo river is in fact located about 1 1/2 km from the city. Guessed what we saw - a yellowish river similar to that of our Klang river - no kidding ! We stood near a Bailey bridge and took a few pictures on the Solo river just to satisfy ourselves.
How about we compose a new song called Bangawan Klang - Malaysia boleh-lah
How about we compose a new song called Bangawan Klang - Malaysia boleh-lah
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At around 1.30pm , our group had a lunch ( 182,000rp=Rm56) in a restaurant nearby the airport. Lee was happy to give us a treat and paid the lunch meal as an appreciation for the friendship we had fostered during the last 4 days in Yogya. Kindness begets kindness !
We said bye bye to Lee, Lam & Gan at the airport and look forward to renew our friendship with them when we are back in Kuala Lumpur.
This evening, Ng and myself continued our shopping in Jalan Malioboro and we had our dinner (50,000rp=Rm15) at a popular food stall parallel to the main road. We had fried chicken and duck meat and sat on a mat with food placed on a long table facing each other. As we were about to finish our dinner, a band of musicians came and entertained us with a few local songs.
We said bye bye to Lee, Lam & Gan at the airport and look forward to renew our friendship with them when we are back in Kuala Lumpur.
This evening, Ng and myself continued our shopping in Jalan Malioboro and we had our dinner (50,000rp=Rm15) at a popular food stall parallel to the main road. We had fried chicken and duck meat and sat on a mat with food placed on a long table facing each other. As we were about to finish our dinner, a band of musicians came and entertained us with a few local songs.
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" My childhood dream has been fulfilled after seeing the Solo river - long live Bangawan Solo ! "
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