Solo City
The official name for this central Javanese town is Surakarta, although you will commonly hear both residents and visitors using its colloquial name, Solo or Solo City. Apparently, while the original settlement was named Sala – after the Sala River, which borders the city to the east – the Dutch colonists, for reasons we can’t fathom, had problems pronouncing the name and decided to call it Solo instead. Post-independence the town has reverted – officially at least – to the more formal Surakarta.
While the population of the sprawling, greater metropolitan area is calculated to be an impressive 7 million or so, the municipal district, weighing in at 500,000, is largely low-key and low-rise and one certainly doesn’t get the impression of being in the centre of a major conurbation.
Chilli vendor in the local market, Solo Solo has a roughly central position on the island with Yogyakarta lying a short train ride to the southwest and Semarang situated on the coast some 100 kilometres to the northwest. The town lacks the former’s tourist draws of World Heritage Borobudur and Prambanan but does avoid the rather hectic bustle and development of the regional capital Semarang and its historic buildings and sites do see a trickle of both foreign and local visitors.
Our visit to Solo City takes in the town’s most famous site – Keraton Surakarta, the historic Sultan’s Palace – as well as a couple of interesting local markets. (Needless to say, the city does have quite a collection of markets of varying styles and sizes but we can’t visit them all so we’ve just included a couple of the most conveniently placed ones.)
As an aside, the Solo is world-famous among palaeontologists as the relatively well-preserved remains of Java Man and Solo Man – representing million-year-old skeletons of Homo Erectus – were unearthed just upstream in the Solo River Valley. (The location is also listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list as the Sangiran Early Man Site.)
A few of the friendly vendors at Pasar Legi Pasar Legi
This large, ‘wet market’, selling principally fruit, vegetables, herbs, etc. has a convenient central location not far from the Sultan’s Palace. Perhaps because the market doesn’t see many tourists, we’ve always found the vendors particularly friendly and the mountains of colourful chillies and fruit make great backdrops for you to try out some street photography. Also a great spot to grab a local coffee and soak up the atmosphere.
(Note, the word pasar, meaning market, is thought to be originally derived from Sanskrit (via Persian) and as such is likely to be a cognate of the modern English word bazaar.)
In 2018, a fire destroyed much of the older structure but a new market building has now been reopened, although most of our photos date to the intermediary, reconstruction period.
As we said, probably best describes the stalls at Triwindu Market Triwindu Market
Another excellent spot for a wander, and also conveniently located a short distance from the palace, is the fascinating Triwindu, or antiques market. We wouldn’t guarantee the authenticity of the antiques and in our opinion, flea market would be a more accurate description, but this mini-labyrinth of overflowing bric-a-brac stalls is great fun to peruse. Located close to the palace, it does see more overseas visitors than the very local-style Pasar Legi and if you do wish to make any purchases, then you’ll need to bargain hard.
The quaint lanes of the Laweyan District are known for their batik makers[/caption/]
Solo City on our tours
Both our of our small group Indonesia tours, Java Overland and Sumatra to Bali, feature a visit to Solo City. Leaving Yogyakarta for a short drive to Solo, we’ll spend our morning exploring the Sultan’s Palace as well as Pasar Legi and the flea market while our afternoon programme includes a visit to Laweyan, the batik-making district. Our overnight stay is in the Dutch colonial setting of the Royal Surakarta Heritage Hotel and the following morning…it’s off by train to Malang.
