Solo (Last Day) - Solo Car Free Day

  Welcome to day-3 of #rsolotravelog

Day 3, in the morning, we went to Solo's Car Free Day. It was fun! Seeing how the people enjoying Sunday morning with their loved ones. The weather was pretty good too!

To reach this street, we ought to pass the alun-alun kidul first, and passing some of the buildings of Keraton Solo.

One of the interesting thing for me was the wall that surrounding the keraton. Saya copas dari wiki aja ya, males nerjemahinnya.

Kompleks keraton ini dikelilingi dengan baluwarti, sebuah dinding pertahanan dengan tinggi sekitar tiga sampai lima meter dan tebal sekitar satu meter tanpa anjungan. Dinding ini melingkungi sebuah daerah dengan bentuk persegi panjang. Daerah itu berukuran lebar sekitar lima ratus meter dan panjang sekitar tujuh ratus meter.

Patung Slamet Riyadi ini memang salah satu icon kota Solo dan berada di lokasi yang sangat strategis. Nah, berhubung penasaran siapa sih beliau ini. Mari kita simak hasil copas saya :p.

Bernama lengkap Ignatius Slamet Riyadi, Riyadi lahir di Surakarta dari pasangan Idris Prawiropralebdo dan Soetati yang tinggal di Kampung Danukusuman, Surakarta, Jawa Tengah.

Sang ayah merupakan seorang abdi dalem prajurit Kraton Kasunanan Surakarta dan ibunya seorang pedagang buah-buahan di pasar.

Ketika kecil Riyadi bernama Soekamto, hingga tak berselang lama dirinya mengalami kecelakaan yaitu jatuh dari gendongan ibunya.

Pasca kejadian tersebut Soekamto sering mengalami berbagai macam penyakit.
Menurut adat istiadat Jawa, Soekamto kecil harus disembuhkan dengan cara 'dibeli', maka dibelilah dia oleh pamannya dan namanya diganti menjadi Slamet Riyadi, supaya menyelamatkannya hingga kelak dewasa.

Riyadi meninggal di usia belia, 23 tahun.

Source: https://solo.tribunnews.com/amp/2020/03/29/sejarah-patung-slamet-riyadi-solo-ternyata-ini-kisah-di-balik-pose-sang-brigjen-acungkan-pistol?page=4

Actually really interested to explore this place, but it was closed due to a private event.

Fort Vastenburg (Dutch "Fort Steadfast"), also Fort Surakarta, is an 18th-century Dutch fort located in Gladak, Surakarta, Indonesia.

Fort Vastenburg is a square shaped fort with four bastions. It is surrounded by 6 meter high bearing wall and dry moat. Three portals providing entrance to the fort from the east, west, and north. A draw bridge used to provide access point to the fort's western main portal, however this has been demolished.

Most agreed that Fort Vastenburg was constructed in 1743 and was completed in 1745, following the order of Governor-General Baron van Imhoff. First named de Grootmoedigheid ("magnanimity"), later the fort name was renamed to Vastenburg ("steadfast") (1750).

The main function of the fort was to house the resident (colonial administrator) and the Dutch East Indies garrison for the region of Central Java. The fort maintained order in Surakarta, especially between the royalties.

Memasuki area Keraton Surakarta dari arah utara, kami melalui Gapura Gladag. Kesan yang saya dapatkan adalah sesungguhnya "gerbang" sesungguhnya bukanlah gerbang buatan manusia yang berwarna putih gading tersebut, tetapi lebih ke pohon beringin sangat rimbun yang ada di dekatnya. It gives you chills and different atmosphere. Kebetulan saja saat itu memang sedang ramai dan di pusat kota. Kalau sepi, hmm.

Eh, tumben pake bahasa Indo? Iya, soalnya saya mau copas keterangan dari wiki, dan ga nemu yang bahasa Indonesianya. Atau terlalu malas untuk mencarinya.

Gladag yang sekarang dikenal dengan Perempatan Gladag di Jalan Slamet Riyadi Solo. Pada zaman dahulu, space area di sekitar Gladag dan gapura kedua dipakai sebagai tempat menyimpan binatang hasil buruan sebelum digladag (dipaksa) dan disembelih di tempat penyembelihan. Wujud arsitektur pada kawasan Gladag ini mengandung arti simbolis ajaran langkah pertama dalam usaha seseorang untuk mencapai tujuan ke arah Manunggaling Kawula Gusti (Bersatunya Rakyat dengan Raja).

Shakespeare, Copernicus, Galileli, Da Vinci. Nama-nama tersebut hidup di abad 16, saat di mana Sultan Agung memerintah Kerajaan Mataram, yang menjadi cikal bakal Keraton Solo dan Yogya.

Jadi, terkadang saya saat melihat bangunan-bangunan ini secara langsung, juga mencoba membayangkan bagaimana situasi dan suasana 500 tahun lalu.

Bangunan di slide 1 adalah Sasana Sumewa yang merupakan bangunan utama terdepan di Keraton Surakarta. Tempat ini pada zamannya digunakan sebagai tempat untuk menghadap para punggawa (pejabat menengah ke atas) dalam upacara resmi kerajaan.

Di kompleks ini terdapat sejumlah meriam diantaranya diberi nama Kyai Pancawura atau Kyai Sapu Jagad. Meriam berbahan perunggu ini dibuat pada masa pemerintahan Sultan Agung.

Berhubung ke sininya pas lagi lari pagi, jadinya memamg mengunjungi objek yang ada secara mandiri, bisa atur pace tapi jadi ga banyak dapet info.

Sebenernya secara sejarah dan arsitektur sanhat menarik, tapi kurang terawat sayangnya.

Saya suka dengan kombinasi warna putih dan biru yang mendominasi bangunan Keraton Surakarta ini.

Keraton Surakarta tidaklah dibangun serentak pada 1744-1745, namun dibangun secara bertahap dengan mempertahankan pola dasar tata ruang yang tetap sama dengan awalnya. Pembangunan dan restorasi secara besar-besaran terakhir dilakukan oleh Susuhunan Pakubuwana X yang bertahta 1893-1939. Kata wiki.

Nah, terus saya kurang tau apakah karena alasan itu juga, sehingga terdapat bangunan khusus PB X ini, atau yang lainnya juga ada tapi saya saja yang tidak melihatnya.

Kori Kamandungan. Kori ini mempunyai ukuran yang besar. Hal ini untuk menunjukkan kewibawaan raja, keagungan kraton, dan kemegahan kraton. Selain itu, juga untuk memunculkan rasa hormat kepada kraton. Hmm, saya sendiri ga tau artinya kori itu apa ya :p.

Masjid Agung Kraton Surakarta, dibangun oleh Sunan Pakubuwono III tahun 1763. Tidak lama setelah itu, negara Amerika baru terbentuk, hehe. Entahlah, bagi saya membayangkan situasi tiap wilayah di bumi pada periode yang sama itu menarik. Apalagi pada saat itu, satu wilayah dengan wilayah lain kan "less connected" ya.

Ohya, di gambar pertama, terdapat gapura yang megah, berbentuk paduraksa. Paduraksa adalah bangunan berbentuk gapura yang memiliki atap penutup, yang lazim ditemukan dalam arsitektur kuno dan klasik di Jawa dan Bali.

Menara masjid, mempunyai corak arsitektur terinsirasi dari Qutub Minar di Delhi, India. Berdiri di atas lahan seluas hampir 1 hektare, bangunan utama masjid mampu menampung sekitar 2.000 jamaah.

And that's it! Foto terakhir untuk #rsolotravelog kali ini. Singkat bukan? Sampai jumpa di travelog selanjutnya, dimana kita akan ke beberapa tempat, yang diawali dengan ke kota Medan.

Solo Day 2 - Sangiran UNESCO Heritage Site

 Welcome to day-2 of #rsolotravelog

Day 2 of #rsolotravelog. Eh, kok udah hari ke-2 aja? Bukannya hari pertama baru 2 postingan? Ya, saya sendiri juga bingung, hari pertama itu ngapain aja ya saya? Apa malem2 tepar di penginapan? Saya sungguh lupa.

Anyway, on the second say, we went to the wedding of our friends, Hendra and Dyta in, umm, forgot the exact town. Sragen? What I remember, it's nearby Sangiran.

I picked Ade, Agung, and Naufal at their accommodation, then heading to the wedding venue using g*car.

It's kinda far from Solo, but thankfully we didnt get lost. Alhamdulillah. When we arrived, it's already on the commencement speech part. Each guest has their own seat and table, and then the food, drink, and snack were delivered by the servers.

Most of the guests were the neighbors I guess. And they were raving about Hendra, as a super smart guy who got scholarship abroad (with perfect GPA), yet staying very humble, well-mannered, and religious. They talk about him proudly with sparkling eyes.

Do you know that Sangiran Early Man Site is 1 out of (only) 9 UNESCO Heritage Sites in Indonesia? and Hendra's house is pretty close with Sangiran Museum, perhaps only 5 mins by car.

After the wedding, we went to Hendra's house, and ate (again), hehe. We initially wanted to go back immediately to Solo, but my inner traveling heart saying that we needed to go to the museum. Kapan lagi cobaaa.

I only knew about Sangiran because it's told over and over again in History subject at junior high school. Personally, I was not interested on archaeological thingies, but since it's recognized by UNESCO, I thought I should give it a visit.

ohya, other than Sangiran, other UNESCO Heritage Sites in Indonesia are Borobudur Temple Compounds (v), Prambanan Temple Compounds (v), Lorentz National Park in Papua, Komodo National Park (v), Ujung Kulon National Park (forgot), The Subak System in Bali (v), Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, and the latest one: Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto.

So, how much the entrance fee? It's only IDR 5000, or around USD 0.35, or EUR 0.31. Super cheap! I know that some tourism objects such as Ragunan Zoo also imposed pretty low price, but it's still shocking everytime I find one. Since I guess no one would wanna go there if it puts a hefty price tag. But as a UNESCO site, thought the price would be tad higher.

Expectation: low quality of museum, with fossils covered with dust, dirts around the corner of the rooms, some lamps couldn't be turned on, non functional air conditioner, and bad smells.

Hmm, but the lobby looked promising with very clean area, and a nice design. The parking lot seemed very empty though.

Before entering the first room, we can see one of the interesting things there, which is a place that contains ancient lava which is almost two million years old. The said lava is derived from the eruption of Mount Lawu that occurred millions of years ago.

For a museum located in a small town, I think this is pretty good! I think even better than some museums in Jakarta. Nothing that I expected, written in the previous post, found here.

They have very informative and well-arranged artifacts. Well, sometimes it's very detailed that I didnt really comprehend that. Lol.

After doing research for decades, the Sangiran Museum has collected 13,809 fossils. This figure is certainly the largest amount among the history of the museums in Indonesia. In fact, this museum is said to be the most complete museum in all of the region of Asia. Some say that the Sangiran Museum is the largest site in the whole world.

I didn't expect that we could see variety of fossils here, from t-rex, ancient elephants, sea animals, and so on. Not sure whether they were just replica or the real things.

The description from UNESCO in the Internet mentions about how Sangiran is such a special place, that I won't be surprised if those fossils are real.

There is a very significant geological sequence from the upper Pliocene until the end of Middle Pleistocene by depicting the human, faunal, and cultural evolutions within the last 2.4 million years. The property also yields important archaeological occupation floors dating back to the Lower Pleistocene around 1.2 million years ago.

The macrofossils that appear abundantly from the layers provide a detailed and clear record of many faunal elements, while the property reveals more than 100 individuals of Homo erectus, dating back to at least 1.5 million years ago. These fossils show human evolution process during the Pleistocene period, particularly from 1.5 to 0.4 million years ago.

Inhabited for the past one and a half million years, Sangiran is one of the key sites for the understanding of human evolution. More discoveries of stone tools have been made since. These human, fauna, and stone tool materials were deposited within its unbroken stratigrafical layers.

There's an exhibition asking us to touch an ancient elephant fossil. Then again, not sure it's a real one or what. Perhaps the fossil is not that scarce and not fragile at all to be touched by many guests.

But what I like is that it's asking to FEEL the sensation. I mean, oftentimes we were asked to think only. Thinking without feeling, in my opinion, is kind of bland and shallow. It's like going to museum to just read the text, then, so what? You need to feel and sense with your soul, and sometimes heart. Well, it depends on the museum of course. But to really appreciate something, we need to use more than just brain.

Inhabited for the past 1.5 MILLION years, Sangiran is one of the key sites for the understanding of human evolution.

50 fossils of Meganthropus palaeo and Pithecanthropus erectus/Homo erectus were found – HALF of all the world's known hominid fossils.

Skeleton Bridge, or whatever

Jadi, pas mau foto-foto di sini terus tiba-tiba hujan 😅

In the backyard of the museum, there's a beautiful joglo house, that I guess could be used as event venue.

But basically, we had visited all parts of the museum. Anyway, looking in the Internet,
there are four thematica clusters are developed, namely the Krikilan Cluster (as visitor center, which we visited that day), Ngebung Cluster (the history of site’s discovery), Bukuran Cluster (human evolution), and Dayu Cluster (modern research).

Regarding tourism management, the four clusters will be connected by means of a special tourism route. People are expected to visit all clusters which will take more than one day. So, there will be next time perhaps :).

Btw, kami sempat terjebak hujan jadi ga bisa pulang. Coba order grabcar dan gocar, but none nearby. Jadilah minta tolong Hendra dan saudaranya untuk jemput. Dan alhamdulillah keluarganya Dyta jg mau ke aiport via Solo jadi bisa nebeng, hehe.

Solo Day 1 - Selat Solo Mbak Lies

 Welcome to day-1 of #rsolotravelog.

Another travelog series: #rsolotravelog. Well, even prior posting this, when I said I was gonna post about Solo, I already received comments like, "ya elah, ke Solo aja ngapain sih pake bikin travelog?"

Well, that was my first time going to Solo, so I'd like to document it a bit. And I went to Sangiran too, and that's exciting! However, this series won't be a long one I guess.

Arriving at Adi Sumarmo. The airport was quite new, and it's already integrated with TransSolo, which is pretty handy for tourist (hemat) like me.

It's always tricky to use public transportation in cities in Indonesia. Fortunately, there's Batik Solo Trans and ride hailing like gojek and grab that made my life easier. So I only need to choose which Solo Trans bus stop the most convenient for me, and taking the ride hailing from there.

How to do it? Kira2 aja, liat bus stop yang ada di mana aja, terus diukur jaraknya yang paling deket dari hotel satu per satu. hehe. And I chose Solo Balapan train station as my stop.

Taking the ride hailing, I just need the driver to take care from there, since I had zero idea on the route. But sometimes I memorize one or two street names, so I can say something like "boleh lewat jalan A atau jalan B, tapi terserah mas aja lewat mana". lol.

13:26. I did some research on food recommendation in Solo, and the closest one to my accommodation was Selat Solo Mbak Lies

Yeah, since it's near, so I tried to go there by walking. Dan capek cuy! Near on the maps, but not that near in actual. Plus, the pedestrian was not good, like every other cities in Indonesia.

It's located inside of an aisle, in a residential area, and I thought I was lost. Bahkan di gang tersebut hanya muat untuk 1 mobil saja. Tapi ternyata bener di situ.

Finally, arrived at the restaurant. The place was very unique, especially its decoration. It reminds me of Warung Mbah Jingkrak Setiabudi somehow. It's hard to describe. It's kinda ethnique, but in a unique way.

The food was good! although they put too many raw onions. and I hate raw onions. I love the sosis solo!