The town centre is quite spread out, and the local buses are less foreigner-friendly than in Yogya, so expect that you'll probably be doing a fair amount of walking (watch your footing, as most streets have no sidewalks and just crumbling and potholed shoulders for you to walk on).
As you wander about, you'll pass friendly locals (surprised to see a Westerner), crumbling colonial buildings and palaces (filled with rotting antiquities)...
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| Keraton Kasunanan Surakarta (one of two royal palaces in town - the other one is in better condition) |
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| Crumbling and dusty objects within the palace |
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| Small street in one of the kampung batiks (a traditional batik-making area, now acting almost like a collective to attract domestic tourists and shoppers) |
...half abandoned new buildings (I get the feeling recent years have not been good to the local economy)...
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| On Slamet Riyardi street |
...a fantastic batik museum showcasing thousands of pieces of antique batik, the opportunity to peek into the workshop, and highly knowledgable tour guides (plus, if you have been inspired by what you have seen, you - of course - exit through the gift shop)...
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| In the workshop of House of Danar Hadi |
...and finally, more good food than you can shake a stick at, in one of the best eating cities in central Java...
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| Nasi liwet at Nasi Liwet Bu Wongso Lemu |
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| At Omah Sinten |
If you can manage to tear yourself away from the food, there are a few temples in the pretty countryside outside Solo that make a nice day trip.
I only had time to visit one of the three, Candi Sukuh. It's sometimes referred to by touts and taxi drivers as "the erotic temple", but it's really not. It's attractive, almost Mayan looking, and boasts a number of interesting reliefs and statues, a few of which have big penises. But hardly sufficient to get your granny in a tizzy.
The easiest way there is to hire a car and driver. It is possible to travel out to near the temples by bus, but the bus drops you some distance from the temples, needing to hire an ojek to get you the final few kilometers up into the hills. The roads up are steep and bendy, so I don't recommend hiring your own motorbike and attempting to self-drive unless you are a highly experienced driver.
To get there by public transport, head to the main bus station (Tirtonadi, a bit north of the main train station, conveniently connected by an elevated walkway). Catch a bus to Karangpandan, where you can change to a small minibus towards Kemuning. If you tell the driver which temple you want, he'll tell you where to alight. Expect really surprised locals on the bus.
From Kemuning, it's 6-7km to Candi Kethek and Candi Seto. There's normally an ojek driver hanging around where the bus drops you, and you'll probably have to pay him to wait while you look around the temples, as the sites are not very popular and you may otherwise have a hard time finding someone to take you back into the town (Grab and Gojek don't have any drivers out here).
The stop for Candi Sukuh is just under 2km ftom the temple, so in theory it's walkable, but it's uphill all the way there, sometimes quite steeply. I hired an ojek to take me up. Momma didn't raise no fool.
Getting to Solo
From Yogya, you can reach Solo by bus, but I always think the train is a more civilised way to travel. There are several mainline services a day to Solo, but they tend to be fairly expensive. Much better value as the Prambanan Ekspres trains (Prameks for short) which run from Yogya to Solo via Prambanan roughly every 90 minutes. They aren't listed on the main train schedule and ticketing website, although google maps includes them on the schedule from Yogya's main train station. You cannot purchase Prameks tickets ftom the self-service ticket machines at Yogya station, nor can you buy them from the hectic and busy main customer service and ticketing hall. Instead, you need to go into a separate, much quieter hall next door (on the left of) the main customer service and ticketing hall. No, I don't know why, either.
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