Editor’s note:
(The following section preserves a personal account originally submitted by expatriate contributors to expat.or.id. It reflects their experience living in Solo at the time it was written.)
The narrative below describes daily life, community experiences, and personal observations of living in Solo from the perspective of an expatriate family.
Newcomers – One Year On
We left Yogya after the earthquake in 2006, house gone, business gone, nerve all but gone, certainly very broke, not much to hang onto except a chance to earn some commissions from some friendly factory owners with whom I had worked before. Sink or swim, to stay in Indonesia or to go, that was the question.
Solo was the choice because one of us had to work in Yogya and the other had to get to Salatiga.
Finding a house wasn’t that easy, we are a bit quirky and prefer older houses with character and there are lots of these in Solo but nothing seemed to be for rent, we got pretty desperate and accepted a house which was totally wrong for us, paid for it stupidly before checking the plumbing, which turned out to be really furred up, the landlords idea of fixing it was to run ugly plastic pipes all around the place. We started to realize that properties here seem less likely to be advertised or have a ‘to rent’ sign on them, and the best policy was to just ask if a house seemed empty. The Solopos has a regular section for renting but the best way is word of mouth.
That was how we found our lovely old place out at Colomadu near the airport, a rambling Old Dutch style house belonging to the sugar factory with a huge garden. Like idiots we fell in love with it and went through the pain of renovating it to an acceptable standard. The place had nothing left inside, no door handles no toilets no light switches, it had been stripped bare! It had been empty for a good few years, and was knee deep in some pretty unspeakable stuff.
We found a local guy to do the garden and our beloved housekeeper who has been with us for 13 years started coming from Yogya 4 days a week by bus, because she refused to sleep in the house as it was too full of ghosts for her taste.
Having lived in Yogya for so long we always thought that Solo was a bit scary, during the 1998 troubles Solo had been in the news more than Yogya and seemed to have more than it’s fair share of angry extremists. More buildings had been burned and stories abounded around Yogya of how difficult it was in Solo.
We have discovered that image to be far from the truth, the people in Solo go about their religious and civic lives in a perfectly normal, reasonable way.
Additionally the very first time we went out shopping we couldn’t believe how un-molested we were, no one said ‘Hello Mister’ no one tried to get us to go and see a ‘Batik Exhibition’ and the becak drivers are totally laid back compared to Yogya. Even our first sortie into the more obviously touristy area near the Kraton was a delight, no one seemed to pay any attention, the warungs were a delight and the local people seemed content to let whosoever wander around and do their own thing without comment. It’s more anonymous. The Antique Market at Triwindu is as near as it gets to being pushy, but after all they are there to sell, and if you think about Bali and Yogya or Surabaya Street in Jakarta it’s downright relaxed.
Compared to Yogya the traffic is a lot less hectic, mainly as there are less student on motorbikes.
The history and culture of the city has such depth that it is an endless fascination. We feel that here in Solo we are really in Old Java, tradition here seems impervious to outside influence and less self conscious. We are converted Solo-ites now, we really enjoy the city, there may be less restaurants and places designed for Ex-pats, but the places we tend to hang out in are very comfortable and easy going. The Ex-pat community that we have met are very friendly, amusing ordinary people, unpretentious and genuinely desirous of helping each other and the community. When the Solo Expats Association was first suggested it was as a means of exchanging information and welcoming new comers, supporting each other and each others families and also supporting various community projects within Solo to help the local population understand us, and to help us to understand them. We call that just being neighbourly.
Our first year in Solo has been probably one of the most enjoyable of all our years in Indonesia, even after the traumatic start we can honestly say that we’ve made more friends, had more laughs and felt more relaxed living in Solo that just about anywhere, which is amazing coming from a Brit and a Yank who find it hard enough just living with each other!
The Soviks. Colomadu, Solo
