Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Sosrowijayan, A Tourist Kampong


Walking about 200 meters southwards from Tugu railway station, along Malioboro Street, you will find Sosrowijayan kampong. A plank at the corner of the small street with the same name on it leads you to the area. Connecting Dagen Street and Malioboro Street, Sosrowijayan is split into two areas, namely East Sosrowijayan and West Sosrowijayan. Later, East Sosrowijayan is known as the second famous tourist kampong in Yogyakarta after Prawirotaman.


Arriving at the T-junction of the street named after the past authority of the area (Sosrowijoyo), you will be greeted friendly by pedicab drivers. Usually, they will assist you to get lodgings or take a mini tour along Malioboro Street or to get bakpia (the special snack of this city) at Pathok area by riding their pedicab. Many guides will readily assist you to get lodgings, for example. They will tell you many things about places of interests in Yogyakarta, too.


Entering Sosrowijayan area, you will see an old building functioning as a lodging, namely Aziatic Hotel. The building that was built during the Dutch colonization has typical European architecture. The building has white wall with three doors and some supporting pillars on the front side, while the name of the hotel is directly embossed to the wall in black color. Once, this hotel was used as the shooting location of 'Daun di Atas Bantal (The Leaf on A Pillow)' film that was shown in Cannes Film Festival.


Entering the first alley, there are two bookshops. Most of the works sold there are novels in English; some of them are in Indonesian language. You can freely select or just take a quick reading of the content since they are all unwrapped. Even though most of them are used ones, physical quality of the books is preserved so well that they are worth collecting. The prices vary but they are definitely cheaper than those in bookshops.

References :
www.yogyes.com

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