Entertainment Options For Java Traveller

Indonesian food, with its rice-based dishes, is widely available across Java, both in upper class and mid-range restaurants, and at cheap roadside food stalls known locally as `kaki lima’ – `five legs’, because that’s the number of legs these stalls have. You can get good, wholesome Indonesian food, including favourites like nasi goreng, mee goreng (the noodle version of nasi goreng), satay and gado-gado at these places, along with tempah, a fermented soyabean cake that is native to Java. Padang cuisine, a hot and spicy style of cooking that originated in Sumatra and Chinese food are two popular eating choices. Increasingly, in larger cities like Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Bandung that cater to a number of Western tourists, western fast food is becoming available.

When it comes to entertainment, Java is pretty diverse- and if you’re a `culture-vulture’ and like to attend dance or music performances, you should be able to have the time of your life. Traditional Javanese dances, puppetry and gamelan orchestras hold regular performances at venues in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Surakarta (Solo); in addition, there are enactments of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana, in Yogyakarta every fortnight during the summer. For all cultural performances, you can enquire at the local tourist office for timings and venues.

Concert halls, nightclubs, discotheques and cinemas- signs of Western-style `nightlife’ are more or less restricted to `touristy’ places like Jakarta, Surakarta and Bandung.