Legacy of charm in Central Java's coffee estates
By Ridlo Aryanto and Bambang M
SALATIGA, Central Java: What did the Dutch leave behind as the legacy of their 3.5 centuries of colonial rule in Indonesia? The answer may vary: mills, highways, bridges and railways, to mention but a few. For Windiari, the director of a regional estate company, the legacy is charm and exoticism.
Mbak Windi, as she is known to colleagues, said the charm of nature-related tourism was found in estates formerly owned by the Dutch. In Central Java, there are 415 hectares of these estates now under her charge, made up of 97 hectares of a coffee plantation, 64 hectares of a clove plantation 233 hectares of a rubber forest area plus a processing site and the estate administrator's office.
"The Dutch made the right choice for the estates, the sloping areas at the foot of Mount Merbabu and at the edge of Rawa Pening. Thanks to this location, the estate areas, some 700 meters above sea level, are not only good for the crops but also offer the exotic charm of nature," Mbak Windi said.
Prior to 1995, the Central Java provincial administration was content with the annual 90 tons of robusta and arabica coffee and about the same quantity of rubber from the estates. In 1995, all the clove plants died but the provincial administration maintained its earnings target at Rp 500 million annually.
This made Mbak Windi to rack her brains for some additional sources of income. An idea struck her: make use of the estates formerly owned by Tlogo Maastchapij Amsterdam and established in 1856 and turn them into an agro resort open to the public. In October 1999 this tourist resort was officially opened.
Unlike other sites for agro-tourism in other parts of Indonesia, Tlogo Agrotourism Resort provides a complete range of attractions for tourists. Tourists can help pick coffee beans or watch how rubber resin is tapped. These activities take place every day from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m.
The tourist can also join trekking around the hills behind the resort, and maybe spot a few birds or see a nice sunrise above Rawa Pening.
If you wish to see more of the area, you can spend the night at the resort, which is a five-star facility. If you spend the night, there are some other tour packages, for example a visit to the railway museum in Ambarawa or to the mountain tourism resort of Bandungan. Or, you may visit Gedong Songo Temple, or Kopeng, a mountain resort. All of these places are only about an hour's drive from Tlogo.
Tlogo resort consists of small houses in the midst of the coffee plantation and fruit trees.
The houses have the Javanese architectural style known as joglo, and measure five-meters-by-nine-meters. Each house has a bedroom and bathroom. To give visitors a rustic feeling, there are open-air baths in the rear veranda of the resort. This veranda is an open space with a stone fence surrounding it. The water for bathing comes from a pipe and the floor is made of gravel.
"I got the idea from the bathing place of the princess of Solo Palace. In this way tourists will feel they are really in a free open space," Mbak Windi said.
Tlogo resort is home to 16 buildings designed to accommodate tourists. "We can also prepare international-standard tents," said Windi. "The rates depend on the facilities and services," she added.
She said that some of the tourists were from travel agents while others were individual families wishing to spend weekends at the resort. In the case of the latter, advanced booking is required.
A visitor, Ralph Barney, a professor at a university in the United States, and his companion Maria, a reporter and 1992 Pulitzer Prize winner, said they felt at home in Tlogo resort when they stayed there in early June.
"Everything is very natural: the scenery, the clean cool air and the food. I wish I could stay here for a week instead of just two or three days," he said chuckling.
"I found the food to my liking. It was really unforgettable for me to eat grilled gurami as I caught it myself on the estate," said Maria, adding that it was also a pleasant experience to watch how coffee beans and rubber were processed.
Tlogo resort offers only local food to guests. Visitors can enjoy grilled gurami, nila or catfish in a small hut at the edge of the pool.
Some of the facilities available at the Tlogo resort are a swimming pool, conference hall, an outbound activity site and plantation area.
"Swimming in a pool in the middle of a coffee plantation is like taking a bath in a rural river," said Adib Irkhani, a tourist from Surakarta.
The Tlogo Agrotourism Resort is located in the heart of Central Java, to be exact in the middle of the Surakarta-Semarang highway. The resort area is to the south of Tuntang River, Salatiga, which is some 80 kilometers to the north of Yogyakarta and 60 km to the north of Surakarta. The area is only 40 km to the south of Semarang, the capital of Central Java.
As it is located near the Surakarta-Semarang highway, it is easily reached by people coming from any direction traveling in private automobiles or on public transportation.