Although its “proper” name is Surakarta, most people refer to this pleasant city in Central Java by its nickname: Solo.
Every Sunday morning the city’s main thoroughfare – Jalan Slamet Riyadi – is closed to motorised traffic, so residents can enjoy “various leisure activities”.
These include dancing and exercising in the street, plus a nicely informal market that stretches long and thin, along the roadside edge of the footpaths.
I documented the pictured example of uncommonly intelligent and environmentally-friendly packaging at 9 am on 20 October 2024.
What we were then enjoying was an “every Sunday in Solo” event.
However, throughout Indonesia – but most especially so in Solo – Sunday 20 October 2024 was definitely not “just another Sunday”.
That afternoon, in Jalan Slamet Riyadi, we accidentally experienced a truly extraordinary event – one peculiar to Solo, and which could only ever occur once.
20.10.2024 was Inauguration Day for Indonesia’s new “top banana”.
Immediately after handing over to his successor, the former President left Jakarta, and flew back to his much smaller “home city”.
From 2005 to 2012 he had been that city’s very popular mayor.
As became inescapably evident that afternoon, “Jokowi” is still enormously popular in Solo.
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