Danar Hadi Batik Galeri - Surakarta - TravBuddy

Batik is tough to ignore if you're traveling in Java, mostly because in all of the tourist hotspots it seems like someone is trying to sell you some every minute. But if you want to gain an appreciation for the cultural significance of batik in Indonesia and the painstaking nature of the process used to create it, probably the best place to do so is at the Danar Hadi batik museum/factory/gallery in Solo (although even if you couldn't really give a rat's a$$ about batik, under which category I pretty much fall, it's still a nice change from the fusty kraton, or royal palaces, that comprise Solo's other main attractions). The city is one of the traditional centers of batik in Java, and the owner/founder of one of its largest batik factories has assembled a pretty massive collection of batik works going back over a hundred years. 'A hundred years of batik -- sounds absolutely fascinating,' you might say with dripping sarcasm, but it's really not that bad: the collection's not so big as to be overwhelming, and it's well organized and maintained (with labels and explanations in English as well as Bahasa Indonesia). The guides, who are both very knowledgeable and speak very good English, keep it moving quickly enough so as not to be boring at all. Once you've been enlightened as to the main differences between the many styles of batik, they provide an overview of the multiple-step process which defines batik, but both of these are just precursors to the most interesting part of the tour: an amble through the actual factory, where 300+ people churn out *a lot* of batik. You can see (and say hello to) the women who are 'writing' the wax onto the fabric with little pen-type things and the men who are using intricate metal stamps to do the same thing (curiously it's completely gender segregated -- no men 'write', and no women stamp), and all the other stages of the process as well. Again, the guide accompanies you, but you're left to your own pace -- I was in and out in less than an hour, but I guess if you're super into your batik, you could probably spend hours inspecting each piece in the collection and hovering over the workers' shoulders.

Entrance to the museum and factory is through the large (and pretty expensive) shop where all of the companies products are sold -- thankfully there's no pressure to buy whatsoever, so unless you're after a souvenir, you should only be set back the cost of the guided tour: 15,000 rupiah per person. For large groups, batik classes and other cultural events can be organized as well.