Surakarta is the second largest royal city on the Indonesian island of Java, a peaceful and quiet place, founded in 1745 by Paku Bowono as the capital of the Kingdom of Mataram. It is here that we begin our tour of Surakarta by horsecart.

We first visit the old sultan courts, considered relics of the past, which have been transformed into museums, as well as the Puro Mangkunegaran Palace, where the sultan still resides today with his family and 200 servants, and the palace gardens, with its surrounding tranquillity and water splashing in pools.

But we want to visit the surroundings of Surakarta and experience the rural life in the countryside up close. We board a small ferryboat across the river to reach a nearby village, where a bird contest is taking place. After the prizes have been called and the participants have gone home, our ride with the horse-drawn carriage begins, which leads us through an evergreen fertile landscape, from village to village.

We stop at a rural house where we learn how rice crackers are made, and then sold like hot cakes in the markets of Surakarta. We journey on surrounded by soil, fertile with volcanic ash. Next, we learn how joja beans are cooked, peeled and finally wrapped up as small packages in big leaves to be sold.

The carriage ride continues through another village and then endless rice fields. Here, the harvests are good and the land can sustain itself, a blessing that no longer exists everywhere. From the carriage we see time and time again that the volcanoes of central Java have certainly created good things here.