Saturday December 12, 2009 Java brew
By PHILIP GAME A venerable coffee plantation has been reborn as a boutique resort in the mountains of central Java. I am luxuriating in my free-form bath, watching the equatorial rain pelt down outside the picture window. Twin volcanic cones lurk behind the sodden clouds, a vista framed by fecund tropical foliage in tones of russet and emerald green. The coffee bushes on this old-established estate must be flourishing, but we'll find out on tomorrow's plantation tour. Coffee plantations usually conjure up images of indigenous workers toiling in tropical heat for a few pennies a day. However, at Losari, a former Dutch colonial plantation surrounded by smouldering volcanoes in the Indonesian heartland of central Java, work is but a distant memory. The other guests are indulging in a visit to the hammam, the Turkish steam bath, or to the spa, which boasts potions and poultices from the court of a sultan. Perhaps some are taking a dip in an infinity pool which spills towards terraced rice paddies and jungle-clad escarpments. Losari Coffee Plantation Resort lies two hours from Yogyakarta, the cultural capital of central Java, and a little further from the regional airport at Solo, also called Surakarta. From the town of Ambarawa, you take a steep drive up towards a delicately-fashioned timber structure, a 19th-century station building removed from Mayong on the nearby steam railway line. Italian-born Gabriella Teggia, a veteran of the tourism industry in Bali, saw the potential in the Losari plantation 15 years ago and set about restoring it as a boutique resort. At its hub stands the 1828 planter's mansion with its classical portico - a gem of colonial architecture in what was the Netherlands East Indies. >From the wide, stone-flagged verandahs of the aptly-renamed Clubhouse, French >doors open onto invitingly cool marble floors. Inside, modern canvases >alternate with framed maps, prints and sepia-tint photographs, mounted on >whitewashed walls and complemented by antique brass lamps, teakwood side >tables, ornate period clocks and an early gramophone. Antique teak furniture. The rooms are well supplied with padded armchairs and shelves laden with books on Indonesian art and culture. Beyond a forecourt laid out for open-air chess, the old coffee warehouse has been refitted as an elegant bar. Cigar, anyone? Of the 26 villas, the showpiece, Bella Vista, is the former bungalow of a Javanese prince, now transformed into a family or group retreat boasting generous living and dining areas, kitchen, a private pool, personal butler service and five bedrooms. Dinner at Losari's Java Red restaurant is fine dining indeed in an unlikely part of the world. Tonight's special is lightly-seared tuna served with potato, gourmet salad and a basket of the only real bread I've seen in Indonesia. The Losari Coffee is a treat in itself, served with a chocolate-dipped cinnamon bark stirrer, chocolate-glazed pastries, and an artful scattering of roast coffee beans. In the adjoining Pendopo Gamelan, an historic pavilion transported across Java, traditional and local musicians perform as we dine. A two-hour, steam train journey takes you on a delightful half-day excursion from Losari, climbing into the hills from Ambarawa's colonial-era station. The 1873 Willem I Station has become a museum housing 21 steam- and wood-burning engines, forming the terminus of a 9km cog railway. How many other trains in the world burn teakwood as fuel? Padi farmers waving to the passing train. The last scheduled services were in 1973, but the "Queen of the Mountain" excursion train and the museum are still operated by the State Railways. A mixed bag of passengers - dominated by a festive family party from Jakarta - squeezes into the century-old wooden carriages. Once underway, we rattle past the front door of many a village home, exchanging waves with the bemused occupants and with the solitary figures bent double in rice paddies and banana palm gardens. Washing spread out to dry lends splashes of colour. Children swarm around at Jambu, where the locomotive shunts around to the rear for the steep climb onwards. At Bedono, elevation 711m, the Yogyakarta train connected with the cog railway, then reversed on a turntable which remains in place. At another wayside halt, passengers stock up on football-sized jackfruit and durian; the notorious smell of the latter soon permeates the carriage. At 11ha, the coffee plantation contained within Losari's 22ha estate might not have remained economic, but all the trappings remain to titillate anyone smitten with the romance of coffee bean. Arabica, robusta and other varieties all flourish here, with the robusta often grafted onto other stock. The beans are husked, dried for a week, then roasted over a slow fire in the Harvest Shed, the high point of the plantation tour. Mmmm . . . fresh-roasted coffee beans. Ready to eat. Do try them with a dash of palm sugar. Delicious. Yes, these robusta beans make a great brew too. Many other tropical plants and herbs are also cultivated at Losari - baskets of root ginger, galangal, cardamom and cloves await the herbalist. In the cool of morning, she makes jamu or tonic drinks, dispensing them in coconut-shell bowls from the little warung. Philip Game travelled as a guest of the properties mentioned. To get more information on Losari Coffee Plantation Resort & Spa, look up www.losaricoffeeplantation.com http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.a ... lifetravel Facebook: Radityo Djadjoeri
