David's AW News: Surprising Java Road Trip

Greetings from Blitar City, Java

I'm on a road trip across the island of Bali with Bondhan again. I arrived the other day on a flight from Bali to Jogjakarta - up at 4am to get a 7am flight, Bondhan was in the midst of loading a container at the Giant Statue supplier.That's such hard work, but it was good to see the statues loaded and all the wasted space around the statues carefully filled with small items. Otherwise, the shipping costs would be too high. 

Last week I was in China and telling you about the Ancient Wisdom town, not far from Yiwu - super interesting actually and some brilliant retailing ideas for you.. if you missed it you can catch up here.

I got a Grab taxi (like Uber) from Jogya airport direct to the Giant statue supplier - about an hours drive.. beautiful Java morning.

Typical Java island view..

Well, it's been a busy week. After loading the container, finishing at 8pm after a 4am start, a bit exhausted, but we stayed overnight in Yogyakarta, a friendly and cool student city, lots of universities here, and so lots of cool Indonesian kids from all over Indonesia. We managed to grab a beer in a tiny reggae bar and catch a local three-piece band do their stuff.  Very friendly place. Java is big.. and a six-hour drive the next morning is the way it rolls here.

We went to the marble city... to see our oldish supplier, the first time we started business was in 2023, at the end of the pandemic, just as we were able to get around freely again. Our supplier was delighted we came, a nice young guy, super good at his business. We buy high quality stone soap dishes from them and petrified wood candle holders.. in three years they have had regular good reorders, so the boss was happy and grateful to see us.. This town is famous for marble and stone.. and our supplier has really interesting back-story.

They actually have the most impressive showroom in town, a little strangely he lives with his wife and kids in the showroom, well it kind of overlaps the kitchen and lounge of his home.

He told us the story about how his father started the business. His father was the eldest of ten brothers, a humble farmer, and he had two cows, which he sold to buy a small grinding machine and taught himself to make (actually) soap dishes. He was a successful artisan, and all his nine other brothers followed in the same trade. Today, the sons and daughters all run successful marble and stone businesses in the same area. And often work together - they often joke that the whole town was built on two cows.

He took us on a tour of his workshops and store rooms around the town. This is the kind of business that needs both highly skilled artisans and mega heavy equipment. We noticed (despite this being a conservative Muslim area  - so no bars in town) - that at the back of one of the yards he had installed a full size snooker table, karaoke area and bar for his staff to relax (discreetly) in after work. 

After the Marble village, we moved to another town.. actually a biggish city called Blitar City and famous for being the hometown of the founding father of Indonesia, President Sukarno. It's a beautifully kept city, tidy and clean, very green with beautiful trees lining all the streets. Only one good hotel in town, five star and really posh with super friendly staff.. unbelievably nice rooms and £20 per night including breakfast! We found everything cheap here.. this afternoon, after finishing with our supplier, we went to visit the Sukarno memorial museum and grave. Entry 20p with plenty of very warm and polite staff to escort us, shaking my hand and saying thank you for coming.

I learned a few interesting things about Sukamo, his Mother was from Bali, father from Java. He was good friends with the Kennedy clan in America.

He was the original "woke" politician.. Making the phrase “Unity in Diversity”  (in Indonesian, “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika”)  a foundational national motto of Indonesia.   It actually comes from an Old Javanese poem written in the 14th century. He was a bit obsessed with it and had it enshrined in the national emblem (Garuda Pancasila) and reflects one of Sukarno’s key ideals: uniting a vast diverse archipelago with many ethnic groups, languages, and religions. Proving 80 years later a society can be multicultural.

Here I am honouring the Indonesian founder along with the locals tourists.. by sprinkling flower petals on the grave.

Anyway, this town is really good at making one thing, so good that we are told they export 50 to 60 container loads a week to China!

Businesses all over town are involved in this trade.. They ship a lot to Bali, to India, to Africa..

We visited two factory workshop places and were blown away by the artisan skills. So impressed.

Next week, I'll tell you what they make here, and why you should be selling this product.

Anyway, have a great week.

Lots of deals (unmissable vouchers!), and back in stock.

Take care

David