Kudus - city of Kretek 🚬

On my way further to the east I wanted to visit Kudus, where the special Indonesian tobacco called Kretek (with clove inside) was invented. Around 1880 there was an Indonesian guy who thought, as oil of cloves is helping against cough, smoking them must be even better 😬 So he invented the clove-cigaretts, putting some oils and aromas ("sauce"), for a better taste. Seeing the Kretek museum was nice, they've so many beautiful dioramas in there, showing all the processes of production in earlier times and today. Unfortunately they do not tell, how this work (mostly done by women) pushed female emancipation in Indonesia, in the 19th/20th century. 🤷
But a great experience (had to take some pics with locals, again, not many foreigners come here 😅), they recommended a tobacco shop to me, so I finally can roll my own Indonesian Kretek-cigarettes 😎.
From Kudus I went on to Purwodadi, for my next adventure, which is a nice small city in Central Java. Once more I've spent some time strolling around and exploring Indonesian daily life. 😍Read more