The Tjandi-Bäräbudur in Central Java; 1901, by Dr. I. Groneman.
Bôrô-Boedoer op het Eiland Java; 1873, by F. C. Wilsen, 2 vols.
In addition to a selection from the above-named, the intending visitor should read "Java: The Garden of the East" by Miss E. R. Scidmore, 1898, and the Rev. G. M. Reith's "A Padre in Partibus" will be found entertaining.
Much must depend upon the notions of the tourist as to the cost of a trip in Java, but our experience is that Java is the cheapest country we have ever visited. The hotels are superior to those found in the interior of Japan, and, as the guilder, which has a value of 70 cents in Singapore currency or about 1s. 7¾d. in English currency, may be taken as the unit of value for travelling purposes, our readers will see at a glance what a fortnight or three weeks' trip is likely to cost from the following hotel rates:—
| Hotel des Indes, Batavia | 6 guilders per day |
| Hotel Bellevue, Buitenzorg | 6 " " |
| Hotel, Sindanglaya | 6 " " |
| Hotel Garoet | 6 " " |
| Gov't. Hotel, Maos | 4 " " |
| Hotel Mataram, Djocjakarta | 5 " " |
| Hotel Simpang, Sourabaya | 6 " " |
| Sanitorium, Tosari | 7 " " |
| Hotel du Pavilion, Samarang | 5 " " |
There are a few extras, and the servants are civilised enough to expect small tips. Charges for liquors are invariably reasonable.
The hotels are scrupulously clean and the accommodation excellent, and in a tropical country one appreciates the facilities for bathing.
In his delightful poem of "Lucile," Owen Meredith wrote:—
We may live without poetry, music and art;
We may live without conscience, and live without heart;
We may live without friends; we may live without books;
But civilised man cannot live without cooks.
He may live without books,—what is knowledge but grieving?
He may live without hope,—what is hope but deceiving?
He may live without love,—what is passion but pining?
But where is the man that can live without dining?
Here the poet leaves the realms of poetic fantasy to record a simple fact of everyday life—one which is appreciated by every man and woman irrespective of nationality or temperament. As in all other matters pertaining to the comfort of the European in the tropics, the Dutch, in the matter of food, seem to us to have achieved better results than we have in the British Colonies. The "riz-tafel" may not appeal to the English palate, but there is no lack of clean, wholesome dishes, and side dishes that make us wonder at the toleration of the traveller with the Indian and Colonial caravanserai. The tourist who visits Java after traversing India will be agreeably surprised at the difference in favour of the Dutch Colony in this respect.