I

n many big cities in Indonesia, some marketplaces only open on Sunday mornings. In Jakarta, this market is called Sogo Jongkok in Tanah Abang.

West Java has the same market in the Gedung Sate area, Bandung, and Yogyakarta boasts its Gadjah Mada University Campus zone.

In Malang or the City of Bloom, East Java, Wisata Belanja Tugu is the tourist shopping avenue that no visitor should miss. It is located in the hub of the city along the shady Jl. Semeru near the upscale Ijen Boulevard neighborhood.

Wisata Belanja Tugu used to move from one street to another, until the city government finally decided to center it around Gajayana Stadium on Jl. Semeru and arrange it neatly for the convenience of pedestrians.

Open from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., the Sunday market has become the pride of Malang citizens. Lined by shady trees, Jl. Semeru is closed to traffic on Sunday and trimly packed with hundreds of booths and stands for the sale of goods and food, drawing thousands of shoppers.

“Once I was annoyed by the Sunday market, as local residents found it hard to leave and reach their homes. But now with better organization, we can have fun in the tourist shopping area on Jl. Semeru while doing morning exercises,” said Bambang H.W., a resident of the adjacent Jl. Sumbing, Malang.

According to Bambang, this market also enables seniors to enjoy their favorite snacks from when they were young, such as cenil, sawut, gethuk and lopis (mostly made of cassava and sticky rice). Now rarely found, the traditional cakes are available on Sundays at low prices.

Visitors are also pampered with typical East Java cuisine, particularly for breakfast, such as rawon (spicy meat stew), soto Madura (beef soup), lontong balap (steamed rice lumps in shrimp-paste soup), tahu campur (tofu in broth), kupang (shellfish in broth) and pecel Madiun (salad with peanut sauce). For culinary buffs, Middle Eastern mariyam and Japanese dorayaki are among the top choices.

The 500-meter-long shopping avenue also offers various souvenirs ranging from T-shirts, casual wear, necklaces, bracelets, handicrafts, toys and antique coins to paper wayang (puppets) from Surakarta, Central Java.

Besides the neat rows of stands selling various commodities and food specialties, tourists and natives of Malang are entertained with topeng monyet (dancing monkeys in East Java dress) and have the opportunity to be photographed along with owls at negotiable prices.

That’s what Pasar Wisata Belanja Tugu is all about, as an alternative tourist spot in the cool city frequently likened to a major town in Switzerland.