Indonesia
Low Price Book Shopping at Kampoeng Ilmu
Are you a bookaholic, Superkids? Drop by to Jl Semarang, Surabaya. Almost along this road, sellers of comics, books, magazine and tabloid, both new released and secondhand, are lining up. All are cheap and still open for bargain!
Still on the same street, on the soutern end, lies an area called Kampoeng Ilmu. It’s about 2.500 m2 and is filled with dozens of book stands. This place also has a gazebo transformed into a hanging out site named Kafe Gotong Royong, pool for kids, small playground, a mushalla, library, a multipurpose hall and a vast parking lot. So, this place should be much more convenient than the book stands by the street.
In Kampoeng Ilmu, we just park the car (oh right, that’s mom and dad’s job) and visit one stand after another by foot. No need to get jumpy if you get horned by passing vehicles. They may get annoyed by the swarm of book buyers on the street. For your information, Jl Semarang is always quite full with crowd because it’s located nearby exit/entrance gate of the very busy Pasar Turi Station.
Just what book do they sell in Kampoeng Ilmu? You name it. Old ones and new released, original and pirated (fiuh, better stay away from the latter…) hard cover or soft cover, those in bahasa, English, Dutch, Germany, Spain, Japan, Chinese and even Russian. The theme is also all covered. From kids’ reading, healthy, history, science, parenting, humor, literature, atlas, dictionary, up to notebooks.
Don’t be surprised if you find classic detective series like “The Famous Five”, “The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor”, “Malory Towers” and other legendary works by Enid Blyton with different covers from what we already have at home. Those might be the first editions, released far before we were even born. Old books that have stop from published turn out to pop up here pretty often.
There are also recent released books that still have the seal on. They can come to 60 percent lower in price than the store price on the tag. Surely secondhand books are even cheaper. One old serial of “Tini” can be yours with Rp 5.000. The new ones are about Rp 10.000-Rp 15.000, depending on your bargaining skills.
Hasyim, owner of two stands that specifically comics, has about 70.000 collections of hundreds of tiles. He got them from an out of business book rent. One comic is for sale only Rp 3.000. “In one day, i can make up to Rp 1.000.000. There’s here one night, a comic collector from Malang purchased an entire sock up to Rp 10.000.000,” Hasyim reveals.
The book tourism site that opened on April 7th 2008 really is the paradise for those who love books!
Kampoeng Ilmu, Wisata Pendidikan dan Buku Murah
Jl Semarang 33, Surabaya
HAFIDA INDRAWATI
PHOTOS: HAFIDA INDRAWATI
