Madukismo Sugar Factory

Visiting Madukismo Sugar Factory, you will feel the nuance of the early industry era. An old, big building with vast yard, old machineries and the railway track used for flatcar to transport sugarcane will greet you and stress such an impression. This factory offers tour enjoyment that is different from others. You can make an appointment first with the management of the company in order to enjoy Madukismo Agro Tourism is tour package since it is not done anytime. When you come to the factory area, you will see Madu Chandya building that is located close to the factory. Then, you will be guided to know the making process of sugar from the sugarcane and the methylated spirit as the side product of sugar. The explanation is given by utilizing audiovisual equipments in order to make the presentation interesting.

A short journey on an old train can be made after the presentation. You will be able to feel the nuance of a travel in the past when you are in the compartment of the old train driven by diesel machine made in Germany. The old train will bring you around the factory area and the sugar can plantation close to the factory.

Getting down from the train, you will go to the location of the factory. If you come in May - September, you will be able to see the processes of sugar production directly. The processes include molasses tapping, molasses distillation, molasses evaporation, crystallization, sugar stirring and packaging. While observing the production process, you can look at the old machines used in the factory.

Exiting the location of sugar factory, you can go to methylated spirit factory of Madukismo that is located at the west of the sugar factory. In the factory that was built in the same time as the sugar factory, you will see the processes of the spirit production that include raw material dilution, fermentation and distillation. Methylated spirit and other alcohol products produced by this factory are processed from molasses, side product of sugar production.

If you have completed your tour in the factory, you should not rush home. You can still enjoy many things around the factory area. Tracking the route of sugar cane transportation through sugar cane field and villages in Bantul area is an interesting to do. To the east of the factory, you can also see old train compartments that are not functional anymore.

The used irons from this factory location were brought to Thailand to construct Kwai River bridge, the bride connecting Thailand to Burma as the battle location during the Second World War and was filmed on The Bridge of the Kwai River that won 7 Oscars in 1957, included the Best Movie award. Now, the bridge that was built using the used irons from Madukismo Sugar Factory becomes one of the main tour destinations in Thailand to commemorate the raid by the allied Forces and the forced labors.

 

If you come at the early time of sugarcane pressing (May-September), you will see the ritual of cembengan done by the workers and the community around the factory. The ritual is intended to wish the best luck for the sugarcane pressing to be done smoothly. During the ritual, you can see the bride and bridegroom sugarcanes, the first sugarcane pressing, jathilan performance, community market, plantation of buffalo's and cow's heads, offerings, reading of Koran holy verses and night-long performance of leather puppet show. If you want to leave for Kasongan village that is located some kilometers from the factory you can travel southwards.