Kampung Jodipan, A Beautiful Colorful Village In Malang

Indonesia is not only about beaches, diving spot, mountain, or traditional performance and ritual. This country holds various types of entertainment and tourist spots that will give you the best traveling experience. One of them is located in Malang, East Java.

Malang is well-known as the cold city because it is located in the highland. Apple is one of the famous fruits that are cultivated in this city and its surrounding area. This city also is known for its fanatic football club supporters, which inspired supporters from other cities and clubs. However, one thing that we can see from this city is the creativity of its citizens. 

Many unique events and places were born from those activities. For example, you can enjoy the Malang Tempoe Doeloe event, where everything in this event is brought from the past or created to look like the past. If you want to enjoy Malang in the 40’s or 50’s, you should visit that event. But, what we are going to show you here is not an event that is held once a year. It is a place, last for years, and is available for the whole year. It is called Kampung Warna-Warni in Indonesian language. It means the Village of Color.

What is the Village of Color?

The Village of Color is a village, located in Jodipan district, Malang. You may have to travel a bit from the downtown center of Malang towards the South direction to find this village. Once you approach its location, you can see why it is called the Village of Color. The house in this area has various wall painting colors. The roof part has different colors as well, which creates unique scenery when it is seen from above.

Once you enter the village, you can see even more beautiful scenery from its colorful wall painting. In short, this village or maybe district holds one of the unique views that you can’t get from other places in Malang. You should put this place as your destination when you visit this city.

How Did It Start?

In the past, Jodipan district could be considered as the plain ordinary village. We can even call it a poor village because it is plainly not well-designed. Most of the houses in this area have white colored wall and brown tiles, which is the standard design for most houses in Malang and Indonesia. In the past, if you pass through the highway right above this village, you wouldn’t even take a peek at it. This village was once polluted and dirty. It didn’t have enough resources for building a healthy community and comfortable living place. Let alone tourism, many people often avoid this place because its appearance felt like a nest of criminals. Of course, that image hurts people who live and make a living here. But, they didn’t know what they should do to solve this problem.

The change finally came when a team of nearby university students decided to choose Jodipan district as the location for their social responsibility project. This group of eight students from the event management program tries to change this district into more economically valuable spots through tourism. So, they decided to add more color to one of the Jodipan districts. 

The idea to make colorful houses is not new. One of the villages in Brazil also has successfully changed their image through color. This Brazilian village is called Favela, which has a bad connotation and is related to crime. Then the people who live in this area paint their house with bright colors, which change those places into an interesting place to visit for tourists.

The event management program student also had the same idea of applying that concept to the Jodipan district in Malang. Thus, these students started to find a partner that can help them with their project. They found a local paint company that is willing to help their project and donated more than 6,000 pounds of paint.

The project started by painting the house and its roof. The students and people that help them use various color choices, like green, pink, orange, or yellow. They chose the pastel-type color, so it will look brighter and easy to notice from a distance. 

The project doesn’t only work on the people’s houses in Jodipan district. They also include the bridge that connects the village with the road. It feels like the bridge itself gives a colorful welcome to the visitor who is interested in this village and decides to visit. The coloring project includes all parts of the bridge, from beans to the path. For the beams, they choose blues and purples, which make it standout.

The Result

The project has a big effect on those who visit the Village of Color and the people who have been living in this area. Now, Malang has another interesting tourist spot that attracts locals and tourists from other cities and countries. Therefore, it helps this city to get extra income from its tourism sector and promotion for its tourism destination.

On the other hand, the citizens of Jodipan district also receive much bigger benefits from this project. First of all, the community gets an improved living place and neighborhood because of this project. The houses and environment here become much cleaner. It also becomes much more eye-catching, which creates a more comfortable atmosphere for people who live here.

More importantly, the unique appearance of this district also attracts more people to visit. It contributes greatly to the local’s business. More customers use their service and buy their product. That gives more money to the locals for improving their standard of living. 

People who live in this village also get more opportunities to make money through this attraction. It varies from selling food and even providing accommodation. The small project that came from the regular college task by eight students from the event management program turns out to be the important point of this village’s future. 

This project also inspired many community members. They have more awareness towards environment hygiene and preservation, because it is also one of the elements that attract tourists to visit their village. Moreover, many areas also are inspired by this Village of Color. For example, Kampung Tridi next to Village of Color also started to change by using 3D murals. There is also Rainbow Village in Randusari.

Things You Should Know Before Visiting

If you are interested in traveling to Kampung Warna-Warni or the Village of Color, you should prepare everything first before you go. You should wear comfortable clothes, have a camera for capturing the village scenery, carry cash because mostly the transactions in this village use that, and be mindful with locals.

There is also an admission fee to enter the Village of Color. Furthermore, you also need to pay extra fees to visit the next village, Kampung Tridi, that you can reach through the colorful bridge in the Village of Color. 

Conclusion

Kampung Jodipan is proof that a little change could affect the social and economic aspect of a community. It is getting better and brings more benefits to the people, not only financially, but also mentally. Now, this place has become one of the best destinations in Malang for local or foreign tourists.