House of Sampoerna

Kretek - cigarettes of tobacco blended with clove, which crackle when they burn, hence the name - are an Indonesian invention of the late nineteenth century and became the dominant form of smoking in the country. The House of Sampoerna occupies a compound built in 1858 as a Dutch orphanage and bought in 1932 by Liem Seeng Tee, a Chinese immigrant who built the Sampoerna company from a street stall; the museum covers his life, the clove trade, marketing history and a collection of the machinery. What draws most visitors is the adjoining working floor, where hundreds of women hand-roll and cut kretek at high speed - viewed from a balcony above, with rates that are startling to watch. Whether a tobacco company museum should be a tourist attraction is a fair question.

What you actually see

• A working hand-rolling floor - hundreds of women rolling kretek at speed, seen from above.
• An 1858 compound - the Dutch orphanage the company bought in 1932.
• The kretek story - the clove-tobacco invention and its industry.
• A migrant's business history - Liem Seeng Tee from street stall to conglomerate.

When to go

All year; the rolling floor works weekday mornings. Two hours.

Honest expectations

The rolling floor operates on working days only - come at a weekend and it is empty. It is a tobacco company's own museum and reads as one. Photography of the floor is restricted.

Nearby

The Arab quarter and Ampel are close; the Surabaya old town is south.