Lasem - Rembang part 2

Shall we continue? :)

As I said in the previous post, I was traveling to Lasem - Rembang City, with my mom. It wasn't spontaneous, though. Still in second day, I went back to old village again, just to take some good photos of it. As I walked through the village, I could feel the solitude around the high walls, big wood front doors and accompanied by the sweet sunset. It was a beautiful one, I felt like I went back to the time when there was no car, no pollution, no modern technology, and it's just you and the place. I walked through with my mom; sometimes I took her as my beautiful photo object. The rest of the evening was just fine, after taking photos in old village - we walked and walked until it was near the end of the village, tried to feel the place and the quietness. Then, we got back to hotel.

The third day (last day) seemed to be plain, because we lost time (again) in car. In the morning we went to Karang Jahe Beach, it's in Rembang. It was sunrise, and the moment I saw a place (like rice fields) to make salt and it was touched by the sunlight, I stopped the car and got out of it. I stayed for a while and just felt the moment, it was pure. I saw a few old men doing the plowing thing to the sea water, it's like you sweep the dry water on and on until it becomes salt. So, the salt making needs, more or less, a month. You put not-to-much sea water to that place, and let it dry for 30 days. Then, you sweep the residue and put it beside 'the place'. 

After that, I passed through the seashore in Karang Jahe for about 10 mins, and we went. The beach wasn't so clean and it's not the beach for sunrise but sunset. So I wasn't quite excited. Before we got back to hotel to pack our things, we stopped by to the traditional market in Rembang. It was great! The things that my mom bought like Garam Krosok (the salt), and traditional snack were all very... very cheap. My mom was pleased by that, hahaha. We went back to the hotel for awhile, and before we went back to Semarang (to catch up the train from Semarang to Bandung), we went to R.A. Kartini Museum. 

It was good, the museum was actually the real house of Kartini before, so it's a little bit creepy. I tell you something, there's this thing that happened with my camera and film. I took photos from Kartini Museum, it was like 3-4 frames I used, and I asked to wash and scan the film when I got back to Bandung. The result was nothing, there's only white color in the negatives. I was so sure that my camera setting was all right and it should've been all black if there's some error, because I took them indoors and it was dark. Well, Thank God it happened just like that. 

Our trip from Rembang to Semarang took more than five hours! Traffic in every town because it's saturday night. Great. On the way back, we stopped by to the souvenir shop and to Demak! We prayed in Demak Great Mosque first, then we continued our trip to Semarang. 

IT WAS AWESOME, the best short escape I've ever been to. :)

There's something new about the film I used, it was Fuji Neopan Acros and it's black and white! This film is harder to manage the lights. Ilford is easier to use, of course - it's the master for black and white. But when I saw the result, they're all good (well I'm not saying I'm good, I think it's all coincidence? he he). The photos have strong contrast and I could feel the place itself through the photos I took.

I feel nothing but the calmness and solitude of Lasem.

This is 'the place' that local people make salt from sea water, I took it when sunrise started to appear. 

This is what Garam Krosok look like.

It was in Karang Jahe Beach. The wave was nice, calm and smooth.

The traditional snack we bought, it's from flour and  grated coconut.

And this one, traditional Dawet. 

This was one of the 'only photos' I got from Katini Museum. It's outside the house. Can you see how dark was the inside?

The tower of Demak Great Mosque.

And here was my mom, standing in front of the Great Mosque of Demak - feeling dazzled.

All photos were taken by Yashica fx3 super 2000 and film Fuji-neopan Acros B/W 100.

Lasem - Rembang part 1

Have you guys heard anything about Lasem? Or, have you been to Lasem?

Last week, my mom and I (yes, it's only both us - sweet mom-daughter escape) went to Lasem. It's located in Rembang, Central Java. I'd been dreaming to go to Lasem, since it was mentioned in one of my courses in campus, Vernacular Architecture. Basically I learn about the history and the sustainability of how human can make something (a place) to live with any particular natures (climates, temperature, vegetation) and time periods. My favorite lecturer once mentioned in one of her classes that Lasem is a beautiful example of Javanese people that were being affected by Chinese and Colonial cultures. When I saw some photos of Lasem in my lecturer's presentation, I thought that it could be so nice if I could go there. 

Sooo, here I was! Lasem is a tiny beautiful district with a lot of heritages. Anyway, for those of you who are curious why Chinese cultures can be one of the strong influence; it was because there were a lot of Chinese people in Central Java who were attacked by people who dislike their race (I forgot, if I'm not mistaken it was Javanese) and Chinese couldn't go anywhere. But luckily, the head of Lasem district was half Javanese and half Chinese, so Chinese people who were being attacked, were moving to Lasem and they were fine in Lasem. As far as I could see now, there were a lot of houses that have Chinese architecture signs. 

My very first day in Lasem was awesome. I went straight to Rumah Batik Tulis Sekar Mulyo, it's home-based batik store that has open work space both outdoor and indoor. My mom was so happy seeing a lot of batik because she kinda loves it. After going to batik store, we went to the village that has old heritage houses and I took some photos of them, and we went to Chinese Temple; it was marvelous! I love the way people of Lasem keep their heritages alive. After seeing it, we ate Lontong Tuyuhan near by the rice fields. Then, we went to hotel in Rembang to rest.

The next day, I was excited to go to the beach, seeing the sunrise. But we changed plan, so we went to Tuban district to go to Sunan Bonang Tomb. I thought it would've been quite and calm, but it wasn't. There were way too many people inside the Sunan Bonang Tomb, and it was totally hot in there. We only went to Tuban because the travel time was taking around 3 hours to go to Tuban, and we lost time in car.

See my Lasem experience from the photos below, enjoy!

Everlasting beauty: my mom. 

Sunset by the rice fields after eating Lontong Tuyuhan. 

My mom loves fish. On the way to Tuban, there's a lot of dried traditional fish shop, and we stopped by to one of them.

People from all over Java came here to do the ziarah in Sunan Bonang Tomb. They prayed by singing a lot of Islamic duas.

Another pic when my mom bought smoked fish.

All photos were taken by Yashica fx3 super 2000 and film Ektar 100 (love this film by the way!).

- to be continued to the part 2.

Europe Trip Video: Newbie on Premiere Pro

Hey, you.

I know it's super late, almost dawn right here, actually. I finally made a video of my trip to Europe with my college friends! It was an international study tour last winter, 2017. I was super excited to edit the video, because it contains wonderful memories.

Don't expect too much in this one, my camera's a bit broken so it was the best quality it had; which was not the best. Plus, I'm so not good at editing video, sorry! I just put it all in one place, cut them down a bit, and added a song that matches to winter trip vibe, hahaha.

Well, things I remember the most when I edited the video are:

- Bus lifeee
- Sunrises
- Snooow!
- Beautiful sceneries and architecture
- Farmacia!!! Oh, how I love pharmacies in Europe.

Enjoy!