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.