Part 1 of 4 In a post I wrote about my 2018 trip to Semarang – my hometown and where my parents live – I recount the moment when I thought the city no longer excited me, for I’d visited most of its must-see places […]
All posts tagged: Java
Candi Ijo: A Silent Witness of Change
We as modern-day tourists often see ancient sites as places that inspire us, leave us spellbound, or whet our curiosity of the world we live in. We perceive them and give them attributes based on our standpoint, making them objects of our fascination. But what […]
Sambisari & Kedulan: the Underground Temples
Imagine an alternate world where ninth-century cathedrals across Europe and mosques throughout the Middle East and North Africa were buried deep in the ground for centuries until being rediscovered in the 20th century. People only knew a little about their existence, mostly from stories told […]
Killing Time in Semarang
The city of Semarang, the capital of Indonesia’s Central Java province, is the place where I was born. However, since the age of 1.5 years old I have been moving around the country with my parents following my father’s assignments from the government institution he […]
Blitar under the Radar
In an age of mass tourism like today, places with stately, magnificent landmarks that are hundreds or even thousands years old draw people from all over the world to come and visit, marvel at the impressive monuments, and feel that they’ve become part of the […]
Radya Pustaka: A Forlorn Museum
Try to gather 100 people and ask them the following questions: “Who wants to go to the beach?” Most of them would probably raise their hands. Then ask, “Who wants to go to the malls?” Maybe only 50 to 60 people are keen on the […]
Javanese Royal Palaces: Mangkunegaran
What happens when a claimant of a region is excluded from a treaty that officially divides it into smaller parts? As history suggests, this person will keep fighting for what they believe is rightfully theirs. The success of that usually depends on how much power […]
Javanese Royal Palaces: Yogyakarta
On August 15, 1945, people across Japan, at that time an empire encompassing large swathes of Asia, heard something they considered unthinkable. The once formidable power officially surrendered to the Allies in an announcement made by Emperor Hirohito himself. Very early the next day in […]
Javanese Royal Palaces: Surakarta
Considering the total population of Java today, one might be startled to realize just how many people live on this Indonesian island. Java’s land area is slightly smaller than Florida, and just a little bit bigger than the whole of Greece. However, while the Sunshine […]
Singhasari: Rise and Fall
In the second half of the 13th century, a vast empire ruled by nomadic people from the steppes of what is now Mongolia stretched from the western shores of the Pacific Ocean all the way to the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Victory after victory […]
Singhasari: Bloodshed and Beauty
Once upon a time in ancient Java when Hinduism flourished, the story of a mighty bird who saved his mother from slavery lived on – a tale of how far a son would go, even putting his own life at risk, to end his mother’s […]
Candi Badut: A Remnant of Kanjuruhan
In the eighth century, several centuries after Hinduism arrived in Java, the fertile island where towering volcanoes took lives but replenished the soil saw the beginning of temple construction in earnest. The central part of Java in particular witnessed the proliferation of Hindu and Buddhist […]
What an Amazing World! 