Yogjakarta, Java, Indonesia

A holiday weekend meant a chance to get out of Singapore for a short vacation. The destination was Yogjakarta, Indonesia. This is a place I've wanted to see for a few years and recently it's become much easier to reach since one of the budget airlines started up a direct flight to and from Singapore. In 2006 there was a large earthquake causing damage to many of the buildings and historic temples- it also coincided with massive mud slides and an eruption of Mt. Merapi nearby.... direct flights from Singapore were stopped making the trip a little more involved and difficult to see over a weekend. There's a lot of interesting places to see in Java- from cities, historic sites and temples, and volcanoes. The main reason people travel to Yogja is for the Buddhist and Hindo temples of borobudur and Prambanan. The damage from the earthquake at Prambanan was still evident as about half of it was still closed off and under repair.

Horse and carriage is still commonly used for transportation around Yogja, alongside cars, bikes, and scooters

Wile walking around the city we came across a group of kids customizing their bikes on the street- these were like low-rider bikes I'd see in San Diego- you never know what you'll come across in Indonesia


We had a better view of Mt. Merapi from the city.... after driving all the way up the view point we found it completely clouded in and raining with no view to the peak at all. You should see a giant volcano where the cloud is



Borobudur - A Buddhist temple build somewhere around 750AD and used for many centuries. It was eventually abandoned then rediscovered in the early 1800's by Raffles during his posting in Java. Souvenir hunters looted the temples for artifacts - many of the Buddha heads have been stolen- for years until a effort was launched under UNESCO in the late 1970's restoring it to it's current form.






The holiday weekend happened to Vesak, a Buddhist holiday celebrating the birth, enlightenment and passing of Buddha. As Borobudur still functions as a Buddhist temple, there is a massive pilgrimage there over the holiday. We decided to see the temple the day after the holiday as over 10,000 people are usually expected to visit during the festival.

Prambanan, a Hindu temple from the similar time period around 800AD- it's also a UNESCO site and had been extensively restored by the mid 1900's only to be seriously damaged again during the 2006 earthquake. Even though about half of the complex is still closed for repair it is an impressive site none-the-less.

Italy trip 2009

The whole trip in Italy was short- just one week in total. Three nights in the Cinque Terre along the coast, two nights in Venice and the last two nights in Verona before flying back to Singapore.

The Cinque Terre area in northwest Italy is a national park made mainly of five small towns along the coast, all connected though a network of hiking trails. It's a beautiful area full of limoncello, pesto, focaccia and fresh seafood. Unfortunately a huge storm hit all of Northern Italy for the whole trip so it was cold and wet the whole trip and only did one short hike between Monterosso where we stayed and Vernazza, the next town south. The view from the hotel in Monterosso
Riomaggiore- the town furthest south
A small limoncello production setup in Monterosso


After Cinque it was a long train ride to Venice and though this was my third time to Venice it was the fist time actually staying there on what's considered the main islands. Just as I had always suspected, it's a pain walking with your luggage trying to find your hotel in the maze of the Venetian streets... especially since it was also in the rain. It's not difficult and actually fun to wander around the city using the main markers for Rialto, Academia, etc. for reference but when you try to find a specific address... that's where it gets difficult. Eventually, theorecically, with enough time you can find any place in Venice (at least one time), and if not, it's best to just enjoy walking around or stopping at a cafe on a square to have a spritz and watch the tourists go by (there's something cilivized about this drink I like but could never find it in Singapore). On the second day we took the boats out to Murano and Burano islands.
St Mark's Square in Venice
The Rialto Bridge- used to be the center of finance and power for Venetian trade.


From Venice, it's a short ride to Verona on the way back to Milan. Verona is the location of Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. It's also home to the Romans third largest arena at the center of the city which is still used today, mainly in the summer for a season of outdoor opera performances.
Juliet's Balcony- said to the location of the Capulet family house where the balcony scene in the play took place, though in reality it was set up to attract tourists who forget that it was actually a play and not reality where the scene occurred. Still, it's one of the biggest attractions in the town......and below the balcony is the statue of Juliet where a tradition of rubbing her breast (and having someone take your picture while doing it) began long ago. It's not unlike the tradition of rubbing the foot of St. Peter statue in the Basilica at Vatican City... though that tradition has been going on so long the foot has been replaced several times after gradually being worn away with every touch.. What will be the fate of Juliet's breast which has already been polished to a shine?... of course there's a boob job joke coming up in the future.

The Verona Arena- Completed in 30AD and still used today, it's the 3rd largest Roman arena built- the Colosseum in Rome being the first.

Night scenes in Verona

Murano

I just got back into Singapore from a week vacation in North Italy with, not unexpectedly, one of the highlights being the day off Venice in Murano- partly but not only because of a huge freak storm that hit all of northern Italy which meant we saw a lot of rain. It's been almost three years since my last time in Murano for the goblet class at Abate Zanetti by Elio Quarisa and for this trip I had a few specific things to see... the top being to find Davide Fuin's workshop to watch him working. He's one of the best Venetion goblet masters still working- my instructor, Ron, had taken a class from him at Corning several years ago and I'd seen some video of him working from that- since then I've heard that's he pretty open to people visiting his studio and watching him work as well. So on Murano, after about an hour there it started pouring rain and in such cases, just about the best place to be is in a glass studio next the furnace at 1000+C degrees... so we walked way out of the tourist area to the studio's address, rang the bell, exchanged some words in English to the lady who answered in Italian and she buzzed us in, still not sure what we were doing there.
After walking in the door I quickly started to explain the story about how one of my instructors had taken a class from him and I'd see his work before and had traveled here to see him was hoping to look at more of his work... to which she laughed nervously and said "I don't really speak English... but you're a friend of Davide, I see. He is working inside," and she took us back to the studio. He was working with his team inside and they were very friendly to us. I got to see him make a few goblets and few larger tops for bowls which I think must have been samples of options for a custom order. Once they finished for the day he came over and talked a little with us. I told him one of my instructors had taken a class from him and he remembered him and he told us his storeroom was upstairs if we wanted to see. It was packed with literally hundreds of pieces and they'd sell it at relatively cheap prices. It seems they don't advertise to sell their work directly there.. if you happen to come in they will sell it, but it seemed most of the work was sold to custom orders or to other resellers on Murano or in Venice. It takes years, like 10-20 years working every day, to get to the skill level that Davide Fuin works at and many of the younger people on Murano either don't want to become glass blowers or don't want to continue making glass in the classic venetion designs. We talked to another glass house earlier that day that had six generations of glass masters in the family- each was taught by the father passing down the tradition and technique- the latest master though, the 6th generation, doesn't want to continue working in the same technique and designs and his work is much more contemporary and he wants to work as a glass designer and not the master blower- which is good since he wants to express himself differently and appeal to a wider market but at the same time, as this happens, hundreds of years of secrets and technique are being lost. Normally a simple goblet of Davide Fuin would go for 140-150 euros; older pieces from previous generations will go for much more. We got one goblet and one simple tumbler…. I must have been in a very strange mindset when I was there because now I’m kicking myself for not buying more goblets… they were so many nice ones… but at the time I was thinking I just wanted something more simple from him that would use on a normal basis which is why I got the tumbler- as a souvenir I think it serves the purpose better since it reminds me of the trip when I use it .. those goblets are more for just sitting on the shelves.
The goblet and tumbler we got from Davide's factory storeroom.


Here's a few other pictures of a studio I had taken on the last trip to Murano in 2006.A glass furnace and tool bench at the Elite factory on Murano- from the 2006 trip.

Afterwards the sun was out and we went to another shop to visit a friend, Amy, from when I was there in 2006. She’s working under a master glass engraver and had been in Murano for four years. It was good to chat and catch up.. she showed some pictures from the high waters of December 1st, 2008 and from just a few days before when the water was high enough to come up into their shop.

Murano is really a great place to visit… I think more so if you have something specific to see or do there since otherwise you can just find yourself wandering though the shops randomly looking at so many trinkets… half of them actually sadly being from China.