The Name's Candi Jawi

I was in Surabaya early December 2009 last month attending my friend's grand wedding..and while not wasting my stay in Surabaya just to attend his wedding, I decided together with my 2 Japanese friend and 1 Philipino friend to move around Surabaya..and....thanx to my another Indonesian friend, his name's Ronald, for providing us free accommodation and transportation (as well as tourguiding). And so there's one day he brought us in his Vintage Toyota to visit this Ancient 'Candi' and it's not 'Candy' with the name Candi Jawi. A little explaination regarding this ancient monument, it was built around 13th Century..older than the Malacca Sultanate.

It's not a place of worship but rather than a place to safekeep the ashes of the last Singosari King of Kertanegara. The uniqueness of the Candi Jawi is at the carvings and the interpretation has not been fully completed because of some damages due to weather erosion and lighting in the older times. Well not to delay anymore, here are the pics.....

That's the Candi Jawi..not huge right?


Just another point of view


Granites of 7 centuries old..

Some carvings around..on the right one, it looks like a person carrying/supporting something on his/her shoulder


carvings on deities perhaps..on the left,there are carvings on each level, smaller and smaller


That's the place where the ashes were kept


Mirror Image?? You guess it



Me posing..as a proof that I was there..

well that's all for now for the month of January 2010

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A Century Old Market in Suphanburi, Thailand

I'm back after a short lapse of nearly 3 weeks. This time the post will be of my past field trip when I was doing my Masters Degree in Bangkok from the year 2006 till 2008, At that time part of the tour in our workshop is in Suphanburi, an ancient city of Thailand dating back to the Stone Age with evidence found by archaeologists. One of the most remembered places that I have visited at that time was the 100 years old market apart from other ancient temples. Officially name as SamChuk 100 years old market, it is filled with communities of Chinese descent. Most of them or all I would say are of Teochews with whom, the older generations are still able to speak that dialect which made me quite excited at that time as I'm of Teochew Chinese. This posting will be divided into 2 sections which are the historical house owned by a rich merchant decades ago as well as the communities around. FYI, some of the photos have been changed into sephia color mode for the nostalgic feelings.

Historical House

Baba Nyonya type of mirror and drawer table
(forgot the exact name for this though)


The living room..very typical old Chinese type of house


100 years old refrigerator, and the brand's Electrolux..
that's a very old brand..I never knew it


'the' reading table


Their sleeping room


with a rifle as well as old oil lamp


A very old map, framed-up by the owner I guess..
anyone understand the Chinese writings here?


And now to the communities and shops around...

The layout of the 'rumah kedai' (shop houses) style of market



Shops around selling food stuff and..............................antiques such as


Old cameras etc


and of coz some modern paintings by the community there for sale...



Chinese dimsums and siew mai are also available


not to forget traditional Thai foods i guess that's the green curry on the right

A happy chinese old granny showing us some of the old tools for making some food stuff


Kids watching T.Vs in their old home

typical old homes..nostalgic isn't it


And last but not least, one of my coursemates, Abdel Latiff from Morocco enjoying his meal inside the house :D

That's all for now..more postings coming up, from Indonesia!

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The Blyde River Canyon

My first posting of the year 2010..well it's of course continuation of my trip last year..this time back to South Africa. During one of my last trip, I went to Mpumalanga Province, where the famous Kruger National Park is situated and not only that, it's the home to the 3rd largest canyon in the world. It's the Blyde River Canyon.... The canyon is part of the Drakensberg escarpment. It is 26 km in length and average of 800m deep. The natural dam itself is at an altitude of 665m when full. The highest point of the canton is about 1900m above sea level. This means that the canyon is about 1400 m deep. The canyon consists of mostly red sandstone but of course with vegetation unlike the Grand Canyon in the USA. It supports large diversity of life including numerous fish and antelope species as well as hippos and crocs and every primate species that may be seen in South Africa (Wikipedia, 2009)

The best view of the whole canyon is possibly the 'Three Rondavels' as shown as the above, which resembles the houses or huts of the indigenous people known as rondavels.

streams could be seen flowing at the bottom

That's me on the right..proof that I was there..

that's the 'mermaid' by the canyon? you bet..


A panoramic combination of the 3 photos of the 3 Rondavels and the canyon..
CLICK TO ENLARGE
mind you that this view is only 1/3 of the whole view..it's enormously huge..imagine this is just the 3rd largest in the world.



A damn connecting to the river you have seen just now...there's a small hotel nearby the river bank at the end actually..could you spot the boat?





The main dish....
The Panoramic view of the Blyde River Canyon..
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Hope you enjoy this posting!
See ya soon!

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