SHOPPING TIME IN BATU

   26th JULY 2025    ~ After dinner in Malang, and before checking in at the hotel, we went for a short shopping trips at two places in Batu. Batu is a small city not as popular as other bigger cities in Indonesia, and here is a piece of interesting information about this place:

"Batu, officially the City of Batu is a city in the East Java Province of Indonesia. It is about 20 km to the northwest of Malang. Formerly, it was a part of Malang Regency; but in June 2001, Batu became an independent city (by Act No. 11 of 2001), with its own mayor and council."

SOURCE: Wikipedia 

The first shopping place we went to is called Kirangan. a two-storey building which was modern and would be appealing to both the local and foreign visitors. The place offered all sorts of items that could be bought as souvenirs and I just loved the t-shits sold here. I managed to get a few to bring back home.

 

The second place we went to was Brawijaya, another big 2-storey shopping building. There were food items sold here and I remember buying Tempe [fermented soya bean], Salak [Snake Skin] fruit  and Apple chips.

Everyone in the group got something to bring home during the first round of shopping trip and there definitely would be more.

LOOKING FOR MORENO GLASS TO BRING HOME IN VENICE

    20th OCTOBER 2024    ~ One of the shops we went into was to look for Morano Glass. We found one and bought a few small items as souvenirs to bring home.

What is so special about Murano Glass? For one thing, Morano Glass should be produced in the island of Murano in Italy. Murano is then not a brand name but the place of origin of the products.

The shop we visited was bright and colourful, and the reflections of lights on the glasses made it sparkle even more. The only concern  was that the shop was quite small and one might accidentally knocked off a piece of the glass item and break it while moving around.

We just hoped we had bought original products of Moreno Glass. They all looked just beautiful to me and it should be almost impossible to detect whether they were real or not.

[MY ITALY/AUSTRIA TRIP MAIN PAGE]

THE COLOURFUL PORCELAIN SHOP IN SERMIONE OLD TOWN

   19th OCTOBER 2024    ~ Of all the shops in the old town of Sermione, the only one I went into was the porcelain shop, as recommended by the tour leader. The shop was filled with vibrant and colourful porcelain oh all sorts, shapes and sizes.

For one thing, people who went into the shop were allowed to take photos. From my previous experience, some arts and craft shop did not permit visitors to snap any pictures of the items on sale.

According to the Italian lady at the counter, who could be the owner of the shop, all the products were locally hand made and she even had stickers stuck on each piece verify this.

Both the tour leader and I got something from this shop to bring back home. If you come to visit me during Eid, I will show you the pieces to remember Sirmione by.

[MY ITALY/AUSTRIA TRIP MAIN PAGE]