Semarang and so on

Following our escape from the Animal farm, we got on a local bus and had a very cheap and yet incredibly comfortable ride up to a city by the north coast of Java, Semarang. It seems that the town we were in, Ambawara, is somewhat considered part of Semarang, as the bus we were on was a city commuter bus – ie lots of standing room, air conditioned, and men have to sit down the back. We’d booked a hotel in Semarang already, so we conveniently could just stay on the same bus as it drove around the city and got off as close as possible to our hotel with a 20-30 minute walk afterwards.

Pimped out bicycles to ride around the square

After checking in to the hotel, we headed out for some dinner. Our hotel was actually in a bit of an awkward spot and we had a pretty hard time finding food
(standard story in Indonesia). We walked to a large temple thinking there would be food around there, this was already annoying because although the temple was close, the layout of the neighbourhood and our hotel location at the top of a hill meant we had to do a big loop around the outskirts on roads that don’t really have walking room (have I mentioned how noone in Indonesia walks anywhere?). The temple ended up being a bum steer so we took a grab car to one of the few restaurants we had seen on our way in to town on the bus. This was also a bad move as the restaurant was really pricey even when thinking in terms of Australian dollars, and it was nowhere near any food. On the way to that restaurant, our driver had told us about Simpang Lima, a large night food market. I tried to persuade him to take us there instead, happy to pay a few dollars more, but he flat out refused. Not wanting to pay another grab fare again, we ended up walking half way to Simpang Lima and getting a free ride from a good Samaritan the rest of the way.

Stained glass window of the main hall of the Central Railway Office

What is this? A train carriage for ants?

We had a full day in Semarang, walking and taking angkots around the city, seeing some of the major sites and random places off the sides. We spent a good amount of time in the old central railway office. Now a museum for all things railway in Java, it was basically amazing big old buildings that were the offices of the central railway authority, some of which had relics of the past – old blueprints, photographs, uniforms, and many other items. We spent a lot of time walking around enjoying the ground, walking through the mainly empty buildings, and even up into the roof of one of the big office buildings.

Mirror taken from a first class lounge at one of the stations.

The ceiling of one of the old office buildings, you can get a feel for how big they are here.

Bats in the ceiling.

Unfortunately a lot of the historical information was written in Indonesian only. The ticket woman at the front had told us there would be English information inside, and indeed every now and then a hat would be signposted ‘hat’, or a photograph of a train would be labelled ‘Photograph of a Train’. Very informative.

I have mentioned in the past just how thoroughly impressed I have been with restoration efforts in Indonesia at various religious sites. I was super happy to find that not only was there great restoration to see on other historical buildings here at the Central Railway Office, but there was actually a small display devoted to the restoration process. Check out the results in the pictures included! The difference between original and replica is almost undetectable.

A shrine to Wing Chun

I had read about some pretty incredible spring rolls from a little shop tucked away on one of the small streets in the Chinatown district of Semerang. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was so we made our way to Chinatown in the hopes of finding it. On the way, we stopped in at a dessert shop for a cold dessert of shaved ice and various sweet things – some variant of one of the dishes sop buah/es telor/cendol – there is no consensus across Indonesia of which of these are which and what each one should be, you just order and hope for the best. This particular shop’s specialty was cold desserts with durian ice cream. I let Mimi eat the devil-fruit ice cream and even though it tainted the rest of the dessert with the taste of taint it was good after walking in the heat. But the cool thing about this shop was that the owner, a young girl, was a Wing Chun aficionado who had won competitions and had a sort of shrine to the masters – Bruce Lee and Ip Man to name the most famous.

Amazing spring rolls

Eventually though we did make it to Chinatown. And after crossing a river and passing a pretty amazing Chinese temple tucked away into a corner, we did find the little shop we were looking for. Inside, 4 or 5 workers busily chopped, mixed, rolled, fried, and steamed. Two options were available, deep fried or steamed, and we opted for one of each. They were delicious, filling, and served with an incredible thick soy sauce.

Current state of new buildings

Another back street we happened upon had a mix of rundown, half demolished, and newly renovated buildings from the Dutch occupation era of the 1800s. Unfortunately very few of the old buildings were actually renovated or going to be renovated, with the goal of knocking down old buildings and putting up new ones with Dutch stylisation seemingly preferred. I don’t know why the new buildings are made with Dutch stylings, but I think its probably because most of these buildings have rather pricey cafes inside selling “belgian beer” or “french croissants”. The idea of being vaguely European to attract white tourists is kind of like having an “Asian restaurant” in Australia to attract Asian tourists.

Plans for more new buildings

Buildings to be knocked down

Some worse than others

Taken over by trees

Some of the older buildings had some pretty spectacular trees growing on them that would be any photographers dream. We were there at a pretty poor point of the day to get decent snaps, but anyone could take advantage of Indonesia’s lax attitude to safety and go inside these run down buildings to get to better vantage points.

Nearby a protestant church with a large red dome, a small marketplace seemed to have grown somewhat organically. More like a flea market of Europe than any other market we’ve seen in Indonesia so far, this market was filled with various trinkets from various points in recent history. Most stuff looked in very good condition, this was another one of the times we had the blessing/curse of not being able to buy anything as we don’t want to lug around useless crap with us for another 10 months.

Family having a meal at the street market

The highlight of Semarang was the weekend food market. We hadn’t timed getting to Semarang for this market as we didn’t even know it existed, but we could just as easily have missed it. The market showcased some of Indonesia’s best food. So far we have been pretty underwhelmed with what Indonesia has to offer in terms of food. Apart from a few places that have some signature dish, mostly we have been eating the same fried instant noodles, spicy fried rice, or deep fried beyond recognition chicken wherever we go. The length of this food street was pretty absurd, it took a very long time to walk down, and indeed only a handful of the stalls were true Indonesian food. There were many Taiwanese, Japanese, and even Korean street food snacks to be had.

Satay! One of our staples in Indonesia

Sweet snacks

Pork is a rarity in Indonesia as it is not eaten by the majority of people for religious reasons.

Cakes and pastries

I'm going to call this a sadwood dog

One of the foods I had to try when I saw it was a sort of Asian twist on the classic carnival dagwood dog. Cheap ‘sausages’ that I would be happier calling frankfurts are all the rage here, and this one, rather than being battered like a battered sav, was wrapped in bready noodles and deep fried. It was kind of amusing to try and eat but I wouldn’t go back for more.
While we were walking the street, a reporter for a newspaper spotted us and asked if she could write about us in the paper – a piece on how the food market brings tourists to Semarang. Either the loudness of the market, the reporters rusty English, or our accents made the reporter obviously not clearly understand us. The result was a hilarious article claiming Mimi is a Korean man, and that I think Chinatown in Semarang is like the city of Georgia. I’ve never been to Georgia, but if I had, I don’t think it would be anything like any part of Semarang. Check it out here – enjoy with google translate.
http://jateng.tribunnews.com/2018/05/18/bule-australia-sengaja-berburu-masakan-khas-jawa-di-kuliner-semawis

Temple or Carnival Ride?

Our next stop was Surabaya, and it was easy enough to buy train tickets to there online. Our train left around lunch time, so we had the morning to visit one more site. The place to see is said to be the largest Chinese temple in Indonesia, and was not too far from where we were staying. There are many old religions of China - Taoism, Chinese Buddhism, communism - to name a few. This particular temple is a temple of Sam Poo Kong or San Bao Dong, depending on where you’re from. From what I gather, Sam Poo Kong was some sort of military figure who was worshiped in early days, but still at a time much longer after his conquering. Admiral Zheng He is said to have come to Java from China in the early 1400s and established the temple of Sam Poo Kong in Semarang in a small cave he discovered by the river. This cave was covered in a landslide, and a new cave entrance dug out in the 1700s near by. The now largest Chinese temple of Indonesia is a series of much larger buildings and statues having had many major renovations over the ground of the original temple, the most recent renovation having been completed in 2005. Though, the real reason anyone wants to visit this temple though is the huge silver signage with incandescent lighting around it at night that reminds you of a carnival or Honest Ed’s in Toronto.

Sam Poo Kong and original main gate, now unused

Anyway it was here we were scammed in broad daylight. The entrance fee had the standard Indonesian “foreigner pays double the price of locals” for tickets, but this wasn’t the scam. Either way we paid a tickets, which was already a fairly high price, and entered the temple grounds. We walked around the first big courtyard area, took some photos, looked at the grounds and buildings, and then went to continue in to the temples, pictured behind the green trees. However, there was a creek between the two areas, and two bridges at each end. One bridge had a large locked gate, the other had another ticket booth. The ticket booth. We showed our tickets to try and get in, but they refused to let us in telling us that this was another ticket to get into that area. Pictures on the wall of the ticket booth showed what could be seen in the inner closed off area, including the original cave temple complex. The fee for this inner area was almost the same as what we had already paid, but we figured it would be worth it to see the cave. But what could we actually see when we got there? We could stand at the entrance to the cave and look down into it. A whole lot of nothing. The other buildings on this side, while nice to be in to pray, were better viewed from a far.

Pagoda in the first main section

The Second section viewed from the first section

The original cave temple, you couldn't go further than this.

Ghost walking?

After we finished looking around, we took a grab car over to the central train station where we had already prebooked nice seats on a train to Surabaya. The train was majorly delayed due to technical problems, and it was one of those moments where there were about 20 men stood around in a circle looking at the problem scratching their heads. Doesn’t fill you with confidence, but as they say – This is Indonesia!

I don't have a picture of Mimi napping, so this one I snuck of her having a yawn will have to do!