From the Indonesian point of view

On Friday, 11 th November, 2011, we went to go around in the site of Semarang city. The trip begun at Siliwangi Hotel that is located at Jl. MGR Sugiyopranoto No 61 where we had stayed during in Semarang. First, we invited Old city (Kota Lama or Oudstadt) at about 09.00 am. It is located at Jl. Letjend Soeprapto, Semarang, Central java, Indonesia. It has a lot of oId Dutch colonial buildings such as machine factory, cigarrete factory, Immanuel church-Gereja Blenduk, pond, etc. This location offers nice architecture. We around in this part and take picture some of oId Dutch colonial buildings.

At about 10.00 am, we continued our journey to the Nyonya Meneer’s factory. The factory is lacoted at Jl. Raden Patah 191-199, Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. That is herbal medicine factory. We were friendly welcomed by factory’s staff. They offered free some of herbal medicines for us to try the medicines and some of us took that several. Factory’s staff gave many explanations about the herbal medicine such as the type of herbal plants. And then we are offered to buy herbal medicine and several of us buy that medicines. Finally we took picture together in this place.

At about 12.00 am, some of us went to Paragon mall and the others went to back to Siliwangi Hotel. That mall is located in Simongan, West Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. In this place, we had lunch and hang out together. After we were full, we continued our next destination to the Sam Poo Kong by taxi about 15 minutes by pay about 15000 IDR @ taxi. The Sam Poo Kong is China’s heritage. It is located at . We can enter there by ticket’s price 3000 IDR for local tourist and 10000 IDR for foreign tourist. It offers nice and unique architecture. We took picture happly in around this place. Finally, we went to back Siliwangi Hotel at about 04.15 pm and arrived at 04.30 pm.

At the night, some of us had dinner together in the Steak stall near from Siliwangi Hotel at Jl. MGR Sugiyopranoto. After that, at about 08.31 pm we invited lawang Sewu that is located at Jl. Pemuda , Komplek Tugu Muda Semarang Tengah, Central java, Indonesia. From the hotel until lawang sewu, we went to there by foot. This place near from Tugu muda that is one of icons of Semarang. The Lawang sewu is one of oId Dutch colonial buildings. This building has many doors and because of that, it is called lawang sewu in javanese. This place is famous scary building in Semarang. This place offers beautiful architecture. The guide gave us the story of lawang sewu that has many scary and tragic stories. During the guide told story, we was be afraid to listen it. At about 09.30 pm, we decided to go back to the Siliwangi Hotel. We arrived the hotel at about 10.00 pm by foot. And then we still discused until 00.00 pm. Uhf.. today activites was so full and fantastic. Finally, we slept to prepare again for the next morning activites.(Sepviana-Dana)

From the Dutch point of view

The program for today tells us to visit a polder project in Semarang. This event would take place in the morning, but because we went to the slums in Semarang yesterday afternoon, we saw the polder project already. That’s when we concluded that we had the day off. Rick Heikoop came with the proposition to use the bus and go to the old city center and a medicine factory. Semarang is well known for its medicines. It was free to choose whatever you wanted. Some of the students stayed at the hotel to do some homework or get some rest, but most of the students took the opportunity to visit the old city center. We walked around in the center and after seeing it, we went back to the bus and drove to the museum Jamu Jawa Asli. This museum was part of the medicine factory. We got a guided tour through the museum. During this tour, we were told about the history of the factory and after the tour we got some herbal medicines as souvenirs. The hospitality was great and everybody must be very healthy after using our medicines.

After visiting the medicine factory, we didn’t have a program so after a little bit of asking around, we decided to go to a shopping mall with the bus. Everyone who wanted, could get out of the bus at this mall. If you didn’t want to go out, the bus would drive you back to our hotel. Some people left the bus at the shopping mall to get some lunch. Others went back to the hotel to rest or do other things like working on our assignments.

After lunch, the ones who left the bus at the shopping mall decided to go to a Boudistic temple. The Sam Po Kong temple is a temple just outside the centre of the city. Our Indonesian students called some cabs to bring us there. You could walk around at this temple and we stayed for 1,5 to 2 hours. It was a big complex with multiple temples. You could walk around in front of these temples, but after paying some extra entrance fees some of us got the possibility to see the inside of these temples. They were really beautiful. We saw things that we never saw before. After completing our tour, we called the taxis again and went back to our hotel.(Maarten)