around Semarang: Feb'11

Day 1: Semarang, Bandungan, Ambarawa, Salatiga

I jotted down some weekend travel choices on a Tuesday with Lonely Planet Indonesia book besides me. The options were Solo, Togian Islands and Balliem Valey. Of course, Solo was the most sensible option for a weekend excursion. It seems that I have planted in my mind to have an excursion once in a month.

So, I penciled in the schedule to Solo on 26-27 February. And when the day came, I and friends went to Semarang instead. The tentative part was the destination instead of the date. I didn't mind since I never visit both town. I went there with my very reliable travel friend, Rita, and Yana.

We had our dinner in a brief to catch up our 19:30 Sembrani train from Jakarta to Surabaya via Semarang. Getting used to delayed schedule of public transportation here, we didn't get fretful when the train finally departed at 20:00 (6 hours, first class Rp250,000).

The train guards awake everyone with Semarang destination at 02:00. So, you don't have to worry to fall asleep during the trip because the guards have a list of passengers' destination. My friend who grew up in Semarang had advised me to go straight outside Tawangan train station where I could find taxis with fare-meter plying for hire.

We headed to Candi Baru Hotel (Jl. Rinjani 21, 024-8315273, standard room Rp200,000). I chose the hotel because it is relatively cheap as we'll only spend a couple hours there. Also, it seems quaint according to the erstwhile guests as written at triadvisor. The room is quite huge and it has a nice bathroom especially at its price. We arrived there at 02.30 and went to bed peacefully.

Candi Baru Hotel, Semarang

(Later, my other friend who had spent some years in Semarang was very surprised when she found out that we stayed in the hotel. It seems that for locals, the hotel is famous for being spooky because it is an old building from the Dutch-colonial era. Well, I was too sleepy to feel anything else when I arrived and too excited to start the journey when I awoke).

Our driver during the trip, Harkoso picked us up at 07.00 (Puspa Indah car rental, Rp275,000/12 hours). We started at 07:30 heading to Gedong Songo Hindu Temples (Rp5,000 for local, Rp25,000 for foreigner) in Bandungan area, about one hour from Semarang. Gedong Songo means nine buildings in Javanesse. The temples are spreadingly located on the foothills around Mount Ungaran. I am not a big fans of temples. Instead, I am more interested on the trekking path or the journey on the way to the temples. Some locals offered horse riding to go up to the temples. I felt sorry though that I can't give any contribution to them by renting their horses. But, I'd like to do the trekking.

The view at Gedong Songo Temples area is impressive. At first, there was a bit of disappointment in me seeing two rest areas within the sites. Fortunately, the forest still dominates the area. Hopefully, the regional government will be cannier in deciding further rest area/resort development here as the nature itself is the precious virtue here.

Gedung Songo temple: temple III & IV

After reaching the third temple above, we had to go down and took the pathway to go up again to be on the fourth temple. There's a ravine belching the sulfur steam in between the third and the fourth temples location.

sulfur steam in between temple III and IV

The fourth temple is my favorite one. It has a unique candle shape on its edges. And the temple is surrounded by a clean broad green field where I can lay down. I was taking a rest on the green field while watching Rita and Yana taking pictures with different kind of styles. Meanwhile, a farmer were collecting trees branch to be used as fuel in his kitchen and some horses were grazing while their riders had snacks. It's very quite there.

Gedung Songo temple: temple IV

A woman in a food stall told and the farmer told us that there is only one more temple above: the ninth temple. We're confused as we only found four temples. Then, we found the ninth temple aka the fifth temple according to the information boards in front of the temple. It turned out the other temples had been damaged. I don't know since when it happened.

At first, I couldn’t believe this is the last temple. So, I thought there must be another route to go to the other temples. If a fisherman looks at the stars to find direction, we looked at the horse filth left by the horses used by the visitors with guides. Rita even took some pictures of the fresh filth (I’m not sure if she’s going to upload it on her multiply page). But, it is the last temple.

Gedung Songo temple: temple V

On our way down, we found cabbage vegetable plantation which also planted with roses. A farmer seemed busy working at the plantation ignoring us taking pictures of his vegetable plants. Being located in a cool area, the farmer here combined their vegetable plants and rice field with flower plants. There are also pansy here with various colors of flowers: white, red and even orange. We also found not-too-vast rubber plantation. The wind blowing the colorful leaves helped to remove the sweat away from us due to walking on the area.

cabbage vegetable garden with the roses at Gedung Songo temple area

rubber tree at Gedung Songo Temple area

We spent around two hours inside Gedong Songo temple areas. It is recommended to enjoy every step you’ve made here and the view along the way where economically human activities blended with the nature. I am not sure about the boundaries when human activities will give destructive effects to the preserved nature. I just feel that it is more acceptable here than it is in Dieng. Trees still dominate the area instead of the plantation plants.

As we reached back the entrance area, we saw a lot of people were starting to go to the sites. It was a very good choice to start the day earlier when not many people have come yet. Hence, you are still able to hear the silence above.

colorful leaves at Gedung Songo Temple area

horses used in Gedung Songo Temple area

an entrance at one of the village in Bandungan

Harkoso droved us to a tofu factory: Om Shin tofu. The buyers can see the tofu making process while having the tofu and the soy milk. We found out later that the place is more crowded on Sunday than Saturday. There were not many people when we were there. As far as I remember and taste, it was the first time I drank a glass of soy milk. It is lighter that cow milk.

the process of tofu making at tahu serasi: Om Shin factory

the process of tofu making at tahu serasi: Om Shin factory

Having got some extra energy from the tofu and the milk, we continued to Ambarawa train station museum (Rp5,000) that supposed to be Koening Willem I station opened in 1873. We arrived there at 12 pm, while the next Lori Wisata schedule only started at 1 pm. Lori Wisata is a cheaper version (Rp10,000/person) of having one hour Ambarawa train experience compared to the pricey one (>Rp2,000,000/group) which used an antique locomotive to pull the wagon train. We spent the time by seeing the antique locomotives, antique train equipments, antique pictures, antique “prohibited from selling here” sign, etc. It’s a museum, so actually I don’t have to explicitly write that the things here are antique, except for the sign: prohibited from selling here. I categorized it as an antique one since I found some sellers selling snacks, toys, and souvenirs. Nevertheless, they keep their surrounding clean and well-organized. Why not? They are some locals trying to benefit from the tourism industry. It would be better that the museum management gets rid off the sign as it’s not a credible sign. Nevertheless, please do not displace the pushcart men just to make the sign becomes credible.

train at Ambarawa station museum (the expensive one)

Finally..1 pm came and we were on the train carriage heading to Toentang station via the housing next to the railways, rice field, highway, and Rawa Pening. Rawa Pening is a lake and one of the travel destinations especially for photographer. It is said that the best time to be there are on sunrise and sunset. We didn’t allocate specific schedule on the lake. So, it’s great to be able seeing it while having the Ambarawa train station experience. It was just rather difficult for me taking the lake’s picture with the train keep moving. Another great thing was when I saw the train conductor had to get off the train to stop the traffic while the train crossing the highway. We finished the trip and arrived back at Ambarawa train station at 2 pm.

view of Rawa Pening from Lori Wisata train

view of Rawa Pening from Lori Wisata train

Then, we had our late lunch at Kampoeng Kopi Banaran. After the late lunch, we went to the coffee plantation still inside Kampoen Kopi Banaran. The light rain still followed us giving us the great smell of wet land and mist enveloping the mountain’s and the lake’s views. Our guide told us that the coffee beans planted here is Robusta type that can reach 30 years old.

Robusta coffee beans

the view from the coffee plantation at Kampoeng Kopi Banaran

I ended the day by having massages for three hours at Laras Asri resort and Spa – Salatiga (standard room Rp525,000) where we stayed the night. Meanwhile, Rita and Yana chose to wander around Salatiga to find some interesting objects to be photographed. I saw some old buildings on the way to the hotel. But those old buildings are mostly used for military offices/barracks. There’s no way I would take the pictures in front of the military personnel, especially at night!!@%&:^ It sounds worth trying now.

Laras Asri Resort & Spa, Salatiga

Day 2: Mount Telemoyo, Umbul Sidomukti, Semarang

We started our second day at 8 am heading to Mount Telemoyo. It is more like a hill as it is not that hight and it can be reached by a car. It took around 40-50 minutes by car from the foot-mountain to the top. The road is already made from asphalt, but it is a small road which has some part broken. It is understandable that most people going up to Mount Telemoyo prefer using motorcycles than cars.

Mount Telemoyo

a village on Mount Telemoyo foothill

We didn’t know where the road will end. Is it on the top? And we reached a point. After we took a right, we found some series of towers on the top on the mount. The towers are owned by a telecommunication company, army, and police. We met the guards and had a small talk with them. Once in a week, the guard will be off from the mountain to take some ransom. The rest of the conversation was between the guards and our driver, Mr. Harkoso, in Javanese. It’s too bad that we didn’t speak Javanese.

on the way to Mount Telemoyo

It was wonderful to see the village from above with the mist covering it. Sometime the wind let us taking a peek of the view below. But then the mist will come again. We even tried to blow the mist off. It was a silly idea. Well, there’s nothing wrong with trying something silly.

On the way down, we saw some couples enjoying the mountain also. Of course they were not hanging around us. They will find their own spot on the edge of the ravine. Dude, I don’t think it’s not that romantic to sit together with your boy/girlfriend on the edge of the ravine in the middle of the forest. I imagined if they had a fight. Hmmmm….I think this is the effect of too much watching Criminal Minds and CSI. We even met a meatball seller using a motorcycle. He surely had found his niche market on the mount. There’s no competitor here. There are no malls, coffee shop, or cinema in a village. So, it’s natural to see the teenagers hanging around in the nature.

the village from above

On the foothills, we spotted some farmers harvesting the cabbages, tomatoes, and mustards vegetables. One of the farmers even invited us to have a snack with them. We couldn’t stop by too long. It was soothing to see their activities. It was my favorite moment on this trip.

tomatoes

cabbage vegetable (still on the tree)

cabbage vegetable

vegetable mustard

pumpkin

We had a short visit at Umbul Sidomukti. It is a very crowded commercial area. We only spend some minutes here to let the driver taking a rest. I do not recommend this place, except if you can enjoy seeing a lot of people with a lot of styles having their family vacation. There were some teenagers also. But I appreciate more the teenagers whom I met on Mount Telemoyo than at Umbul Sidomukti :)

Umbul Sidomukti visitors

We stopped by in front of PT. Nissin factory in Ungaran to take some pictures of biscuit canes that we have familiar with since we were still a child. As we were in Semarang, we went to Blenduk church, Tay Kak Sie temple with its admiral Cheng Ho’s ship replica and lumpia foodstall on Gang Lombok.

in front of PT. Nissin, Ungaran

Blenduk church

Blenduk church

Merger between "gado-gado" and ice-cream sellers

Admiral Cheng Ho's ship replica

Tay Kak Sie temple

Tay Kak Sie temple

Hey, it’s Sunday and tomorrow is Monday. We should have our night flight back to Jakarta. So we could be at the office on Monday morning. I love Monday!!! Yay….what a liar!

I am going to Lombok in April and Belitung island in May for the next weekend excursions. Hey, what about March?