footprints in the sand: Visiting Semarang : The City of Lumpia

from high above

We planned this trip about six months and we started to save our money for this trip so our team can go to Semarang. Why Semarang? Because Bandung is too close and Bali is too expensive.. hahaha...

In Semarang we can have both sight-seeing and try a lot of food. Yes, we're all love to eat :)

The day is finally come. We're all so excited, we took the afternoon flight after office hours on Friday. We planned to spend two nights in Semarang. The city of Lumpia or we can call it the spring rolls city ? However I didn't capture any lumpia photo for this blog. Shame on me.

So our itinerary was full of foods and places to visit. Below was our optimist itinerary:

Day 1 (Friday)

Arrived at International Airport Achmad Yani and tried local food nearby the hotel. We picked Simpang Lima Residence hotel. The small hotel in the centre of Semarang since we knew that we're not going to spend a lot of time in hotel rooms. So why have we choose the expensive one? We planned to tried the famous nasi ayam/chicken rice Ibu Wido. Unfortunately it's closed so we stopped by the alun-alun and tried the traditional tahu gimbal.

Day 2 (Saturday)

After breakfast, we're so ready to explore Semarang. After tried the traditional nasi gandul, our first stop was Watugong Vihara, it's beautiful. We spent about almost two hours taking pictures here and there. We even mocking up the kungfu pose. On our way to next stop, we stopped by at masjid raya Semarang. It has a tall tower where we can see Semarang city from above. Unfortunately, the tower was closed during the Dzuhur prayer. So we only take picture outside. Then our next visit was Sam Poo Kong Temple, the oldest Chinese temple in Semarang. The history of China Moslem Laksmana Cheng Ho behind this place was made me curious to visit it at first time. After taking a lot of pictures (again) we fed our hungry soul at traditional noodle mie kopyok Pak Dhuwur. As if it's not enough we stopped by later at tahu pong Semarang located at Jalan Gajah Mada. Then we're heading to the famous lawang Sewu. It's spooky yet a very interesting place. It's a building with one thousand doors. I was so happy that I can finally visit that place. On our way to the hotel we stopped by at old Semarang City where Semarang Blenduk Chursh was located. It's a beautiful church that was built in 1753. This church has a dome in baroque style.

There's a joke along our trip, we called this trip the religious trip cause we visited Vihara, temple, mosque and church.

The old city was also beautiful and we tried the famous vintage ice cream stall Toko Oen just near the church. We spent the night at one of restaurant at higher place of Semarang called The Hills. It has great view and the air was very refreshing. And we closed the day by visiting Semarang China Town and tried a lot of street food there. And I had a good sleep cause I spent a lot of my energy exploring the city. But I slept with a smile on the face.

Day 3 (Sunday)

It's check out time, but we still has some places to visit. We decided to try our luck of nasi ayam Ibu Wido. But it's still close, so we tried nasi ayam near the China Town. Then on our way to airport we visited the legend Wingko Babat Kereta Api and bought lumpia on Jalan Mataram. There were some lumpia stalls, but one of my friend told me the delicious and halal one. Then we're ready to face Monday after this awesome trip to Semarang.

Maybe I'll visit Semarang again in the future for only tasting that famous nasi ayam Bu Wido.

Cheers, Dhidie.