Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine November 2016 | Page 106

104

Travel | Semarang

The top floors of the Star
Hotel offer views all over
the city of Semarang.

“From up here, you can see virtually the whole of Semarang
city,” says guide Isna Risy Diani, as we gaze down from the
99m-high observation deck of Asmaul Husna Tower, where
Diani spends her working days pointing out the landmarks
of her city to several hundred visitors.
From where we stand, I can see across more
than 30km of Java’s northern coast. For the
moment, however, my eyes are captivated
by what appears to be a fleet of rocket
ships about to launch into space from
a massive marble terrace below.
“Semarang’s Grand Mosque has space for
5,000 people,” Diani continues, pointing
directly at the six ‘rocket ships’. Apparently,
they are giant electric space-age steel
parasols that can be opened up every Friday
(wind permitting) to protect the worshippers
in the courtyard from the punishing sun.
The gleaming dome and minarets of the
Grand Mosque of Central Java, forming an
island of white among the emerald sea of the
surrounding paddy fields, seem a far cry from

the colonial buildings in the heart of the old
city. Since Semarang became a major Dutch
administration centre in 1678, it has grown
into Indonesia’s fifth-biggest city.
“The old city was built as much for defence
as trade purposes and naturally occupies
the land nearest the coast,” Diani says as
she points towards the towering cranes
of what is now the busy modern harbour.
Even today the old town remains the
romantic heart of the city. With its whitewashed walls, palm-tree-shaded plazas
and sleepy alleyways, Semarang could be
described as Indonesia’s most charmingly
‘Mediterranean’ city.
I first got this Mediterranean feeling in
Tugu Muda plaza, where the fountains
around the monument (dedicated to
locals who died rebelling against Japanese
oppressors in 1945) spray diamond
droplets into the hot midday air. The
feeling became even more pronounced
in the courtyards of the building that locals
ubiquitously know as ‘Lawang Sewu’.