More of Indonesia: Samarang

---

.Semarang, Indonesia
Thursday April 2nd, 2009
Many buses left the ship at 6 this morning in a convoy with police escort running through red lights to get to Borobudur, a monumental temple complex, the biggest in the southern hemisphere; it was a 2 and ½ hour drive each way, with a one hour stop there and a lovely lunch provided near the temple. The travelers said: ..” interesting…” I would have loved to go, but again, the effort was too much, both in time and climbing high steps and we had never seen the town of Semarang, so we stayed on the ship, slept till 7 and went to town..
Terry and I took the shuttle into town as we were docked at a container port. Maybe 30 degrees and humid, we are at latitude 6 degrees south of the equator. We are both wearing a neck cooler: silica gel in a neck collar which we soak before we leave for the day, as the water evaporates all day, it cools our blood circulating in the neck area, thank you Dominique, for giving me yours and I bought another one in Darwin for Terry.
We arrived in town at the Danar Hadi batik factory, near the town park called Simpa Lima Square. W visited the goods and walked to a neighboring mall; shoes and more shoes- Terry thinks they must walk a lot here. We stopped at a big Hotel called the Ciputra and that was our reference for the day as NOBODY spoke English, so we would show the hotel brochure and people would point us in the right direction. We hired 2 pedicabs and we were pedaled to the Pasar Johar, the Johar market in the Old Dutch quarters (a very colonial past for these people, tugged from one super power to another: Spanish-> Dutch->British->Independant). Old Semarang is a neighborhood of decaying Dutch warehouses. We bought 2 house dresses for me for 5 $ US for both. We came back to the Ciputra by China town, via a grey water canal, weaving through traffic, being squeezes by cement trucks and orange bemos. It was an experience.
Back at the batik shop, we waited with fellow passengers for the shuttle back to the ship, it never came! They bring you to shop but not back home. We spent a dollar each to board a bemo with 5 other passengers, some Hawaiians who spoke Indonesian and 3 Japanese ladies who recognized Mito of Bernard’s stay back in 2002-3. A bemo is a van with benches to sit 10 small people and a sliding side door that nobody ever closes- Terry felt like a sardine. WE GOT HOME SAFELY!

---