The Struggle Was Paid Off By The Amazing View From Gedong Songo
Mr. Evans already contacted us also long before the year of 2016 changes to 2017. After the heavy rain and thunderstorm couple of days prior to the arrival of the Cruise Ship Aurora, finally the rain stopped on Wednesday February 15, 2017. We were a little bit worried about the rain that would fall on Wednesday. We just receive the weather forecast a days earlier from the authority that shows the heavy cloud that cause the rain and thunderstorm is still shrouding the island of Java and it seems that it will move for a week or more, there would be a possibility of rain will fall on Wednesday too. Lucky we, the rain didn’t fall on Wednesday morning; the sky was clear but a little bit cloudy. We think it is certainly the day for Mr. and Mrs. Evans to visit and enjoy Semarang under this lovely weather.
It was fascinating fact to know that the day was a public holiday because it was a local election day. A day that was dedicated to the voters to vote for regional governors, mayors and regent and the government just declared that February 15, 2017 as a public holiday a week ago. The effect on that decision was the traffic was not that crowded as during the normal weekdays.
We arrived at the harbor around 8.00 AM in the morning and the passengers disembarked from the ship an hour later. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were the first passengers who could manage to get out from the passenger terminal and we were happy to see each other at the passenger terminal. Afterward, we moved to the first destination, the Chinatown.
We arrived at the Chinatown 15 minutes after we picked up Mr. and Mrs. Evans because the Chinatown is located near from the harbor. We stopped at the oldest Chinese Temple of Tay Kak Sie in the Chinatown that was constructed in 1746. It’s even older than the oldest church in Semarang. This temple is smaller than if we compare it to Sam Poo Kong Temple but the Chinese community here says that the Gods and the Goddess at this temple are more vary than the Gods and the Goddess at the Sam Poo Kong Temple. We could still be able to see some Chinese New Year decorations inside. We first thought that they would remove all the decorations soon because the Chinese New Year already passed, but the person who works at the temple says that these decorations will be there for the whole year. After about 15 minutes exploring the temple, we moved to the next destination and we gave the tour about the Chinatown from inside the car since our time was limited.
Our next destination was the famous Hindus Temple Complex named Gedong Songo that is located one and a half hour from Tay Kak Sie temple. Gedong Songo is located at the valley of Ungaran Mountain, a mountain that lies in the south of Semarang and the temple is located 1,200 Meter (around 4,000 feet) above sea level.
Gedong Songo literally means nine buildings temple, but the fact is there are less than nine temples there. We still don’t know the reason behind this intriguing name. The temple was built in around 9th century by Ratu Sima Kingdom, a small kingdom that ruled the north coast of Java long time ago. The temples were built mainly for worshiping purposes by the Hindus people and it still remain until today.
We took went through the downtown of Semarang on our way to the temple and the traffic was really light. There were not many cars around that day and Mrs. Evans were surprised to see the EPL advertisement inside the city. It turns out that Mrs. Evans is the big fans of Tottenham FC and she said that she always watch her favorite team plays at the stadium. We went through the Toll Road to reach the temple, a toll road that by our local government was claimed as the most beautiful Toll Road in Indonesia. When we were cruising on the toll road, we could see Ungaran Mountain from there and the top of the mountain was covered in thick cloud. We arrived at the temple at 11.00 AM, it was already cloudy but the weather was nice, it wasn’t hot at all. It was so pleasant and comfortable.
In total, there are five different areas that you can visit at Gedong Songo Temple. In each area there are one or more temples. It’s really a physically challenging place especially from the first area to the second where you have to climb an uphill path to reach the second area. If you are getting tired after climbing the uphill road, you don’t have to visit all areas. The second area is enough because you can see the whole temples from up there. But we suggest you to walk a little bit farther to the third area because for us, it is the most beautiful area of temples of all. It is the highest temple and you can get the best picture from up there.
The cloud was getting thicker and we were worried that the rain would fall too, so we ended up our journey at the temple and went to lunch. We took a different route on our way to the entrance and it was less exhausting compare to the first route that we took.
We left the temple at 12.00 AM and arrived at the place to have lunch a half an hour later and it was raining. We ordered some Indonesian cuisine such as specially cooked Ribs with the traditional recipe and a big fresh water fish called Gurameh and it was grilled too with soy sauce. They loved the taste of the food. While we are having our lunch, the rain was pouring so badly even after we finished our lunch. After we finished, we took a picture together at the restaurant and move to the next destination under the heavy rain.
On our way to the last destination, we were so worried by the rain because if Semarang and particularly the harbor are also raining, normally the harbor will get flooded too and it will cause us a trouble to return these guests to the harbor. On our way to return to Semarang from Ungaran where the temple is located, we even saw some roads were inundated and the water flew like a river stream. We were getting more worried. Thank Goodness when we arrived in Semarang, the weather in Semarang was still cloudy.
We arrived at our last destination which is the famous Lawang Sewu Building at 3.15 PM. We explored the place that used to be the head quarter for the oldest Railway Company in Indonesia that was founded in 1864. The building itself was completed in 1907. After the tour at the Lawang Sewu for 30 minutes, we returned to the harbor at exactly 4.00 PM.
When we got out from the car, we felt the weather suddenly shifting from rather cold and nice weather to hot and sultry weather. It was like we travelled from places with the different climates. Gedong Songo with its cold weather and the harbor with it’s a rather hostile hot weather.
After we took them to the terminal, we shook our hands and wave each other good bye as the ship is about to leave in an hour an continue its journey to Bali.
