Lawang Sewu

Doors or windows?

This place is actually the only place I know about Semarang. A lot of my friends visited and talked about this place. There’s also famous local reality show, Dunia Lain (The Other World) that set their show here. So, when we were planning to go to Semarang, this is the first on our itinerary list.

The name Lawang Sewu means Thousand Doors, but  among the local Javanese the name conotates an eerie haunted house with a tragic history.  This Dutch colonial building was built in 1863  by C. Citroen. It was the branch office for the Dutch Indonesian train company but when the Japanese invaded in 1942, they used it as a gruesome interrogation headquarter where they jailed and killed a lot of Indonesians.  Long standing reports of multiple ghost sightings in this building has turned it into a local destination for young  students & tourists who would make their  visit on weekend nights to experience this legendary haunted house.

Well, there were no thousands doors there. But, yes, this building was built with lots of high and wide windows that locals called as doors. We went there around 4PM. Lucky us! Because I am not sure we have enough courage to go there when it’s getting darker. We have to pay 10 000 IDR for the ticket and another 30 000 IDR for the guide. You better get a guide and leave your i-know-it-all attitude behind. You don’t want to get lost in one of those doors, I am telling you!

Semarang

It’s holiday season for everyone around the globe. And as an inhabitant of the globe, I am mostly joyful to welcome this season. As I have decided to try all new things, I arranged some travel appointments to new places, near and far. Semarang is the first destination to go.

What’s in Semarang?
Yeah… I asked myself the same question when a friend of mine offered a trip to this city. But when I googled it, there were actually some nice spots to see in Semarang. So we arranged a return train tickets from Gambir (Jakarta) to Semarangtawang (Semarang) and guessed what, we got 100k IDR for a return trip tickets! It’s promo time! Sweet 🙂

After a day break from school, Sunday, December 11, 2011 we took the 7.30 AM train from Gambir train station Jakarta and arrived at Semarangtawang Semarang at 14.30. Speaking of a trip, It’s 7h trip!! Thankfully, Semarangtawang is a nice and clean train station. A modest high-end Javanese style. And as we proceeded to the exit, we were accompanied by a Javanese musical group, Gamelan. Nice welcome! 🙂 We got a taxi and headed to our smart simple hotel, Amaris at Jalan Pemuda, Semarang.

These are our recaps of the whole trip. Details will follow on separate blogposts. Please spend some time to check them once published 😉

Lawang Sewu (Thousand Doors in Javanese)