for most visitor who wish to visit indonesia, semarang might or mostly will not be listed on the destination list. but this melting pot city is now has become a worth visit destination.

situated at the central northern part of the island of java, this once a major port city during the dutch colonial era offers alot of interesting sites to be visited. oudstadt, means the old city quarter in dutch is one of the major attraction in the city. and gereja blenduk imanuel (the domed church of imanuel) is the landmark of this old quarter.



inside the oudstadt, you can find an art deco building designed by a famous dutch architect, thomas karsten, for the nillmij, a dutch insurance company.
once a nilmij's
this modern building on its time situated exactly across the domed church of imanuel.

herman thomas karsten (1885-1945) was a dutch engineer who gave major contributions to architecture and town planning in indonesia during dutch colonial rule. Most significantly he integrated the practice of colonial urban environment with native elements; a radical approach to spatial planning for indonesia at the time. he introduced a neighborhood plan for all ethnic groups in semarang, built public markets in yogyakarta and surakarta and a city square in the capital batavia (now jakarta).

between 1915 and 1941 he was given responsibility for planning 12 out of 19 municipalities in java, 3 out of 9 towns in sumatera and a town in borneo (kalimantan). he received official recognition from both the government through his appointment to the colony's major town planning committee and by the academic community with his appointment to the position of lecturer for town planning at the school of engineering at bandung. He died in an internment camp near bandung in 1945 during the japanese occupation in indonesia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Karsten

motels and hotels in semarang are available from rp. 50k (us$6) to rp. 2.000k (us$ 220) per night.