Indonesia, if all had gone to plan, would be where I'd be starting Project 3. Instead of which, I'm still bogged down in Projects 1 and 2.

So I've seen a lot of the inside of a hotel room again this week. Which was not the intention.

We're in Semarang, for the third time. It's the dry season of course, so the days are hot and breezy, and the evenings and mornings are quite cool.

Changed schedules notwithstanding, it's always a pleasure to be back in Indonesia after being away for a while.

It's nice to have this amazingly fragrant tea again, just served up as something quite normal in the humblest little warung. It's nice to hear the myriad small mosques all firing up independently at prayer-time, and see the flags going up everywhere in preparation for Indonesia's 73rd birthday.





It's nice to have beng-beng biscuits and Silver Queen chocolate, and do comparison tests on breakfast soto ayam (an aromatic broth with chicken, rice, and noodles). And nice to find shops selling breakfast lontong, and stalls offering chicken porridge or bolang-baling (those chunky, crispy doughnuts we used to love).

We've been back a couple of times to Toko Oen, of course, for staples like pannekoek ice-cream, bitterballen, and soda gembira.

But there's also quite a neat little enclave of food places near our hotel (the Quest). The stall across the road, for example, sells the best es campur ever (complete with tape, avocado, cincau, and cendol).

Down the road a little, we finally discovered ayam geprek, which is quite a cult thing, it seems. (It's similar to ayam penyet, in that it's "smashed", and involves sambal; as far as I can tell, the difference is that the geprek version coats the chicken with flour, and serves it smashed up WITH sambal, instead of alongside sambal. But I may have failed to grasp something... Anyway, it was very tasty.) Nearby there's also an excellent bakery, whose prol tape and pandan cake are second to none.

A good (if expensive) coffee shop lies just Peacockoffie a short walk away. And the hotel itself does a respectable version of the local speciality tahu gimbal, which consists of fried tofu, fried egg, rice cake, bean sprouts, cabbage, wafers with prawns (gimbal) attached, and a peanutty sauce to pour over.



We hadn't visited the old town since the first trip, in 2013. There's a major road-digging project happening at the moment, which is all very dusty and obstructive. But at least it has not all crumbled away... There are new museums and tourist streets, and a lot more smart cafes than last time. We tried the Tekodeko, which offers great avocado coffee as well as a pleasant, airy space. It's interesting to compare the exterior of the Spiegel with its old self.









If the Semarang Contemporary Art Gallery existed back then, we weren't aware of it. The current exhibition focuses on Peranakan heritage, and it made a change to see the Indonesian take on this. I'm not sure why so many rooms were closed off, though, when there appeared to be interesting things in them.

Ikan Bakar Cianjur has a branch in a nicely restored building nearby, so we treated ourselves to a bit of a Sundanese lunch: "nila pesmol" (tilapia with herbs, chilies, and tomatoes), karedok (a Sundanese salad dish); steamed rice; and passion fruit soda. Must get to West Java one day...













Around since only last year is Kampung Pelangi, one of several rainbow villages that have taken off around Java. It's a great idea. Brings some income into the modest community from the snap-seeking visitors, and makes life pretty. Our pre-work walk was a bit early for the stalls, but we were able to grab a cup of sweet coffee on our way down.