India, July 11 -- As with many of the similar ports in the area, it soon became a hotbed for colonists from Europe, slaves from India and Africa, and traders from China. But instead of the cultural admixture that results in a homogenous distribution, the city's skyline is dominated by the architecture of the Dutch. One such building is the Dutch East Indian Railways Headquarters, now known as the Lewang Sewu and this is where I am standing.
Lewang Sewu, meaning "Thousands of Doors" in Javanese, is the flagbearer of the Dutch influence that Semarang's skyline has. The building draws its name from a multitude of windows which the locals mistook as doors and is dominated by high ceilings along with wooden window frames-typical of Dutch archit...