Oh this is certainly asking for my reply!!

Thank you for mentioning my tiny city in this thread. Not a lot of cities in this world that has BOTH hill and beach side. Semarang is one of them. You can't really call "Puncak" ask the hill side of Jakarta coz it's bloddy far
The hillside I'm talking about is at the most 15 mins drive from the beach side.

About lacking the depth and intensity.. hmm... I think you can't compare Semarang to Yogyakarta because it's so different. Yogyakarta is a culture-centre city. I love Yogya for different reasons. Bandung..size wise is definitely larger. What you said about lacking the depth and intensity is what I like about Semarang. It's not too big yet you can get everything there. I don't have to worry about traffic jam because everywhere is closeby. My friends who lives in downtown Semarang doesn't mind picking and dropping me up after party although I live in the hill side because it's just _right there_. That makes socialising easier.
Also I still remember I used to be so forgetful I forgot to bring a lot of stuff for school .. which happened almost every other day. I always had the time to go back home, got the stuff, and went back to school without being late..

And oh definitely the food.. food.. fooooodd...
At Simpang Lima, from about 6pm there are food stalls all around and you can get almost anything your tastebuds desire.

I guess I'm very biased because I was born and raised there. You really have to live there to appreciate it. However, if you're the metropolitan type, yes, you'll probably find Semarang quite boring. Go back to Jakarta where you belong (that's what i said to a friend who said Semarang is so boring unlike Jakarta).