Java Here We Come: Surabaya

After leaving Bali, we flew to Surabaya in Java. We really packed a lot in only 4 days, and here are the highlights. Phil wrote a few posts about our time in Surabaya. You can access the first here.

1. The Hotel Majapahit

Our hotel in Surabaya was so old-school fancy. It felt very luxurious indeed, especially in comparison to the $20 a night home stay we’d just left in Kuta.

The hotel had a huge bathtub and they supplied bubble bath! Typically if we are at a hotel that does have a big tub, which doesn’t happen too often, I get all excited…then realize I don’t have bubble bath. Usually I try to add bath gel or shampoo and it kind of works but then I’m all super soapy and well, it’s just not ideal. Real deal big bubbles bubble bath elevates the entire experience.

The breakfast was also top tier with great: made to order coffee, an egg and pancake station, desert table with treats from their French bakery, and all manner of other Indonesian and western fare.

The hotel is quite historically important to Surabaya and Indonesia. It was originally built in 1910 by prominent Armenain hoteliers, The Sarkies Brothers, and named Hotel Oranje. In 1930 it had a major renovation and the re-opening was attended by Charlie Chapman, Crown Prince Leopold III from Belgium and Princess Astrid from Sweden.

When Japan occupied Surabaya during World War II, they renamed it Hotel Yamato. When the Japanese lost the war and left Surabaya, a group of Dutch people raised the Dutch flag from the Hotel (the Dutch had ruled Indonesia for hundreds of years before the Japanese); local Indonesian youths took offense to this, and ripped the blue off the flag, leaving the red and white flag of Indonesia (as it is today), on September 19, 1945. That date is celebrated annually in the city, and is an important part of Indonesian independence from Colonialism.

2. Kenjeran Park

Sometimes an experience so crazy, or amazing, or just plain bananas happens while traveling that you can’t possibly properly convey it. Our visit to Kenjeran Park is one of those experiences, but I will do my best here in telling you about it.

There is not a ton to do in Surabaya for tourists. As such, we didn’t have any must see places in mind prior to our arrival. Phil looked on Google Maps and found a pagoda we thought might be fun to check out, so we called a Grab (taxi) and off we went.

Our Grab driver approached the front gates of an amusement park, paid the fee, and in we went. I thought, maybe it was a little known short cut to the pagoda? We’ve had a few interesting short cuts with drivers, so definitely plausible.

After a few minutes, we pulled up to a high concrete wall, the other side of which, stood the pagoda. We tried to gesture/ask our driver to get us closer to the pagoda or direct us where to go to access it, but he just motioned for us to get out and pointed toward the pagoda. He had done his job.

We got out, thinking there must be some access point to the pagoda, and started walking. The place was early quiet and had a spooky, ghost town feel, and my spidey sense was tingling.

Not seeing an access point to the pagoda, we walked under a large archway, on a street that at one time was likely packed with vendors selling refreshments and souvenirs, and perhaps had some game booths too. We saw a couple of vendors selling snacks and beverages (to who?!? who were they selling the beverages to?) so we stopped and bought a cold water bottle from a woman. We motioned toward the pagoda and she just shook her head.

Confused, we were walking back the way we came when a man pulled up in a loud, gas powered child’s train. He stopped and pulled out a laminated piece of paper with a few attractions, pointing at different ones indicating he would take us to them on the train. We pointed toward the pagoda and he held up his arms in an X, indicating it was closed and we could not access it.

The park looked deserted and we didn’t know how to get out. Plus, a walk to try to find the exit would have been a very hot and sweaty one. So we paid the driver his asking price (not a lot) and climbed in. Off we sputtered down more abandoned areas with the occasional vendor. We saw a few cars here and there but no other visitors as we made our way through the rather large grounds.

After a few minutes, we stopped outside of a Buddhist temple and our driver led us inside, passed a bit of construction and two guys in generic, dirty, amusement park, dog mascot/character costumes who offered to take photos with us for a price. We declined.

The temple was actually really cool and overlooked the Indian Ocean. Well, actually, it overlooked some mud flats that were a part of the Indian Ocean.

I’d never seen mud flats before and they were pretty mesmerizing. Once you really started looking at them, you could see all kinds of critters like crabs and mud skippers! The mud skippers were a real highlight for me. Phil and I watched some nature documentary that featured them, so it was extra cool to see the goggle-eyed fish with two feet that looks kind of like a giant tadpole. They mostly flopped slowly, but could really get to moving, gliding (or skipping as it were) across the mud.

We actually did see some other tourists at the temple, though not many, so it was a little less Twilight Zoneish. The inside was pretty impressive too with dozens of giant, red candles in front of Buddhist altars.

We exited the temple and walked across the street to a lovely area with some Hindu statues, a large Four-Faced Brahma statue and a smaller one of Ganesha. There were also four elephant statues facing out in each corner of the little park area; north, south, east and west.

It seemed odd that most of Kenjeran Park had fallen in disrepair. Though the temples were kept up, even having dedicated groundskeepers for each, as we saw the old men tending to the plants and raking dead leaves.

We took our pictures and headed back out to our little green train, climbed in, and were off again. We weren’t sure where we were going, but the ride, while noisy and a bit smelly like gasoline, offered a cool breeze and more of the odd park to take in.

We passed several restaurants and souvenir shops. Again I wondered, who the heck is visiting these places? How can so many businesses survive when hardly anyone is visiting? As we drove through the park, different vendors would call out to our driver and he would respond back. It seemed as if they were saying, “Wow, you got a customer!” and he was like, “Heck yeah!”

We arrived at an old pier and our driver let us out and motioned toward it. We walked out, seeing several boats moored, though they had obviously not been out in a very long time. They were sitting atop the mud and slowly breaking down.

We saw more mud skippers and crabs, watching them skip along the thick mud as we gazed out, over the vast mudflat. I wondered how far one would have to go to reach the regular ocean water, as it was mud as far as we could see.

After we had our fill of pier time, we bought a couple of waters from a woman who seemed extremely appreciative of our business, and greeted us with a big smile. Then we hopped back on the train, heading this time for the park exit. We passed a group of school children sitting on a patch of grass, just relaxing, and we waved to each other as we passed by. What the heck were they doing there?

Our driver dropped us back at the entrance gates and we snapped a pic with him before he drove away, back into the twilight zone. As we waited for our Grab taxi, I noticed a very new looking sign for the park. Then I went to the internet and found the park has an Instagram page and everything. I saw recent looking photos of kids on properly up kept rides, like one of those swing rides that turns in circles and some teacups as well. In addition, there were water park photos that also looked clean and kept up. Where the heck are those places, and why didn’t we see them?

We didn’t drive the entirety of the park, but a good chunk of it. I mean we drove right through the flipping front gates. Nothing looked remotely new or cared for (with the exception of the temple grounds). Where were they hiding these places and why wouldn’t our driver have taken us there? Why wouldn’t he want to venture to the part where presumably more people would be? What’s even stranger is that the Google reviews seem to be a mixed bag as well; visitors having experiences similar to ours, visiting a deserted husk of an amusement park and others having a great time with their families. What the heck?

In spite of, or actually because of the oddity of it all, I had a blast. The temples were cool. The mudskippers were fascinating. I don’t need to understand what the heck is going on at Kerjeran Park, just experience my experience of it and what a wacky, wild, weird experience it was.

3. Java Roma

After our time at Kerjeran Park, I needed a coffee. One evening, we had walked past a big airplane just sitting there and took note to see what it was later. The decommissioned airplane looked really cool and I thought it was a fancy restaurant, but upon further research, discovered it was a coffee shop, named Java Roma.

Java Roma also had pastries and A/C! What a little slice of heaven. We didn’t have a reservation and were told we would need to keep our visit to an hour or less. I can down an iced coffee in, like 30 seconds, so no problem there.

They let us snap some pics in the cockpit which was fun. I had really wanted to try their pistachio roll, but unfortunately they were sold out. An almond croissant would have to do. Phil ordered the chocolate croissant and we each had an iced latte, mine with an extra espresso shot because that’s how I do.

After relaxing a bit in the A/C and enjoying our treats, we took the short walk back to our hotel, properly cooled and caffeinated.

4. Tunjungan 39

I couldn’t write about Surabaya without mentioning our dinner at Tunjungan 39, specifically one dish we had, that I am still thinking about.

For an appetizer we shared the tahu kipas which is deep fried tofu stuffed with a mix of savory vegetables. I know, that doesn’t sound particularly amazing, but OMG. I saw a photo of them online and didn’t know what was in them, but knew I must get them. Once I realized it was fried tofu, I almost changed my mind, but we went ahead and ordered them (I like tofu just fine, it just doesn’t knock my socks off usually). Holy moly they were good. The little tofu pockets are battered in some kind of flour before frying, not quite as crispy as tempura, but close.

Phil had their smoked brisket and I had a chicken dish with tofu, but the real star of the show was the tahu kipas. Phil’s brisket was pretty tasty too. My chicken was just ok and I felt the whole dish was a little dry. That being said, it was a very pleasurable experience. We each had a fancy tea drink. They have a huge cocktail bar, but they were not serving alcohol that day due to it being an Islamic holiday. They also gave us a cute little packet of chocolate and vanilla cookies when we were seated.

5. The Monumen Kapal Selam

On our last day in Surabaya, we visited the Monumenn Kepal Selam which is a decommissioned submarine that we could climb around in! I love anything you can climb up in, slide down, turn knobs on, ride on, that kind of thing. Basically any structure a kid would really like, I also will probably like it. It just sucks when a bunch of damn kids are in my way (just kidding…not really). I remember once when I was in my 20’s I took my friend Cyndy’s son to the Magic House in St. Louis, because I love him and he’s a good kid (now man), but also because I thought it would be weird if I went by myself.

Anyway, I was super stoked to get in the submarine and look around and touch all the buttons and turn the knobs. It was super hot, but luckily they had a few fans going to prevent it from being unbearable.

We walked back to our hotel along the river front and saw yet another statue of a crocodile fighting a shark. We came to learn that the name Surabaya literally translates to crocodile and shark; sura (crocodile) and baya (shark).

The symbol of the crocodile and shark is one of the most famous icons of the city, even appearing on its coat of arms. You can read more about the folklore here.

For being a city with seemingly not much to do and only being there for four days, we sure did have a lot of fun in Surabaya. Next stop in Java: Yogyakarta!