Surabaya - The return leg

After Problemlinggo the return to Surabaya is comforting, like slipping on your slippers after a hard day.

Surabaya is a place of storms at the moment, often raining with thunder and lightening for hours. Storms like I've never experienced before, the lightening is constant and at times the thunder sounds like bombs going off.

We avail ourselves of the Majapahit Hotel's facilities, Adrian uses the pool and I luxuriate in the lounge with jasmine tea. You can get away with anything really, white face in a 5* hotel, naughty but very nice.

En route to the Grand City Plaza (6 floors of shopping heaven is promised) we pass, quite randomly, a submarine. It's open as an exhibit and its up periscope all the way. The Grand City Plaza is very grand and we make purchases - both in shops we'd find in the UK.

The free bus tour drives us round the many roads we've walked during our time in Surabaya. It passes a pleasant hour and a half and Adrian steals a gold bar at the Bank of Indonesia museum. It was, naturally, a fake but he was nevertheless very excitable.

So, we find ourselves somewhat nervously awaiting a flight to Kuala Lumpur for 3 days (it's a visa thing) whilst the storm rages outside.

Gunung Bromo

Probolinggo is our next destination, or Problemlingo as we rename it (almost affectionately). Our mission to look into the crater of the Bromo volcano and cross the sea of sand.

Six hotel rooms later (grime, leaking toilets, more grime, building sites, plague of Mosquitos and cockroaches) we settle on Hotel Ratna and a second floor £7.24 room including breakfast.

A minibus takes us to the bus station where bartering begins. There's only us on the minibus and its a stunning journey. As we climb the temperature drops and we start to see different crops to the usual rice. Lots of cabbages mainly. It's strange as vegetables are not a big feature here.

At the top, our first view of the Tengger Semeru National Park is jaw droppingly amazing. The caldera (plateau) happens when land collapses following a (or several) volcanic eruption(s) and the emptying of the magma chamber below which is no longer able to support the ground above. This particular caldera is ringed by 3 mighty smoking volcanoes with Bromo sited within. It is completely flat and covered in volcanic ash, an expansive grey sea. It is an amazing sight to behold. At the entrance to the park is a status board red, amber and green when translated mean watch out, standby and alert respectively.

The walk to the Bromo crater takes approximately 1 hour and it's a sudden steep climb, but so worth it. It is quiet at the top, the sunrise tourists all gone and its a great place to be alone with your thoughts. Sadly the usual Indonesian garbage is still ever present. I throw my posy in the crater as an offering to the gods to placate the volcano, hopefully it will work, at least until we leave town!!

Surabaya

The 'book' says little to fore-warm the traveller to Surabaya. It is Javas second biggest city and has a feeling of being more worthy as a capital. Our chosen accommodation is du Paviljoen, very satisfactory rooms around a leafy courtyard with friendly staff. The home sweet home picture is soon on the wall.

We visit the House of Sampoerna, a company that makes cigarettes from tobacco and cloves, Krateks they are called. The cigarettes are banned in most countries of the world because of the tar content. The museum is at the front of the manufacturing floor which we view from an immaculate, air-conditioned gallery. The pace at which the 325 women work is gob-smacking. One lady is so fast she never actually seems to stop moving, like she has a permanent tick, another trims the ends of the cigarettes (no filters here) so quickly you don't see it spin in her hand.

The museum is free and they also run a free sight-seeing bus tour of the city 3 times daily. The cynic in me wonders if this is to make amends for all the damage to health the company causes. All are full so we book for when we return to Surabaya.

Luckily for us there is the Majapahit Hotel here in Surabaya, built originally as a holiday villa by the Raffles-famous Sarkie Family and later turned into a luxury hotel. Our treat to selves is always afternoon tea at a Sarkie hotel should there be one in town. At 125,000 rupia per head plus 21% tax it sounds fairly expensive but thats only £6.63  before tax so not really breaking the bank.

The hotel is exquisite in a quite understated way. It is beautifully and immaculately maintained, the first time we have experienced this to this degree in Indonesia. We eat our tea, much to the staffs amusement, outside overlooking the garden. They know, and we know, there is rain due. It is sublime to sit outside in the warmth taking tea, watching the deluge. Whilst Raffles still holds number 1 spot for the tea, Majapahit hotel just took it slightly on the hotel. We are returning to Surabaya to fly to Kuala Lumpur in a few days and I beg and I plead and I offer to pay but he won't be budged.

Storms that bring trees down (and sometimes planes)

As a post script to our Jepara posting, we liked the place so much we stayed an extra night and what a night.

About 4am we were woken by a storm, wind like you've never heard (in a meteorological sense), thunder, lightening and serious rain, it lasted about an hour before it abated enough to fall back to sleep. At 5.45am we were woken by the sound of chainsaws. The storm had wreaked havoc, trees felled, the art gallery next door blown down, shrubs ripped out by the roots. Just scenes of devastation and seemingly completely targeted at the street we were staying on. It looked like a tornado had whipped down the street.

In the midst of it Adrian said "imagine what this would be like on a plane". It doesn't bear thinking about. A chap in our hotel from London (Indonesian wife) said they'd arrived the night of the storm that caused flight QZ8501 to perish and it had been similar. Our AirAsia flight to Kuala Lumpur is booked from Surabaya on 30th January, I'm praying for good weather!



With typical Indonesian stoicism, after 2 hours the road was open again, all the felled trees were chopped up and the power men entered. All wearing flipflops (as, incidentally, were the chainsaw operators). Ladders made of bamboo and serious climbing skills saw power cables reinstated. Not one risk assessment was written and no one died.

My ship has (not) sailed

We've had a bit of a bitty time the last few days since we left Yogyakarta - the nicest place in my opinion that we've been so far. We went to Solo with half a plan to go to Melang or possibly to Semarang to head to Kilimanjawa, an island in the Jave Sea.

Solo wasn't really happening for me. We were persuaded by Crazy Lady to stay in her homestay, only £5.00 each per night including breakfast. Wifi but no hot water - urgh! Very interesting Batik museum in Solo which we pass a tropical rainstorm in. A very long hot walk to the train station tells us that trains to Melang set off in the early hours and take 12 hours or more to get there - doesn't sound like fun in anyone's books. Semarang however is only 2.5 hours by train and it's only 50p each - yep you guessed it, we're Semarang bound.

There is a bone of contention here as the sole point of going to Semarang is to get to the island, which is sited in the Java Sea where they are currently trying to retrieve flight QZ8501. News reports talk of 3-5 metre high waves. Hotels on the island are telling people to stay away as they might get stuck. Whilst it is a tropical island boasting white sand and blue seas (yeah right) it is the rainy season. Everyone tells us in Semarang Jepara is the place to get boats to Kilimanjawa, so off we go, the scabbiest, rustiest bus you've ever seen and we're overcharged by a whole 50p each much to Adrian's chagrin. 

Time after time we are told the boats are not running or you may get stuck on the island but, hey ho, adrian persists in asking in the hopes of finding someone who says "yes, we're going to the island". There are a few offers from local boat owners but you'd have to be plain stupid or downright suicidal to get on some of these boats!!

In Jepara we find the theme park that time forgot with a surprisingly good little aquarium, and it's only 65p each to go round. We bumped into a Dutch couple this afternoon who were relieved to see us, having not seen any other westerners for a week. Madness. Madness aside, this is a lovely town. Wide, leafy boulevards, clean, well kept and the Colonel is in  town. This town is well know. For its furniture manufacturing with buyers visiting from all over the world, so it has a slightly more contemporary feel to it, so much so, we decide to stay 3 nights.

In search of the Colonel

We leave Cipanas with heavy hearts, such a lovely place, but time is somewhat of the essence and we must head eastwards towards Yogyakarta (Jogy in affectionate terms). Yogyakarta is something of a modern metropolis, home to several universities and the Sultan.

We are staying very upmarket here, accommodation costing a whopping 250,000 rupia (a whole £13.07) including breakfast! We have a pool and a beautiful courtyard garden.

Our wanderings take us to the main shopping road here Jalan Malioboro, the Batik street it should be called, all the shops selling the same stuff. It's strange how that works here, you will find a street and you can guarantee the first shop you see will sell exactly the same as all the other shops. So, if you see a barbers it will be a street of them, we walked past a coffin shop the other night and there were six more. It obviously works as we've seen it in other South East Asian countries.

Amidst all the batik shops was a mall which we popped into for some air con cooling. The malls here always have food courts which usually represent very good value for money and possibly something a little different, so are worth checking out. There, in a little corner, glowing like a life saving beacon was 'The Colonel'. Sadly it wasn't to be, the chicken was cold and to be fair looked like it had been there for most of the day and a burger would take 30 minutes to cook. I was slightly incredulous at the 30 minutes and did ask "is The Colonel aware of this?" So, it wasn't to be, we headed to the McDonalds downstairs. Adrian complaining bitterly that two large meals had cost nearly £5 (I'd paid), we emerged into the night only to see a 3 story KFC beaming at us from less than 20 metres away. Hey ho.

From Yogyakarta we visit Borobudur and Prambanan two UNESCO World Heritage sites. Borobudur is a Buddhist temple, quite simple and very beautiful in the early morning mist. The top of the temple provides views way above the tree canopy to the mountains and volcanoes beyond, giving a feeling of being in the middle of the jungle. It is quite stunning. As the cloud clears we are treated to views of Volcano Merapi, Indonesia's most active volcano. Prambanan is a Hindu temple compound. Very badly damaged by an earthquake in May 2006 (5.9 on the Richter scale), reconstruction is still not yet complete. We are asked on arrival here if a group of tourism students from one of the universities can give us a tour around the site. They are practicing their English as much as their knowledge of the monument but it's interesting and we pass an enjoyable 90 minutes in their company.

Follow me I'm the Pied Piper

We head from Bandung to the lovely town of Cipanas, a peaceful haven after the hustle and bustle of Bandung

Hotel Augusta is where we're at and its lovely, clean large room, modern bathroom with hot water (whoop whoop) and a swimming pool. We've even got a lovely balcony with a beautiful view.

We spend an afternoon in the company of Amelia and Edry Pohan, they live in Jakarta and are here on a day trip. They take us to a beautiful little temple across a lake which we cross on bamboo rafts which are punted across. It's a beautiful place and one we wouldn't have found without them.

Located just above the town are hot water springs. A lot of the hot water in the town is fed from these springs. There is an area just like Matlock Bath, where there are swimming pools where Indonesians visit to swim. The water is filtered somehow and retains its heat but loses the sulphur smell. In our hotel when you run the tap you can smell the sulphur for a short time.

We also take the opportunity to visit Papandayan, a volcano some 40km away from Cipanas. It last erupted in 2002 but is very active, one of the most active on Java. Two buses and a motorbike ride find us at the top of the volcano about a 30 minute walk from the crater. In the crater itself there is lots of smoke and many geysers spewing forth steam. The feeling of immense underground power here is quite overwhelming. It feels like the whole thing could go bang at any moment.

There is a small village behind the hotel, there are no cars here, only motorcycles, it is a maze of narrow alleyways between houses. The children are absolutely fascinated by us and we soon look like the pied piper with a group of children following us, shouting "I love you"  - their only English. In the village we come across signs for the route of evacuation in case of volcanic eruption - a scary thought. This way my party...

Going Dutch and getting on down in Bandung

A very long, hot and smokey bus ride finds us in Bandung, one of Indonesia's mega-cities. It is huge. It is hot, dry and oh so very dirty. Our chosen accommodation is a hostel run by a Dutch man who came to Indonesia 18 years ago and stayed. The hostel has a great communal area where the hostel's guides hang out, playing guitars and drums and dishing out advice on travel in Indonesia, whilst obviously trying to sell you a tour.

Bandung is full of once beautiful and elegant Art Deco architecture left over from the Dutch rule, it is everywhere. Most is in a dreadful state of decay, but one or two have been loved, salvaged or renovated and look fantastic. The Savoy Homann hotel is one such example, it is in absolute pristine condition. We avail ourselves of their WiFi and read The Jakarta Post whilst soaking up the sumptuous surroundings. 

This is not the only luxury hotel in Bandung and we visit 3 others, being given the full VIP tour in The Grand Hotel Preanger. This results in me threatening Adrian with five-star luxury for our final night in Jakarta before we fly home. Yes I have been courted by the clean, the shiny and the indulgent.

We pay a visit to Aroma, a small coffee outlet that has been trading in coffee since the 1920s. The owner kindly shows us around the premises. There are mounds of sacks of coffee beans everywhere, labelled where in Indonesia they are from and a date. He keeps the beans for 8 years before drying them in the sun. They are then roasted at a low heat before being ground and served. The whole place smells deliciously of coffee but there's not a cup to be had. We make our purchase and Adrian makes plans for an attached coffee shop!

Our usual backgammon competition is well underway with scores being reasonably even. Our usual pattern is backgammon early evening, possibly with a beer possibly not, then out for dinner. Sadly the food here is not inspiring so we are less than hungry most evenings (I can foresee a KFC trip in the future). Our last evening in Bandung finds us thirsty. Anyone who knows us well knows that 9.30 is a late night for us, however this particular night at 11pm we are heading out with the guys. The empty streets, unlit by lights, sees our convoy of motorcycles head to Braga City Walk, a road of bars and clubs where we join Bandungs young (and not so young in the ex-pat cases) for beer (both of us) and dancing (just me). Indonesia is 86% Muslim, I think we partied with the other 14% tonight. At 1am our convoy returns and we bid the guys good night - sleep will not be a problem.

Cooling off on the side of a volcano

From Bogor, we take a one and a half hour mini bus journey to Cibodas to see another, more temperate, botanical garden on the side of two volcanoes.

Our hostel, Bali Ubud, is built into the side of the hill with fantastic views, although these are smothered by cloud quite soon after our arrival and the heavens open. I don't think I've mentioned that it's the rainy season in West and Central Java and when it rains, it rains. We walked round the botanical gardens in our ponchos making the best of a bad job. It was quite lovely – there's nothing like warm rain.

On the way back down we stop off at a little stall selling something that looks intriguing. A batter cooked in what looks like a 4 hole Yorkshire pudding tin, with sugar added and then requested toppings, all topped off with sweetened condensed milk. Mmmmm we top ours with banana and they are delicious.

Our final day here dawns warm, dry and sunny. Next...

Basking and bingeing in Bogor

Bogor is our next stop. The Main Street when you exit from the station is simply crazy. Dozens upon dozens of mini buses, cars, mobile shops. It's all happening in one tight space. After our train journey we opt to walk the 4.4 kilometres to our chosen accommodation, Hostel Bogor.

Hostel Bogor has only been open since November and is owned and run by the lovely Ika Farikah. It is more of a homestay really. We are well and truly welcomed with pots and pots of lovely jasmine tea. Wonderful traditional Indonesian food with cooking demonstrations and recipes. There is also a lovely dog called Doo Doo, he's only 4 months old and immediately in love with Adrian.

Our main purpose for being here is to visit the Bogor Botanical Gardens. Thomas Stamford Raffles started a garden at his country house in Bogor when he was Lieutenant Governor during a brief British hiatus in the Dutch rule. The garden was then extended by the Dutch with help from Kew Gardens and opened as a Botanical Garden in 1817. It is a massive 87 hectares and wonderful. Sadly there is no corpse flower or Rafflesia in flower at the moment but the journey is still young and you've got to be happy with 400 species of Palm trees.

Ika Farikah takes us to see a tofu (tahu) factory near the hostel. It's grimy but as Ika points out the tofu tastes better because of the dirt!! The beans are crushed then boiled, then separated and set. The whole process takes about 30 minutes and the tofu is delicious. It's flavoured with turmeric, Ika fries it and serves it with a beautiful dip of soy sauce, Palm sugar, red and green chilli and red onion - delicious. She also cooks for us a beautiful bamboo curry and tempe (more soya beans).

Breakfast one morning consists of fried cassava (tapioca) topped with grated cheddar cheese and sprinkled with chocolate hundreds and thousands. Ika raved about it, but my very English brain couldn't compute - I couldn't dispute that it was a nice flavour but just not quite right.

It would be easy to stay and sample her whole repertoire but, we have to move on and Adrian is getting far too fond of that dog!!

Jakarta - A city on speed

Jakarta, we are promised (threatened) is a fast-paced city where Indonesians live life at breakneck speed. We are staying on the edge of Chinatown near the old Dutch quarter. It's a slightly run down area but the hostel is fantastic.

The Dutch were the colonisers here after a battle with the British in the 16th Century and, as ever, the colonial buildings have a quaint although crumbling charm. There are several canals built by the Dutch. These are filthy, stinking waterways that are the lifeblood of Ancol the Jakarta shanty town close to the port. The port is filled with old, seemingly unseaworthy, schooners all laden or being loaded with goods.

Chinatown is lively with shops full of the distinct red and gold we associate with Chinese New Year, they are getting ready to welcome the year of the goat.

We are stopped several times in Taman Fatahillah by students wanting to interview us for school projects and bizarrely by random strangers to have a picture taken with us. Might have to start charging, it could be lucrative!

The National Monument (Monas) in the middle of Merdeka Square is well visited by locals. Built in the late 1960s it is known as Sukarmo's final erection, reference to the former president who had it constructed. Here families picnic and children watch their dads fly kites! The dads seem to be really enjoying themselves.

It almost feels like we've missed the 'on speed' bit of Jakarta but you get a feel of it with the pushing on the buses and the choked streets of beeping traffic jams going nowhere fast. A much maligned city but we've felt embraced by it as an introduction to Indonesia. 

Oh and BTW everything seemingly costs the equivalent of £1. Perhaps Jakarta is just a giant Poundland. There's certainly enough plastic and garbage!!

Planes, trains and automobiles

Well the journey really did start immediately we left the house. A very slippery walk to the tram stop and 40 minutes later we were at Meadowhall Interchange, awaiting the super duper Megabus to London. Megabus departed 20 minutes late but managed to arrive 15 minutes early - go figure! Oyster cards at the ready and by 5pm we are safely ensconced in the Sky Team Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 4 with the first of several glasses of champagne - come on, it is New Year's Eve after all. Quick hugs and kisses with Brian and Maxine (lovely boaters) who we bizarrely meet in the middle of Heathrow and we're boarding our flight to Doha, Qatar.

Whilst the inflight service isn't fab the airport is mahusive and full of luxury brand shops with no one in them, lots of blokes in robes and very disconcertingly loads of women in full black burkas. I've seen eye slits, divided eye slits and fully covered heads. It is so alien to me and for some reason I feel several different emotions about it, mainly a tug between feeling intimidated and feeling angry at a perception of oppression of women - I say perception as there's no visible signs of oppression. One lady I saw, with her face uncovered, was absolutely gorgeous and had the most amazing pink, glittery shoes on, with very pink glittery toenails and a lot of pink glittery jewellery, there wasn't a great deal of oppression there!

Thankfully I manage some sleep on the second flight from Doha to Jakarta but still arrive with a pounding headache. Immigration is a doddle but luggage takes a little while. A bus from the airport takes us into Central Jakarta where we pick up a tuk tuk. They don't have the knowledge here like in London and our driver stops twice to ask for directions. In the end Adrian directs him using the iPad.

The Packers Lodge is lovely, clean, new and a very welcome sight just after midnight. At £7 each a night it's a steal and a bed each - bags on the bottom bunk.