The ferry
Dive for money
For the first dinner in Surabaya, a friend of us, Hendro, took us to Layar, the most famous and delicious seafood restaurant in town. It was really good!!! The crab, shrimp and scallop were cooked Chinese style.. Definitely recommended and would love to come back if we visit Surabaya in the near future.
The next day, after trying to bring our Kijang to Toyota repair shop (at no avail, as the shop had very long waiting list), we went to Tunjungan Plaza. It is the biggest shopping mall in Surabaya. Yes, it is big… compared to malls in Bali. But as we plan to do our shopping spree (it’s hyperbolic, trust me, didn’t have the unlimited budget!) in Jakarta, we didn’t buy a thing at TP. For lunch, we tried Suki, a Chinese style steamboat. Taste? Good….
It is not a visit to Surabaya without a stop at Rawon Setan, translated as Devil Beef Soup, or more like Beef Soup which taste like Devil (weird translations..). There are many Rawon Setan, or at least that’s what people want to say due to its popularity. But the one we went is the original one, the only one in the world… No branch restaurant, no franchise. It is located right in front of J.W. Marriott Surabaya. Thanks to Hani, a busy ophthalmologist who happened to be my high school mate. She and her kids picked us up at the hotel and treated us with Rawon Setan. We were lucky to have seats and I was amazed by the quick service there. Just in time we finished our meal, groups of people started to come and waited behind us, ready to take over our seats. Interesting… No wonder it is called Rawon Setan…as we, Indonesians, have a popular exclamation of surprise. “Setan…, so yummy!”
The next day, after our second night stay at Mercure, we prepared ourselves to continue our trip. This time was to Jogjakarta. Oops, almost forget to tell that breakfast at Mercure was really good. Soto ayam, or chicken soup a la Surabaya, was delicious. All service was wonderful and very friendly. Room rate? Very reasonable. Around Rp450,000 (USD45) per night for standard room. Location? Strategically located.
Leaving Surabaya, we decided to make a stop for lunch at Madiun. This city is famous for its Pecel, a kind of vegetable salad with peanut dressing. We drove around the city, asked local men by the street, to find the best pecel in town. Well, it was Sunday, the most famous one was closed. So we visited the second best one. The pecel for lunch was just as expected. So we left Madiun with full tummy and continued to Jogjakarta.
Long story is shortened, we arrived at Jogjakarta at late afternoon. Malioboro street, the most famous avenue in the city was packed with tourists, local ones. I saw several Caucasian tourists near our hotel. We stayed at Grage Ramayana Hotel, 100 meters from Malioboro street. Abdes found this hotel online while we were in Surabaya and booked straight away as he didn’t want us driving around to find a place to sleep.
This time, we were totally exhausted. Alarik was asleep until dinner time. Abdes had headache, but I had the worst headache ever! I couldn’t open my eyes. I had tears in my eyes due to my headache. I even hardly swallowed any food. Getar? Amazing… he’s totally cool!!
So we decided to call a masseur to our room. Thankfully, the hotel staff was really nice. She was really helpful and emphatic, genuinely, not just because she had to do so. Sorry, I forgot her name. So after a nice massage and a couple of cups of hot ginger, we were recovered.
The morning after, we had gudeg for breakfast. It is a requirement to eat gudeg in its origin city. We were lucky that a really old lady had her food stall right in front of the hotel.
Gudeg Lady in JogjaAbdes took the boys to Malioboro while I packed our luggage. Alarik was very excited to see trains. In Bali, we have no trains. So, no wonder he got so excited because he only saw trains in Thomas the Tank Engine. They went around Malioboro by becak. Cool experience for the boys. A new vocabulary for Alarik: becak, a front seated passenger pushbike.
Alarik on a becak
Getar at Malioboro Street, JogjaInterestingly, as we took the south route to Jakarta, we made another stopover at Tasikmalaya, the city in West Java, where Abdes’ grandfather is originally from. Abdes wanted to stop here as he really wanted to eat at Laksmana noodle. Without asking any directions from the locals, he just wandered around, trying to remember the way from our last trip here a year ago and voila…. His wish was fulfilled. We enjoyed the noodle, the fruit juice and martabak (a kind of Indonesian pancake, thick, filled with cheese, chocolate or peanut) for snack on the road.
So, after Tasikmalaya, Abdes had to drive a long way… and when we finally reached the toll road and saw traffic signs with Jakarta directions, we felt that we almost made it. Phew… Abdes was a great driver! We arrived safely at his parent’s house on Monday late evening. Hugs, kisses, laughs, stories were promptly around the house. The car, our beloved 1996Kijang, was ready to be sold in Jakarta! *yes, that was the only reason we made this road trip to Jakarta! The car was Jakarta registered and titled under Abdes’ father’s name. We would be better off if we sell the car in Jakarta. And yes, we were!*
1 comment:
great experience!! the boys must be really excited passed the trip with mommy and daddy.
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