Well this trip is another one in Dec 2010. That was a month of travel, first 10 days in Bangkok that was in earlier post. Another 3 nights in Genting but I think that does not warrant a post except that I tried their fine dining restaurant, The olive at Genting hotel and was very disappointed. Supposed to be Italian fine dining but the food really too weird and not to mention super duper expensive. In Italy, summer 2011 ( upcoming posts), I had much better food

Anyway I am rambling

The purpose for the trip was mainly to spend time together with my extended family and to introduce my new husband to those who could not come to our receptions.

Especially my two grandmothers

Anyway, first night spent at Surabaya plaza hotel, as the name suggest, this hotel right outside Surabaya plaza. Food options are plenty inside the plaza from fast food to indonesia food. Right opposite is an expo hall, supposed to be quite famous if you are looking for handphones etc

There is a famous rujak cingur stall inside the plaza that was mentioned on the Jetstar magazine I happened to be reading on the flight over.

So worth trying.

Anyway those who are curious, cingur means nose in Javanese so the Rujak ( salad) has some pieces of animal nose inside, sometimes it is buffalo, cow or pig.

There is also the usual KFC, A&W etc

And food courts inside.

We had dinner at this place because the claim said that we have not been to Surabaya if we didn’t try this duck.

The Jco served good froyo at super cheap price so yeah food settled

Next day we checked out and head towards Tulungagung, as it was Christmas Period and we wanted to attend mass the the Lourdes lookalike place called Poh Sarang in Kediri

But before that we visited Madura and took some pictures at the longest bridge in (Indonesia? Maybe just east java I am not too sure).

Anyway us at the Suromadu bridge

More pics of me at this bridge that is modeled after the famous San Fransisco bridge

Well the toll fee is quite expensive though. To and fro I think it was around 20 SGD. to be fair it was an engineering feat, for many years Madura who wants to visit Java had to take a ferry. And yeah Madura is an island by itself and it is most famous for 2 things.

1. sate Madura

Which of course we had for lunch, the more famous stall had already ran out of things ( this was at 2 pm only)

2. karapan Sapi

Which is actually a cow/bull racing. We didn’t watch as we were quite pressed for time.

After lunch we go directly towards Poh Sarang in Kediri.

To be continued in part 2

Anyway to note: this was a road trip. My family flew in from Jakarta while we flew from Singapore.

From Juanda airport in Surabaya it is easy to book a hotel as there is a few travel agencies around. Surabaya plaza was about 350,000 Rp a night and that’s around 60 SGD.

My dad prefers to use Kaha travel agency so yeah look out for their booth as they are quite reliable and had partnership with the good hotels. In 2008 we stayed at Marriott which was also at just slightly higher price and their location is unbeatable. You can check out my other Indonesia travel categories for the room pics and more hotel reviews

From the airport you can book those pre paid taxis that is quite safe n reliable and will send you to the hotel doorstep. Some of them will ask u to pay extra for toll fees but u should make sure that you actually see him passing thru a toll booth. The price for the tolls payable for taxis is the first price that you see. Should not exceed 20000 usually.

After Surabaya, we borrowed cars from relatives that usually comes with drivers, or our relatives drove us around because traffic is hard to navigate for a foreigner for sure. Many many roundabouts without any clear signs. Even daddy is lazy to drive as there is always new development and some parts is really dangerous and road is on the verge of collapsing. So yeah hire a car and driver. It is affordable and easier.