2019-10-02 Surabaya

Another trip to Indonesia. This trip repeats one I made about a decade ago, where we spent time in Malang.

With extra stops.

This blog post covers the first leg of the trip, Surabaya and Malang.

Surabaya

This is the second largest city in Indonesia.

It's hot! Really really hot.

We spent time at multiple restaurant chains owned by Steph's relatives.

Fat Choi (Chinese food)
Ikan Bakar Cianjur (IBC) (Indonesian food)
Option (Western food)

I hear that the most common past time by the people in Surabaya is full-time... malling. They basically spend their average waking day inside these super malls. This sounds pretty insane, but not so much when you start cooking from the sun outside! So after work you just hang around here until close.

The super malls usually have multiple wings, each with up to about 10 floors each.

There are apartments connected to the malls, and there is literally everything you can think of. Food, work, churches, and I'm pretty sure I saw schools or childcares here too.

The super malls are quite numerous. We spent the most time in Pakuwon and a little bit of time at Galaxy Mall.

Airplane food! It was very very underwhelming yet not surprisingly so.

Balinese taxi driver swarms are there as always.

We managed to get a free buggy to the domestic terminal as Steph's mum is old enough!

The view from the buggy.

Ate some food at the airport. Was cheap, at 12AUD. Super expensive by local standards, cheapest by Australian standards. At least the food was edible unlike the stuff on the airplane.

Crackers that were suspiciously positioned. Luckily we didn't eat any, you have to pay for it!

The view from the gate before we fly.

The very first thing we did was eat. My favourite dessert drink at IBC, es cianjur.

This is pretty standard fare in Perth. However, it was 100% fresh and out of the oil. It was soft and gooey!

Ikan bakar, or grilled fish. The best that IBC has to offer in my opinion. It was REALLY good.

The food at Fat Choi was also very good. Steph's Aunty is very careful with the quality across restaurants and regularly comes to each one to taste the food at each.

This was great and reminded me of the tasty bo thit kho that my mum makes.

Steph's Aunty also delivered some food right to our hotel. Nasi Bali, and it was amazing! Wasn't super fresh but flavours were right on point.

The utensils are politely wrapped in paper.

For a dinner we had yakiniku. It was an all you can eat buffet! That's some intense stuff. We ate... a lot.

I believe this is called... Bubur madura? Man it was REALLY good. It's like a rice flour... thing? Bubur means porridge and Madura is a region in Indonesia.

Last pic before we go. This is at Steph's grandma's house.

Road trip to Malang! It was much quicker this time.

The view on the road. Malang resides in the mountains so its nice and cool.

Another iced dessert at IBC. This is es cianjur tempo doele. Actually better than the other one if that were even possible. You're actually meant to mix it, then the drink becomes bright pink.