Surabaya city tour

I can now say , Indonesia is our annual must visit country after 5 consecutive years flying not less than 2 times a year there... certainly, I would love to visit each big city of Indonesia.. after Bandung, Bali, Medan, Jogjakarta and repeatedly Bali again , our next choice of destination would be Surabaya.. city of less preferred but am so curious to be there... for once i finally booked a flight ticket to Surabaya... surprisingly this city was chosen before Jakarta... haha never been to Jakarta... next in the list... Insya Allah....

Logistic is very easy to arrange in Surabaya... most of the transportation services with driver is offered at the rate of 24 hours.... reason which I can think off may be due to long journey required to get from one spot to another... but the rate that we got  for first time deal (without having detail research to compare to others) is very reasonable... IDR350,000 per day (24 hours) for city and IDR450,000 per day (24 hours) for outside city tour.. plus driver , but without fuel and toll, parking etc...

Great about the transportation deal is that we can plan our journey as late as 11.00 pm ... we even slept in the car instead of the hotel... and we got picked up at 3.00 am to catch our flight to Denpasar Bali by the kind driver....

Pity our hotel room, which was left vacant most of the time....a quick facts on the chosen hotel.... The name of the Hotel is AR+OTEL... there are various pieces of arts displayed on each part of the hotel.. got fascinated with the colourful paintings and sculptured figures. Located at Jalan Dr. Soetomo, not right in the city centre but still within the vicinity of Surabaya City .. and blessed that it was located around the high end residential area which has a very peaceful surrounding...

Art is everywhere including the wall for the room.. each room has different drawing painted on its wall.. could be the trend now... i remember staying in a hotel with artistic features in Shenzhen....it somehow deviate the occupant's attention for the fact that the size of the room is actually rather small.... anyway, the room was cozy and we enjoyed our stay throughout..

Joining us for the trip ... Azie and Kic-up... glad to have them around and first time travelling with this combo...actually have been to Hong Kong , Shenzhen and Macau with them too....

Muka penat lepas hampir seharian jalan ronda-ronda kota Surabaya.....

Disclaimer : all facts stated is based on own experience... minimal research and may not be accurate...

Tour started by visiting the icon of Surabaya.... SURA=SHARK, BAYA=BUAYA... that's how the name Surabaya was originated.. also known as "City of Warrior"... and to my surprise, Surabaya is a very clean city. Surabaya may not be the hub for shopping.. though there are few giant Shopping Malls around the city, but those shops are the same shops selling the same branded stuffs which you can just hop in KL. So, we would't want to waste our time for unnecessary needs.. haha but still.. i stop my comments there as you will knew whay i say this at the end of my post...

.

.

.

.

.

Next stop was not in our plan.. this could be the bonus for our friend Kic-up and Azie... memang we all tak sangka ada dealer Harley Davidson kat sini... masa sampai kat sini pun, kedai belum bukak, tapi 'Pak Sapam' yang baik hati tu allow us to go in the shop to look around apa yang berkenan di hati...tepat pukul 9.00am kedai bukak, we all terus bayar...untuk Harley Owner macam Kic-up, tempat ni memang wajib pegi dan beli kalau dah jumpa....

So welcome to Harley Davidson - East Java Chapter @ Surabaya... ada yang menggelar Harley Owner kat sini sebagai Raja Jalanan.... dengan ngauman enjin motor tu, memang tak salah kalau digelar sebegitu rupe....

Yang tak berapa nak ada Harley ni pun sibuk nak berfoto dan membeli belah kat sini....

Kat sini, banyak pilihan...you all perasan tak sampul oren yang bergantungan kat ranting belakang tu.... ha jangan tak tahu, sempena dengan sambutan tahun baru cina, HD ada buat lucky draw untuk setiap pembelian minima of IDR1 mil... apalagi, semangat nak menghabiskan duit apa  yang ade... alamak, ni baru first stop.. belum ape-apa dah curah duit ni... sekali sekala... bukan nye selalu pun sampai sini...

belek jangan tak belek cik olin ooi

So antara yang lucky......ni gambar berlakun..

 

Tapi yang nyata nya, impian jadi kenyataan, betul betul dia dapat kotak tu.... congrats enche hubby.

.

.

.

.

the lucky no 11, mahal tu benda alah tu..... almost RM200 kos dia.... tak de motor harley tak pe... at least dapat jugak kenang-kanangan merchandise HD.

.

.

cik azie kita

.
.
Jangan caye sangat muka jebik tu... sebenarnya happy... dapat cardholder.... sapa nak bagi wei... ko ader..?

.

.

.

gambar ni boss harley tu kata nak masuk magazine HOG, ambassador dari Malaysia la kata, wakil Road Captain... kui kui

.

.

.

Gambar sampai puas...

Next pin dropped at Harley Dealer in the list visited

Harley Davidson Mabua - Medan

Harley Davidson Morgan & Wecker, Gold Coast, Australia

Harley Davidson Gasoline Alley, Brisbane Australia

Harley Davidson Dewata, Bali Indonesia

Harley Davidson , East Java, Surabaya Indonesia

Techno Harley Davison, Tsim Tsa Shi, Hong Kong

and of course

Harley Davidson KLCC, Kuala Lumpur..

hmmmm... kalah owner harley... terlebih sudah.. one day maybe.... dreaming in the cloud.. haha

 

okay, that's done on Harley .. move on to the next most interesting place in Surabaya...

Museum of Sampoerna.

have you heard of Sampoerna, the cigarette maker? it is highly recommended that you come here and witness with your own eyes on how the cigarette are made by the most dedicated workers I have ever seen.. they worked by speed .. and the speed they are going is beyond the normal human capacity.... they worked so fast like a Charlie Chaplain. well trained and got fascinated and amazed.. no photos and videos are allowed, so we were there for almost half an hour live watch... minimal blinking and  speechless... just the oooohs and aaahs ..all that we can say....

Initially when we took photo with that Charlie Chaplain... can't really linked why he is there standing welcoming each visitor to the museum... after seeing the workers from A-Z on how they worked, then.. again the ooohs and the aaaahs sounded... but now longer version.... oooooooooooooo ... and aaaaaaaaaaaaaa, we got it.

 

Some pictures taken in the Museum

.

.

the tobacco

 

the machine.... i suppose for the tobacco, imported from Germany, and still look good

.

.

.

kalau cam ni punyer mood tauke kedai...hmm tak semangat pelanggan nak datang...

.

.

Your focus on next photo should be the wording on the blackboard...

That is about city of Surabaya. we end our tour relatively early as we plan to continue to more adventorous touring outside the city at 11.00 pm .. so back to hotel and have a good rest...

one thing i still regret on my visit to Surabaya, is not visiting Kota Singapura in Surabaya... the Citraland.. not sure of the distance from Surabaya city centre... remember I mentioned that Surabaya is clean city... maybe could be as clean as Singapore? how does this relate.. what is the rational of having city of Singapore in the heart of Surabaya??? yet to explore and may be a good reason to revisit Surabaya...on a second thought..it's just a residential township for the rich.. so it is worthwhile?

 

opps before I end this post, perhaps I may extend further to a place we stopped in Malang, some called it Masjid Ajaib... from the info gathered, it is actually a Pesantren (Islamic School) ... but fascinated with the architecture which is designed by the Kiyai himself. A lot of story heard about how this place was constructed... but it was confirmed by the local that it was built by human and all by his willing.... share some photo taken here...

 

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Kat Malang ni terkenal dengan buah epal..... walaupun tak sempay nak berkunjung ke ladang epal, tapi berkesempatan bergambar dengan buah epal yang bergantungan di sekitar perkarangan pesantren ... sooo geram

 

 

.

.

and the tapai ubi... nicely packed

.

.

.

Walaupun Surabaya ni bukannya shopping hub, tapi still there are something to buy.... ole-ole buat kenangan... habis la jugak beberapa juta...kui kui