Java has been a bit of a culture shock for us after the easygoing, beach lifestyle in Bali.Our oh-so-well-laid travel plans started to unravel slightly when we reached Surabaya. It was early morning and by then approximately 24 hours since we had any sleep. We didn't have our (already limited) wits about us and we were struggling to remember our own names, let alone the little Indonesian we know. This lead to us being completely ripped off by a little dweeb of a taxi driver who drove us around the houses before dumping us at the most expensive hotel in Surabaya and charging us 90,000 rupiah for the privilege . A long walk, a few swear words (from the ever eloquent Ozzy) and a nice taxi driver later, we arrived at a more middle budget hotel. It cost us 40 odd dollars which completely blew our budget for the day but it had shiny floors and a swimming pool and complimentary bottled water and I was not walking another metre of that damned town with my backpack on!
Neither of us were particularly inspired by Surabaya, it's very polluted and apart from a few impressive statues and plenty of street food options, we couldn't find much to write home about. It lacked the charm of a little village but also lacked any of the bright lights and excitement of a city (mind you, seeing it for one day through tired eyes may not have given us the best impression). One thing that I suppose was quite a refreshing change was that we appeared to be the only tourists in town (I imagine maybe there were others, but we didn't see any, they were probably sensibly hiding away in their posh hotel!). I especially got stared at - a lot! It's quite unnerving, I feel like some kind of freak, people even pointed and stared (and I was well covered so it wasn't because I looked like some kind of Western harlot!). I guess I just have to accept that I am the Quasimodo of Surabaya
My favourite thing in Surabaya (posh hotel aside) was our street dinner! We found a few food carts just down the road from our hotel and stopped for something to eat. We've eaten at a few street places now, but at this one I got special treatment! The man seemed to be amused by me and cooked everything fresh, in front of me, chatting away as he cooked. Usually I'm very interested in eating and less so in cooking but it was really fascinating to watch him go with everything he needed on the back of his tiny cart. The noodles got dunked into a mystery pot of hot liquid while he chopped everything up and put it in the wok-pan thing with lots of random spices. Then the noodles were added to the wok-pan along with some mystery liquid and fried up good and proper. It was delicious! Me and Brett ate and shared a glass of coconut milk while everyone stood around us and stared and made fun of us in Indonesian. (This was a lot nicer than it sounds, as they were very good natured about it, or maybe we're just getting used to being stared at!)
We left Surabaya bright and early to get the fast train straight to Jakarta. We paid double what we expected (apparently because it was a Friday!) When we found our seat, our window had all the reinforced glass shattered on the outside - apparently people sometimes throw rocks at the train as it passes! Awesome!
With the price we paid for our tickets, we figured when they handed us cups of coffee and juice that they were complimentary - fools! Thank god we were presented with our bill and wised up before the carts of cigarettes and toy trains went through or it could have been a very expensive trip! The toilet on the Surabaya to Jakarta train was a hole in the floor of the train. I don't so much have an issue with this, I just wish that people would aim better so that wee actually goes down the hole. With the smell in the toilet, there was no point trying to convince myself it was just water on the floor! Poor flip flops - they have a rough time of it sometimes! Ah, the glamorous life of a wind swept traveller!
Now we are in the bright lights of Jakarta. Now this is a proper city! No more rip-off taxi drivers for us, we got a motorised tuk tuk thing from the train station. It wasn't comfortable but it is definitely the way to enter a city! We arrived at Jalan Jaksa, a cheap and cheerful street complete with food, music, twinkly lights and lady boys - this is more like it! Surabaya eat your heart out!
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