Surabaya Tour of Adventure (Malang and Cuban Rondo)

Just got back from 5D4N Surabaya trip, when the main event to climb Mount Semeru, the highest peak in Java island. What do I think of Surabaya (or Indonesia)

• Everyone could be a Millionaire in Indonesia (as long as you have at least RM 400). Indonesia is quite a poor country, thus most of the things are cheap (not all though). You can get a 1.5 litre mineral water at RP 3000 (RM 1.20), and a bowl of noodle between RP 3000-5000.
• All roads are narrow, and there are no highways (at least in Surabaya, maybe Jakarta is more developed). You actually have to pay “toll” using some small roads, or when making u-turns at some places.
• Surabaya have a lot of agriculture activities going on, especially planting of paddy (rice), sugar cane, cabbage, onion and etc. There is a lot of irrigation along the road, and people actually have nude bath along the road. The have apple plantation in the highlands, and a few blackberry trees.
• Indonesian Malay language is quite different from Malaysian version, especially when they speak continuously. They use a lot of local slang, such as “bebek” is duck, and they like to use “dingin” rather than “sejuk”.
• Indonesian meal consist of mostly vegetables with little meat (perhaps some small chickens, beef ball or small fishes). It seems that beef noodle is quite a common road side food. Their tea smell like Jasmine tea, and the coffee consist of black coffee powder which u must wait for them to sink and never finished the whole cup.

Malang is a nice highland town, which quite a nice hotel (named DiJaya or WiraJaya or something Jaya). It is probably 5-6 hours drive from Surabaya if we take the scenic route, but it should be faster if we take the short cut. We cut through a lot of mountain area with quite some scenic view, and we take a taste of local noodles which is pretty good.

Stone Craft along the way to Malang

Candhi Tikus

Paddy Field

Mountains (I suspect it's Semeru, but it might not be)

Something Jaya Hotel, which is pretty cool

We left the hotel for some small national park to enjoy the mountain areas, and visited a mini zoo. There is a popular waterfall area at Cuban Rondo, which you could see some wavy rainbow if you stand on high ground, given that there is enough sunlight.

Mountain Area

Rainbow Waterfall

Not so nice lunch

Near Ranu Pane Mountains

Lava Mountain

Photo Links: Mei Ru's Multiply 1 and 2.