Selamat Siang (Good Afternoon) to my lovely readers *Indonesian Style*

I just got back from my 5 days trip to the city of Surabaya.

Now let me introduce you guys about Surabaya. Surabaya is not a "tourist city" in Indonesia unlike Bali or Jakarta or Bandung. It is actually the 2nd largest city in Indonesia and it is located in the East Java.

Surabaya has long been known as the “City of Heroes“. The name ‘Surabaya’ itself came from two words suro (shark) and boyo (crocodile). The creatures were believed to be depicted in prophecy where they fought each other to gain the status of the most powerful animal. This local myth is also sometimes interpreted as the conflict between the Mongols and forces of the reigning Majapahit Kingdom.

1st Day. 

We took Air Asia straight from Kuala Lumpur (KLIA 2) airport to Juanda airport and the journey took us like 2 hours and 30 minutes. We've been aiming to go to Surabaya for one thing:  Mount Bromo.

Reached Juanda Airport around 9pm and I've made arrangement with Pak Aldi...who kindly arranged us a driver to bring us strolling around Surabaya and bring us to Bromo. At the Arrival gate..we saw a man was holding an A4 paper with my Abah's name on it. So, at that time we knew that guy is our driver.

Our driver, Pak Juki is a local man from Surabaya. After helping us carrying our luggage, we went straight to our hotel, Capsule Homestay. The distance from the airport to the homestay took us more like 30 minutes.



We reached the homestay quite late and the homestay is not our favourite place to stay. The bathroom is situated outside the room, the bed sheets are not been changed but the price is very cheap so we tend not to be too fussy over a short night in the homestay.

2nd Day

After a terrifying night at the homestay, we quickly rushed out of the homestay and straight go to Malang.

We woke up quite late as our jeep driver mistakenly knocked the wrong door to wake us up. But, he did apologised and bring us to Penajakan Hill...a hill that people will hike to see the sunrise at Mount Bromo via that hill.

Because we did arrived late, our jeep was parked far away from the Penajakan hill so we had to walk around 2km to reach the entrance of Penajakan Hill. It was dark and quite cold and got many tourists mostly local Indonesians who already get set with their high-tech camera ready to shoot for the sunrise.



The view point is actually pretty small and packed with so many tourists but they have different levels of platform and we chose to stand near some sort of the electric station at the right side from the main stairs.

The weather also was cloudy and we didn't managed to see the "real" sunset with the bright sunlight but we can see quite roughly the view of Mount Batok and Mount Bromo.


After taking photos at the Penajakan Hill, we went down and walked to our jeep.

Oh, and our jeep driver's name is Pak Adi and he is a very nice guide. I definitely recommend him for tourists who want to visit Mount Bromo.

Pak Adi kindly offered us by bringing us extra tour to a hill called "Loft Hill" where we have to hike the small hill which we can also see the Mount Bromo.



So we hiked again but this time we hiked the Loft Hill  and Pak Adi kindly offered his help to take us some excellent shots at the hill. He also shared us many informative informations about the mountains and places around Bromo and we are so thankful for having him as our driver.

After that, we went down the Loft Hill and made our way to Mount Bromo..the most awaiting part of our trip. As we reached the parking area at Mount Bromo..we were been chased by gangs of horseriders who have been eagerly waiting for us asking us to rent the horses with them.


The horse riders owned 1 horse per person and we did told Pak Adi that we want big horses not ponies.So Pak Adi arranged us by having 1 person per horse and we paid 125,000 rupiah per horse.

I got a horse named "Tom". A black quite big horse.


Then we rode the horse with our own ushers from the parking lot to the Mount Bromo. Took us like 15 minutes then we stopped near the stairs of Mount Bromo. There are actually many horses to be rent at Mount Bromo so we can see the desperation of the horse owners to get customers renting their horses.


We've climbed the total 240 steps of stairs of Mount Bromo and it was actually kind of exhausting. We stopped many times at the stairs enjoying the view of Mount Batuk and Mount Bromo itself and once we reached the top, we were in awe with the scenery.

Mount Bromo looks like "Mordor" in the set of Lord Of The Rings sequel movies. It looks scary, mystic and you can hear the sound of something boiling on the inside part of the mountain. And the centre hole is smoky and smell of sulphur can be detected. But it wasn't that bad. It's tolerable.

After spending like almost one hour at the top of Mount Bromo, we went down and Pak Adi decided to drove us back to Bromo Permai for our breakfast. We really like his arrangement by letting us to eat first so that we can fully enjoy our tour.

Then after we finished took our breakfast, we went straight to Pasir Berbisik. Tourists are interested to go to Pasir Berbisik because of 2 things 9according to Pak Adi) : 1. There's a movie starred by Dian Sastro called Pasir Berbisik movie. 2. The atmosphere at Pasir Berbisik looks like moon's surface. The soil of the Pasir Berbisik is very dark because of lava or smth to do with that. We just went jalan jalan (take a tour) around the area with the help of Pak Adi who greatly helped us capturing our photos.




Our next stop, is Savannah. There are 2 parts of Savannah it seems. Our first stop, is that, we went to an are full of bladygrass or the Indonesians called them as "alang alang". The scenery is very very beautiful..it's even more beautiful if you see it with your own eyes.


Then, we went to another area full with wild flowers. The scenery is very beautiful.


Last but not least, we went to the Teletubbies Hill whereby its a hilly area that looks like the set in Teletubbies tv show. The weather was actually really hot so we ended up took few shots because all of us were kind of exhausted.


Pak Adi then sent us back to our hotel, Bromo Permai and we said goodbye to him.


After that, around 12pm, Pak Juki came and fetch us and brought us back to Surabaya city.

The journey from Bromo or Probolinggo area to Surabaya city took us less than 3 hours. It was pretty quick and we checked in to  a new hotel called "Loxy Inn" near Jl Embong Wungu in the heart of Surabaya city.

At night, after checking in, we walked to the Tunjungan Mall, one of the biggest mall in Surabaya which is quite near from Loxy Inn and we had our dinner there.

Overall, we are really happy with the services provided by Pak Aldi..so if you need to make arrangement kindly contact :




Day 4 

We started early by strolling at the Surabaya city. We took a cab to a shopping mall called Jembatan Merah Plaza (locals called it Jepe). At the plaza, we bought cheap laces and Indonesian Batiks. The price is actually extremely reasonable so it's a must visit place to go if you want to shop in Surabaya. We actually went to a so-called shop called "Mirota" in Surabaya. I personally think that buying Batik in Mirota is quite ok but buying souvenirs is big NO NO. Firstly, the price is ridiculously expensive. Secondly, imagine notebooks with a cover "Visit Thailand" been sold in that shop. Not to forget, keychains from Bali being sold here. So, it's not a wise decision to shop for souvenirs in Mirota.

After that, we checked in at our last hotel which is Hotel Majapahit. The hotel as expected is beautiful-it's actually a heritage hotel and have historical value to people of Surabaya.



All of us decided to rest inside the hotel as we were so exhausted. After all, it's worth it to rest in Majapahit Hotel :P

Day 5

It was our last day in Surabaya so we decided to stroll at the city. We had our breakfast at one of the warong along the street. Abah had Nasi Rawon ( a soupy rice with a thick broth) and I had Pecal with rice (a Javanese meal).

Then we took trishaw or beca and strolled at the city enjoying our last stay in Surabaya.


Our flight was at 3.30 pm so by 1pm, we were already at the airport and thanks to Pak Juki's help who sent us to the airport.


Overall, we really had a good time in Surabaya because we met so many kind people and definitely we will come back to Surabaya :)