Surabaya, Indonesia - pt 1

This was our first time to visit Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta. We were greeted with another Gamelan orchestra, 2 male dancers in incredible costumes, female dancers and others. We had another private excursion today and were surprised to have not only one guide, but two! Firy (who spoke the best English) didn’t live there so a local guy drove while he did the talking. As in other parts of Indonesia, we found the people to be friendly and meet smiles with smiles. 

 

Our first stop was in the government building area where our guide Firy talked about the history of the city, all the way back to the 1300’s up through 1953. He also pointed out architecture from the different periods of the city’s history. He talked about the Dutch colonization, WWII and their battle for independence. He explained that Surabaya got it's name from the legend of a shark (suro) and a crocodile (boyo) fighting in a river to determine who was the strongest. They eventually created a pact that divided their territory. 

 

architecture - government building

1906

1815

   

Next we were taken to the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Its history dated back to the 1600’s, when a Catholic priest that came with the Dutch built a church. It later burned, but was then relocated and rebuilt. There was a school orchestra practicing for their upcoming 400 years of Jubilee celebration. The features that stood out to me was a big gong inside the sanctuary and the grotto in the courtyard that depicted all the stages of Jesus’ life, ending with His resurrection. However, Mary's shrine was the largest by probably 10 times.

 

Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

neo-Gothic style by Dutch architect

brass gong

    

He is Risen!

After leaving the church, we visited a museum that housed a very detailed presentation of Indonesia’s battle for Independence at Surabaya. We watched a video and made our way through the museum. My favorite part was the video because that room was air conditioned!

 

Museum 10 November - 1945 Battle of Surabaya

Heroes Monument

By this time we were all getting hungry, so our hosts took us to a very nice restaurant where we were served nasi goreng, fish, bok choy and a passion fruit fizzy drink (called squash). Either we were starving or the food was delicious! The fish was gurame, an Indonesian river fish. It was very mild and didn't taste "fishy" at all.

 

After lunch they had planned to take us to a Chinese temple, but we opted instead to look for a very specific battery for my make up mirror. So they took us to a large multi-story (dilapidated) building with shoulder-wide hallways lined with merchants down both sides of every hallway. There was every kind of electronic item you can possibly imagine. It was not air conditioned and Ronnie and I were sweating profusely. Firy, on the other hand, had on 2 shirts one of which had long sleeves, yet I never once noticed him sweating! We spent a long time there and our guides tried very hard to help us, but in the end we were unsuccessful. While they were upstairs waiting on someone to bring a battery they thought might work, I walked around downstairs and took photos of some fruit vendors and their produce.

 

they tried and tried...

cute kid

watermelons "to go" (on motorcycles) and papayas

soursop

wax apple

snake fruit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last stop was a pharmacy to pick up another antibiotic. We got 14 tablets of doxycycline at 85 cents a tablet. Hopefully they won’t be needed, but it sure beats what the ship doctor charges!!!

The places we were taken were interesting, but I much prefer taking pictures of people going about their every day life. I wish I had more of those to share, but it's hard to get decent ones from the back seat of a moving car. However, this is getting long so I'll share more photos in another post. Thanks for following along!