Capital of East Java

Continuing our tour across Indonesia we arrive to the second largest city in the country. Not only because of the many hundreds of gorgeous Dutch colonial buildings scattered everywhere through the city, but also because it was the perfect base and gateway to reach the incredible Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, where the most active volcanoes of Indonesia are, while the area is worldwide known for its incredible beautiful landscapes. This was for us, no need to mention, the actual main purpose for this stopover in Surabaya.

Having always been a powerful city, and even becoming during the Dutch period the largest and most important city in the colony, it survived pretty much intact until the Japanese occupation in 1944 during World War II, when it was heavily bombed and as such, losing most of its character, charm and historic buildings legacy from the ex-colonial times. The revolution of 1945 also did not help much and claimed the loss of thousands of lives in the city. This date, 30th of October is a big celebration in the city named Hari Pahlawan, meaning Heroes’ Day.

Nevertheless and as we personally experienced, there are plenty places to see and things to do to keep you busy and enjoy a full day. This was our original plan, sparing the first day for visiting the city and the second for the excursion to the national park. This worked perfectly but unfortunately a bit rushy through the city as distances are very big between sights. Remember to have in consideration that by 18.00pm is already dark! This means the day will be even shorter. (more…)