Travel Day 682- Malang to Surabaya to Solo on Java, INDONESIA
Since it had become apparent already yesterday that Malang did not have much to offer for me, I decided to leave as soon as possible…
Modern Open-Air Fashion Show in Solo on Java, Indonesia
Leaving as soon as possible in this case meant walking over to the railway station and catching the 7am train out-of-town. The goal was to reach Solo, but in order get there, I had to go north to Surabaya and then catch another train going southwest towards Solo. The first train I caught was the “ekonomi” one, which obviously meant that it was economy class, really basic seating and dirt cheap. Actually the three-hour ride to Surabaya only cost about 50 USD cents and for a standard that was still above the one from India, this was quite a good deal…
What was not such a great deal on the other hand was the fact that we arrived in Surabaya just late enough to have missed the last connecting morning train for the onwards travel to Solo. Since this meant being stuck in Surabaya for at least 3 ½ hours, the only logical decision seemed to be putting the backpack in storage and trying to make good use of the time while going for a walk around town. But unfortunately the area around the train station appeared to be quite boring and so I rather caught a bemo north to the traditional Chinatown and the Arab Quarter called Qubah…
Traditional Market of the Arab Quarter in Surabaya on Java, Indonesia
Once more unfortunately these areas tuned out to be not as exciting as I had hoped and it seemed the guide-book was actually correct with its statement that Surabaya was not an easy place to love. The only places of interest I could find, were the many local markets and the street bazaars of the Arab Quarter. It was almost quite strange to see how traditional things were around here with a lot of women wearing scarfs around their heads and long traditional clothing. This was quite different from what I had seen so far on Bali or on Lombok…
Once I jumped back on the extremely hot and overcrowded train to Solo, which took 5 painfully long hours to arrive, I was in for another surprise. Solo appeared to be a much nicer place than Malang and Surabaya, with nice homestays and a really great night market for some tasty local food like Nasi Liwet, coconut rice with different side dishes. While the great food and nice night market atmosphere helped to forget the pain of the long day on the road, so did the open-air fashion show that happened right on the streets. Not only was it fun to watch all the Indonesian models, but it was also quite interesting to see this much more modern side of Indonesia after the rather traditional visit in Surabaya…
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