‘Tis only a short blog from me today as it’s late, I’ve been up since 06:00 and we’ve another early start tomorrow as we’re moving on by train/ferry/bus to Ubud in Bali tomorrow. Today we bid goodbye to Yogyakarta and said a brief hello to Surabaya. We caught the 11:30 train which took 4 hours to transfer us from city to city. It wasn’t a bad journey at all, although the rainy season has really kicked in these past 24 hours. We had an absolutely torrential downpour last night and intermittent rain throughout the morning. I’d been up early as I had to walk into town to get some cash. I’d forgotten about the ATM roulette that one plays in Indonesia. I’d tried several. The first one had faulty buttons, the 2nd wouldn’t accept my card, the 3rd did but then refused to complete the transaction, the 4th would only pay out 1.25m rupiah at a time. Sounds a lot, doesn’t it? (its just over £62). Just as I was losing the will to live I spotted an actual money changer’s outside the railway station where I swapped actual sterling for rupiah and suddenly became a multi-millionare!

I was back at the station a couple of hours later, along with Dawn and all our baggage. Yogya stations grown a lot since I was last here in 1998. There’s extra platforms and the line East has been electrified. Passenger facilities have been extended and the whole station brightened up. There’s even a shuttle train service to the airport.

Our train trip through the rice paddies and sugar cane plantations of Java was a very pleasant one. Whilst the train was busy it wasn’t rammed, but it was on time. On arrival I booked a taxi to our hotel via the ‘Grab’ app. The discount we got from the Grab staff at their hub at Gubeng station meant that the fare to our hotel cost me the princely sum of 63p Once unpacked and settled in at the hotel we arranged to meet a local friend, Bagus – who took us to a very popular restaurant which specialised in local dishes. The three of us chatted whilst enjoying an excellent meal so time soon flew by. Whilst driving us back Bagus offered to give us a guided tour of the city, which we accepted. The tour was enlivened by the fact it was during the middle of a thunderstorm with rain so heavy some roads were flooding!

I’ve liked Surabaya since my first visit and Bagus’ tour confirmed why. It’s got some fascinating architecture and an excellent of restored Dutch colonial buildings along with modern shopping malls and tower blocks. The wide boulevards are tree-lined, giving the place a really nice feel. Dawn was very impressed and – it it wasn’t for the fact we’ve so little time to spare – would have stayed for a couple of days just to explore.

Ironically, despite all the city has to offer. Lonely Planet guidebooks have decided it no longer merits a mention in their new Indonesia guide. To be honest, the new LP Indonesia is complete crap, but I’ll save my revue of it for another blog. Suffice to say, Lonely Planet guidebooks have utterly lost their way.

Now we’re kicking back at the hotel before another early start in the morning. We’ll be on the 09:15 train to Ketapang where we catch the ferry to Bali. It’s going to be a long day. The train journey alone is 6hr30m. We should get to Ubud sometime before midnight, but who knows? If I can I’ll do a rolling blog tomorrow. We’ll see…

In the meantime, here’s what we were scoffing tonight, Nasi Goreng Madura.

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