Surabaya Trip - Day 5 & 6

On the start of day 5, I had wanted to go to a Vihara I used to frequent ever since I was in my teens.  I was very surprised when I arrived to find the whole complex demolished and a rebuilding was in progress.  Although I was disappointed, that left me quite excited too over how the new Vihara will turn out later on when the rebuilding is completed.  Ah well....  Next time I guess.  

On-going Construction Work at The Vihara - Galaxy A70 

Surabaya Trip - Day 3

Okay!  Day 3!  Things got exciting as we set off for Taman Safari Prigen with a night's stay at Baobab Safari Resort.  The kids were looking forward to it.  

Bye Bye Ibis Budget - Galaxy Note 9

Surabaya Trip - Day 2

On day 2, we started by visiting my mom first.  So my parents' house was the first stop of the day.  

Waiting For Mom to Get Ready - Galaxy A70

Surabaya Trip - Day 1

So December is finally here.  And I've just returned from a short trip to Surabaya.  The wifey and the kids are now in Purwokerto with my F&MIL.  I didn't join them as I've ran out of leave days this year.  This year we dropped by Surabaya first before setting off for Purwokerto as my B&SIL have just gotten their first child so we had to pay them a visit first.  I didn't want to lug along my A7R3 and the FE16-35 mm, instead I brought along a Samsung Galaxy A70 for the wide angle shots.  But naturally, sharpness and resolution must be sacrificed as expected.  I just didn't expect it to be so bad in this Galaxy A70...  I think next time I should just bring my FE 16-35 mm.

Anyway, the trip started in the wee hours of the morning when we left home at 5:30 am for Changi Airport.  We flew by Scoot and oh boy....  it was really crowded even so early in the morning.  We had to queue for counter assistance because the check-in machine couldn't cater to my maid who goes only by one name where they expect everyone to have a surname too.  Such annoyingly meaningless self-service machines....   After checking-in, we arrived at the boarding gates just in the nick of time.

There's Our Plane - Galaxy Note 9

Surabaya Trip 2017

Just came back from a short trip to Surabaya to attend my brother in-law's engagement party.  This time around I only went as far as Tunjungan Plaza and did not venture further due to the function and limited time that we had to spare for the engagement party's preparations.

My parents' house, still looks just like how I left Surabaya more than 20 years ago.  This house is a time machine.

Surabaya Trip - Part 8

This will be the last entry for my Surabaya trip series.  Quite short too....  Day 9 was spent with the kids.  Again, I didn't bring my Sony as I wanted an easy day so I just used my G3.

We started the day by going to Livana to buy some spikoe cakes.  The cake shop is very near, just outside the roundabout in Jln. Mayjend Soengkono.  My wife, myself and the kids absolutely love Spikoe, so we never fail to get some whenever we're in Surabaya.  After that we went to Ciputra World to let the kids play around and just jalan-jalan.

On the way back Lindsay mentioned that she wanted ice cream.  That gave me an idea to try a new cafe in Kupang Indah.  It's a cafe specializing in matcha desserts and some Japanese food.  The place is called The Matcha Cafe (unsurprusingly....) - UPDATE: Matcha Cafe has since been closed.

Nutella parfait, green tea cake parfait, matcha latte - taken with LG G3

Surabaya Trip - Part 7

I spent day 7 for a day trip to Bali to take care of some things with my brother.  It was a rather unpleasant trip but it had to be done.  We left the house at 9 in the morning, arrived, did what we have to do and left promptly, arriving back in rainy Surabaya at close to 9 at night.  So that's how day 7 was spent....

Day 8 was relaxing as it was time for me to finally have dating time with my wife.  I didn't bring my RX100 Mk3 so I just made do with my G3 to record the happenings of the day.  

We satisfied a craving for Medanese kway teow at a famous restaurant called Apeng in Kedungdoro.  The exact address will be in Jalan Kedungdoro No. 267.  Between the two of us we ordered quite a fair bit: Hor fun, Chap Chay rice & dumpling noodle (which was immediately scarved the moment it arrived, I forgot to take the photos).  The conclusion, Mie Kriting 33 near our home is currently better than Apeng.  But if you're living near the city centre, Apeng is not a bad choice. 

Horfun & Chap Chay Rice, complete with menu - taken with LG G3

Surabaya Trip - Part 3

Day 3 of the trip is Chinese New Year's eve.  This is the most important part of the trip as we'll be having reunion dinner later that night.

We started the day easy with a quick breakfast at Pasar Modern in nearby Puncak Permai.  Nothing to hoot about as the food are really quite simple and well..  ordinary....

A signboard in the market - taken with LG G3

Surabaya Trip - Part 2

On the 2nd day of the trip, our main objective was to visit the legendary Pasar Atum.  It's been around for the longest time...   Since 1972 to be exact.  I had been going there ever since I was just a 9 year old, which is 26 years ago.  My wife wanted to make customized plastic covers for our luggage and as far as we know Pasar Atum has several tailors who make the custom covers.

First stop of the day is breakfast at Nasi Bali Cik Ing.  This is a home based eatery selling Balinese mixed rice with pork.  Personally I prefer the tuna version, but I've never come across that version in Surabaya.  So far all use pork.  But irregardless, it's still damn good food.

Yep that's the address alright!  Darmo Permai Selatan XVIII No. 2

Surabaya Trip - Part 1

So from 5 - 14 Feb we went back to Surabaya for Chinese New Year.  We don't usually go back this long for CNY but since Lincoln is already attending regular tuition classes for English & Chinese, I'd really hate to arrange for make-up classes at other times.  So I thought let's just spend more time in Surabaya and save on the air fares as well.  My wife suggested that we go to Batu as well which I thought is quite a great idea.  So we planned a 3 days and 2 nights visit to Batu this time.

We departed Singapore on a 7:50 a.m. flight early in the morning and arrived in Surabaya at 9:30 a.m. Unfortunately immigration and baggage clearance took about an hour so we only got out at about 10:30.  We were then greeted with the traffic which seems to get worse every year I come back, I'm still trying to digest that it took us nearly an hour to get home from the airport, twice the usual time it should be.  

I swear the traffic seems to be getting worse every year... - Taken with RX100M3