Thursday March 26, 2026
Hi Folks! Today we were docked in Surabaya, Indonesia on the island of Java. Surabaya is the Capital City of East Java and the second largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta. There are approx 3 million people that live here (and probably 10 million motorcycles!).
Today we did a tour called “Surabaya’s Heritage”. We visited the Majapahit Hotel, a traditional village, as well as the Heroes Monument. It allowed us to see various aspects of Surabaya’s culture and history.
We started at the beautiful and classic Majapahit Hotel. The grounds are so well manicured and they served us this buffet of goodies! It was founded in 1910 as the Hotel Orange in reference to the Dutch Royal House of Orange. The Dutch East Indies Company controlled Java during that time. The most significant part of the hotel’s history took place at the end of World War II.
On September 19, 1945, the Dutch raised their red-white-blue flag on the top of the hotel. But the Indonesians considered that an insult since they proclaimed their independence on August 17, 1945. So some Indonesians lowered the Dutch flag and tore off the bottom blue strip which turned it into the red-white Indonesian flag. This led to the Battle of Surabaya and eventually their full independence.
After the hotel we visited a traditional village where approx 2,000 people lived. It was called Kampung Lawas Mespati. It was very interesting to walk thru the cramped quarters where they lived but also very sad to see their living conditions.
They not only put on a show for us of their traditional dances but also showed us how they hand grind coffee beans into roasted coffee. So of course I bought some to help out their local economy! And Kathy and several others all got free massages!
Our last stop was to walk across the street to the Heroes Monument area. It is the main symbol of the city, dedicated to the people who died during the Battle of Surabaya on November 10, 1945. It stands over 138 feet high and has depictions on walls all around it telling the story of the battle and how the Indonesian’s won their independence.
We then drove back to the pier and boarded the ship. We got an early afternoon snack onboard and chilled for the afternoon. The heat and humidity in these parts is high! I’ll do another update later tonight.
The Wandering Italian 