Travelogs II: Quick Trip South East Asia

A trip to Java and Bali Islands in Indonesia and KualaLumpur in Malaysia
So after a quick trip to Himachal Pradesh with friends, it was time to pack up bags for a tour to distant lands - Indonesia and Malaysia for a 9 day trip (14/4/2011 - 22/4/2011). Here are the highlights of our amazing trip!!!

Reaching There: With bags packed and all documents (visas, passports and air tickets) ready, we left from Mumbai CSIT for Surabaya (East Java) via KualaLumpur. The 10 hours travel time (including transit time at KL) left us a bit tired and drained but we had the entire trip to look forward to. We checked in at Family Guest House in Surabaya at around 1 AM local time.

Tiger spotting at Taman Safari 2
Day 1: Surabaya and Batu Sleeping well to compensate for the Jet Lag, we left the hotel at around 11 AM to visit around Surabaya and nearby areas. Our first destination was the House of Sompoerna in Surabaya. It is a cigarette production facility set up in 1932. The adjoining museum gives a good description of the history of tobacco industry in Indonesia and the Sompoerna brand. Having got a taste of the Indonesian history, we left for Taman Safari 2 which is one of the best places I have been to. A variety of animals have been housed in the park which can be seen at extremely close quarters. The park is quite huge and you could spend a day there watching all the animal shows that we missed. We left for Batu by evening where we visited the Batu Night Spectacular (BNS). Not a very good place to go except if you are extremely interested in shopping for clothes and toys. BNS also has a 4D Show and  Laser Show (at 8:30 pm every day) that can be seen if you have extra time. There are some very good hotels in Batu and accommodation can easily be found. We retired in one such hotel there.
What we missed: Batu also has a Secret Zoo and the Satwa Museum which should have been visited. Lack of time did us in! :(
Surabaya has a Marine Museum and shopping places that can be visited if time permits. (More places here)

Lava flows at Mount Bromo!!
Day 2: Malang (Mount Bromo) On the second day we left for Mount Bromo (Indonesia's most visited volcano) early in the morning. It is a 4 hour drive on hilly terrains from Batu and we reached there around 11 AM. The scenic beauty is overwhelming and there are quite a few things that can be done there. Trekking up to the Mount Bromo crater is surely one of them. Trekking can also be done to nearby lakes (details here). In fact an entire day at Mount Bromo would be insufficient to breath in the natural beauty of The Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. It is recommended that you stay in one of the nearby hotels and view the beautiful sunrise at 5:00 AM!!! However, heavy downpours restricted our adventure at Mt. Bromo (might restrict view at sunrise as well) and we were back in Surabaya by evening.
The taxi charged 12,00,000 Rupiahs (IDR) for the 2 day trip with a night overhaul at Batu.

Day 3: The Bali Island Having had enough of Surabaya we left for Denpasar which is the capital city of province Bali. We checked into Tune Hotels in Legian there which provides you with quite cheap accommodation.



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