Garden Palace Hotel Surabaya

... lift we found colleagues and friends assembled with copious amounts of food and drink....and more presents!<br>It was a truly memorable evening and our thanks to everyone who came along to help us celebrate.................but especially to Viki for putting the whole thing together ....you're a star! (and to Luke for letting me stay till the end.......cheers mate!) Ex-pats rock!

... so I decided to wait til I get back to Jakarta to buy whatever I end up buying!!! There are alot of choices when it comes to wood sculptures . . . and typical indonesian souvenirs.<br><br>I did some more walking to visit more sites such as the Monumen Kapal Selam (Submarine Monument) which is actually a Russian made sub marine that was used by the Indonesian Navy. I found it to be quite interesting as I had never been in a submarine before. Just the ...

... chain and were saved by a local mechanic and rode a boat to a cascading stream of unbelievable turqoise blue. 11) Hongsa, Thassouang Province, Lao: Way of the Mahout, Day 2: Riding atop my 28-year old friend, an elephant by the name of Jan Ping, I steered my man through absurdly beautiful and lush forests of mountainous northern Lao, meeting villagers and ...

... J'etais un peu vexe de voir leur aisance. Un autre 8km a marcher pour le retour. Nous avons quand meme bien apprecier ses marches puisque nous avions une popularite sans conteste. Les jeunes voulaient des photos, des salutations etc. . . . On nous meme offert des choux, nos poches etaient trop petite on a refuse. Au souper, nous avons bien bavarder avec notre nouveau copain, tres interessant de comparer nos mondes et opinions. (un dentiste malais qui vit a Londre et qui est d ...

... us more tasks for the next 45 minutes. The tasks include making a walkway in the middle of the rubble pile that we just flattened. So, we are essentially, I felt that we were undoing the work that we just did. We didn't question just did what we were told. After 45 minutes, we all sat down for a box lunch. All the students did a great job and really pulled their weight. There wasn't one person there who wasn't working hard. I think there is ...

... didn't get the message after many muezzin prayer calls across the city. It was early afternoon by the time the mosque tour was over, so we departed for Ary's favorite restaurant. It was a large, noisy, family oriented franchised place, like an Indonesian Applebee's or Olive Garden. As far away as I might be from home, there are some trappings (such as the presence of this kind of restaurant) that just don't change. KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, they're all ...

... terrain. There was a clear path to the bottom however one simple mistake one could easily fall to your death. A tourist from France fell to her death before after she lost her footing while trying to take a photo. On my down I encounter workers hauling their treasure on their backs. I can hear them coming by the creaking sound of their bamboo baskets. I greet them and offered them smokes and cigarettes. I spent a few minutes chatting with them before taking their photo. I found ...

DIVING The reefs in Bali are pretty spectacular. Fishies everywhere! We also did three wreck dives at Tulamben for our Advanced Open Water class (covering our Deep Dive, Wreck Dive, and Night Dive). Tulamben has a sunken Liberty ship that is between 5m and 30m below the surface. The hull has grown lots of coral, which supports lots of fish. Much fun. No, we did not go inside - that's very dangerous. Divers' bubbles tend to knock grunge down off the ...

... in fact. On my first attempt I waited at the road side for around 5 minutes to no avail. I don't think "Stop For Pedestrians" was included in the Indonesian Highway Code. Watching some locals cross I learnt the technique: Wade into oncoming traffic and hope someone stops. I haven't quite worked out what the Zebra crossing are for. Perhaps it's so the hotel know where to find you if you don't return in the evening. A ...