Hotel Majapahit Surabaya

Today is my last day in Surabaya, I have purchased my train ticket to Semarang. Prices are still up and I had to pay for the full fare to Jakarta. The ticket for executive class from Surabaya to Jakarta is 440,000. I am told that the prices will be going down on October 4th!!!

... political sites. I am told that it is the only "tour bus" in Java and I must say that I really enjoyed the tour. The guide explained in both english an Indonesian (we were two foreigners) which was also appreciated.

After the visit of the House of Sampoerna I continued to visit the Old Quarter by walking to the famous "red bridge" where many "freedom fighters" lost their lives. This is just at the entrance of the Chinese quarter ...

... Mary and I lying in the sand of Sairee Beach looking at poi performers. 17) Koh Bon, Similan Islands, Thailand: Manta Ray Day: Mary and I spent our "honeymoon" aboard a liveaboard boat in the spectacular Similan Islands. Our second to last day aboard we visited Koh Bon and witnessed five of six massive 5m wide manta rays swimming all around us. After a ...

... a la gorge. Donc on a jouer les John Wayne, sortant nos foulards pour se proteger le visage. Rejean a eu la merveilleuse idee de faire le tour du mont. Je voyais que c'etait haut et escarpe. Je n'etais pas tres chaude a l'idee mais bon, on se tient et soutient, donc nous y allons. . . . Un sentier, enfin, c'est ce qu'il appelle un sentier, en realite c'est un passage de 1 metre de large au debut. De chaque cote il y a le vide. Un trou pour le volcan (qui boucanne) et un ...

The holidays in Surabaya were a whirlwind celebration. The school held a Christmas potluck dinner on Saturday. I went to the holiday concert on Monday. We had secret Santa exchanges all week. There was caroling before school on Thursday and Friday. Christmas Party: The school parties are a nice way to get to talk to teachers that I never see. The elementary staff is downstairs and on a whole different schedule. The party is a ...

... chilli sauce you can imagine....and then (because we are western I guess) a fork and spoon...lots of diners just use their fingers and it looked much more tasty! Now we know why they are such a skinny race.....we were still hungry at the end...but they insisted they were full and wouldn't come to the doughnut stall afterwards. Our language acquisition is very slow - only managed a few more items of "restaurant" vocabulary and another 2 prepositions! But it was ...

... eyes but felt a burning sensation. The poison had entered my lungs. I coughed and tried to breathe through my nose but tasted the sulfur in my throat. I was gasping for air and spit into my bandana hoping the moisture would somehow helped. I forced myself to hold it just a little bit longer. "This will pass," the small voice told me. I wanted to throw up and felt like fainting. Meanwhile, I didn't stop pressing the shutter on my camera. Suddenly a hand grabbed my arm and ...

... traffic is far enough away, it is perfectly reasonable to use the oncoming lane to pass others. Even in cities. If the oncoming traffic is a ways away and you need to turn across the oncoming lane, get into the oncoming lane as soon as you practically can. Do NOT drive right up to the turn, then stop dead while oncoming traffic (which has caught up while you were slowing down) clears out. When the difference in speed between you and everyone ...

... me how to play one of their games. It was a lot like "*******", except with more rules, more of which kept appearing every time that I seemed to be winning. Odd. We actually played for quite a while considering only one of them spoke any English at all, and my Indonesian has gotten just good enough to be useless and confusing. It's always good for a chuckle, though. OK, back to the beginning. Our trip from Lovina, Bali to Mt. Bromo included ...