Hotel Majapahit Surabaya

As well as having our good friends Yasmin and Farook staying from Hong Kong, we also had 2 amazing surprises on our 40th (!)<br>After tennis and a swim, I was just emerging from the shower, when I heard David answering the door .... I just threw on a pareo thinking it was the house boys coming in to clean, and scurried past the hallway into the lounge, glancing at the front door ...

... checked quite a few cheaper options (130,000 to 200000) and just didn't feel I wanted to give up the "luxury" of my 450000 room!!!! Also the Surabaya Plaza Hotel has a 1/2 hour dance performance which I enjoyed.<br><br>Once again I did alot of walking in Surabayu and enjoyed discovering the old dilapitated dutch buildings as well as the few that have been renovated and one that has stood the test of time, never been renovated and still looks grandiose. I ...

... and several other friends then rang in the new year at the riverside bars in town with many many buckets. 15) Pai, Thailand: Motorbiking the Road to Pai: Sarah, Mary and I rode our Honda Dream 125cc motorbikes north from Chiang Mai on sinous, but beautifully paved roads, amongst gorgeous lush tropical mountain scenery to end up in the hippie enclave of Pai. En ...

... tres eleve puisque la montagne est a 1700m d'altitude (donc drap presque sortie de la laveuse) et reveil de la marmaille a 6.00 du matin. Les murs etaient en bamboo et on pouvait voir la lumiere a travers. Nous avons pu enfin vider la valise d'hivers parce-qu'il fesait froid le soir. Nous avons rencontre un Malais vraiment charmant. Nous avons passe 3-4 jours a voyager avec lui. Il a ete utile aussi, parce-qu'il parlait le bahasa indonesien. Nous avons marcher plusieurs km ...

... 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 ...

... for 60,000Rp, considering a Probolingo hotel would cost me at least 50,000 anyway. I did so, left my rucksack locked away in Toto's bedroom (with all the valuables removed), and hired said motorcycle taxi. Whizzing up a volcano late at night on the back of a motorcycle, staring at stars as clear as I've ever seen them, was probably as close to bliss as I'm going to get on this trip. No words could accurately convey what it felt like, I'll just have to keep the ...

... from me in front of me, they were nothing but black shadows. I had my bandana around my neck and I held it tightly to prevent the toxic fume from entering my lungs. I turned my back in a futile attempt to escape the oncoming flood of poison. Everything was quiet and I can hear myself thinking. I heard a small voice telling to me to hold my breath as long as possible and close my eyes until it dissipate. Seconds felt like eternity and I tasted the sulfur in my mouth. I opened ...

... 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 ...

... buses, one flat tire, one ferry, a shared beer, three hours of sleep, one jeep ride up the mountain, and about a one kilometre hike up the sandy mountain side at five in the morning. A lot of work, but well worth it, as the views were incredible, first of Bromo and the other smoking peaks, and then from the rim of a crater with a massive, greenish, steaming fissure in the middle. We travelled with a girl from England named Claire who's mother ...