Ts Suites 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 ...

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!!!

... The result has been that school has had to be closed for 2 days and we have been re-housed in a hotel with all expenses paid (meals etc.) until the electricity is restored. The fridge contents have been listed ready for compensation and the service we have received in this difficult time for the apartment management has been amazing.)e/g/ a driver summoned to take us to the bank as taxis could not pull in to the lobby area because of the machinery/fire engines etc.......exciting eh?

... Trek: I walked 50km on this momentous day that began with an inspirational sunrise that bathed Mt. Khangchendzonga in orange. Zoe, Aoife, Ankit and I walked to the first monastery of many in Asia to see the monks begin their morning rituals and had a challenging hike through lush hills, waterfalls, streams and eventually taking us from Pelling to Yuksom. 2 ...

... noir mais les etoiles nous accompagnaient. Nous avons pris du vin chaud pour nous en remettre. Une nuit encore bien humide avec cette fois de la musique en back ground (Samedi soir oblige). 2ieme journee (4 janvier). Leve a 3.30 du matin les yeux pochees, pour un depart en jeep pour un autre point de vue du volcan. 1 heure pour se rendre dans des chemins sinueux accompagner d'oxyde de carbonne (quel changement du soufre). On a eu la nausee. Nous sommes finalement arrive a l ...

... and we chugged downstream for about half an hour (David in his element with the camera) to the prawn ponds. The family came too - Mum and daughter in full Muslim gear in the equatorial temperature. Here we spent a couple of hours looking at all sorts of paraphenalia (and taking more photos)enjoying the slightly cooler breeze and tranquility of the countryside. We then had to wait an hour for the tide (estuaral/river) so ...

... what to) just on my face,which laid me low for most of the day.....but I overcame my vanity (David had offered me a designer paper bag) and managed to join the gang for another super fish supper. We returned to Surabaya to torrential rain - and unfortunately took a taxi with an unbelievably stupid driver who seemed intent on speeding through every flood and driving far too fast and too close to the vehicle in front ...

... who have lost, or never had in the first place, the foresight to remember that every single indonesian in the travel industry geared toward tourists, is trying to rip you off. in our sleep deprived half sanity, we ended up not only overpaying for a bemo ride up to cemoro lawang, a one-horse town on the lip of the crater of the tengger massif, but also on a premature decision to book bus tickets to our next port of call in yogyakarta. at any rate, we made it to cemoro ...

... reading Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho, a story about love and choosing your own destiny. So far it's a good read and highly recommend it. "I stood for a long time by the roller coaster, and I noticed that most people get on it in search of excitement, but that once it starts, they are terrified and want the cars to stop. What do they expect? Having chosen adventure, shouldn't they be prepared to go the whole way? Or do they think that the intelligent thing ...

When we were looking in the Lonely Planet for where we might stay in Surabaya we noticed that they listed the Mandarin Oriental as being available from 72 US dollars per night. Tim got all husbandly and made the executive decision that, since I was finding Indonesia quite hard and since it was such a good deal, if we could really get it for that price we should stay there for one night. So we ...