Surabaya,
Indonesia
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
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 rang them, expecting our hopes to be dashed, but no, that was the right price, and not only that but it included a buffet breakfast as an added bonus. So that was it, we booked ourselves in and turned up there yesterday afternoon, and it didn't disappoint. The hotel had that lovely air of calm efficiency that you only get in more expensive places and it had some lovely gardens, and a swimming pool. The room itself had a balcony, bathtub, air-con, fridge, TV and free fruit and it was all brilliant. We spent most of the time there just staying in the room making the most of it, with a bit of swimming to keep us active, and a quick trip out to the nearby mall for some dinner. The next morning we made the most of the buffet breakfast and enjoyed (amongst other things, but these were the highlights) excellent bircher muesli and amazing brown bread toasted with real, creamy butter (you have no idea how sublime good toast and butter can be when you've had very poor imitations for so long!). It was a self-indulgent and quite extravagant 24 hours but it felt great!
So I can't tell you anything about Surabaya I'm afraid, except that it has some shopping malls and some nice hotels. (R)
