Malang

This is another old story from my other blog about one of my traveling. A week get away with my sisters in law and friends. What interest me most is Bromo. Never been there before. There was a plan made in 1988. But because of one accident in Bali, the plan was canceled. After that, my sisters already had a chance to visit Bromo. This story will be divided into 3 stories: Malang, Bromo and Surabaya.

04.11.2010
I have to met Nuy in Malang on Nov, 3rd 2010. But, because I have to take care some important stuff then I move my schedule one day. So my flight on Nov, 4th was at 6 a.m. The plane is delayed about 30 minutes but all the way was quite nice. The pilot even told us about the smoke produced by Mount Merapi (it was erupting few days before). The flight took about an hour. After I gathered my luggage, I have to find the transportation to go to Malang. Nuy had told me about the one she used the night before. After made a few phone call then the transportation was settle. 

A little bit about Juanda Airport. Once I look at it, I think it’s a nice and clean airport. When the plane landing, you can see lots of Egret bird (burung Kuntul). But the information board not really informative. It’s kinda hard to find some places. Even when I ask some officers, the answer not really clear. There’s a plenty of shops you can see and some restaurant and coffee shop too. But unfortunately the people who used this airport not really behave. You can’t find any spot that smoke’s free. Everybody just smoking everywhere. It’s really annoying for me.

Anyway, finally I was on my way to go to Malang. I used Silver Travel for my transportation to Malang and it cost Rp. 70.000. It takes about 2,5-3 hours to reach Malang from Juanda Airport. They take you to your address. 

In Malang, we stay at Hotel Helios. It’s a backpacker’s hotel and quite nice place. The location also quite good because if you walk a few block, you can find Hotel Tugu (it’s really an old hotel with it’s own story). It’s really near the central town. 

Because I arrived in Malang around 10 a.m., then Nuy & I decided to go walking to the central town. We went to see hotel Tugu, and then walk a little bit to Rumah Makan Inggil to had lunch there. It’s a restaurant and museum. You can find old, ethnic and antique stuffs in here. The atmosphere is like the old time Java. The food is OK but a little bit to sweet for my Padang tongue :). After ate we took lots of pictures in here.

Enough with Rumah Makan Inggil, we start to walked again to central town. Taking pictures along the way.  We take pictures of Cathedral, Toko Oen (we also had an ice cream here) and Immanuel church & mosque that stand side by side. We even go to the shopping center. From the shopping center, we went back to our hotel to rest a little bit. We enjoy rode a becak back to hotel. 

Around 7 p.m., Nuy & I decided to went back to Tugu to take some pictures of night light in Malang. And then we walked to train station. We actually try to find something to eat too. We thought about having bakwan malang. Such a famous food but we hadn’t seen it so far. Try to ask prof. Google and finally we found the address of Bakso Kota Cak Man. We ask people there, but they have no idea. What a big effort to find bakwan malang. Finally there was a person who know the place and he gave the direction to the becak’s driver and we can enjoyed Bakso Kota Cak Man at last :). We got information, there’s a bakwan malang & cwie mie stall near us but they closed at 6 p.m. And others famous place only open at noon. 

From Bakso Kota we went straight back to hotel and decided to took a rest. By the way, all trip with becak we pay around Rp. 10.000-15.000. Quite expensive but really enjoyable :).

05.11.2010
Our second day in Malang we planned to go to Bentoel Museum & Klenteng Eng Ang Kiong. We also want to try the cwie mie at stall near our hotel.

We took becak again to go to Bentoel Museum. Our becak’s driver is a nice old man named Pak Samsuri and we pay Rp. 20.000. Bentoel was a brand of cigarette in Indonesia. It was really famous. In Bentoel Museum you can see and read about the history of the company. From the scratch into famous one. You can also see some old equipment they used back then. I took a lot of pictures here. Not that I support the cigarette but because I appreciate the history. 

We had to sat for a while in Bentoel Museum because the big rain pouring. After the rain stop, Nuy & I walk to Klenteng Eng Ang Kiong. Klenteng is a temple for Chinese believed. Just like others Klenteng, this one also had red and yellow as main colour. It’s a nice klenteng. Good object for picture too.

From Klenteng Eng Ang Kiong we went to Bakso Patimura. It’s a bakwan malang & cwie mie stall. We eat cwie mie and also try bakso bakar (grilled meatball). The cwie mie is delicious...yummy... The bakso bakar is OK, not really special. After ate we go back to our hotel and take a nap.

When we woke up, it’s already around 8 p.m. Our stomach start to growling :). Because it’s already late, we didn’t think about looking for food that far-far away from hotel. We decided to try a small restaurant across our hotel. We ate rawon and I think it’s taste good. After that we just go straight back to hotel.

to be continued...

Notes:
In this trip, I also took pictures with my hipstamatic. You can see it in here.

Hotel Helios: Jl. Patimura No. 37, Malang.
Rumah Makan Inggil: Jl. Gajahmada No. 4, Malang.
Bakso Kota Cak Man: Jl. Panglima Sudirman, Malang. Depan SMP 5.
Museum Bentoel: Jl. Wiromargo No. 32, Jodipan, Kedung Kandang, Malang. Open: Monday to Friday from 8 a.m to 3 p.m.
Klenteng Eng Ang Kiong: Jl. RE Martadinata, Malang.