Saturday, July 16, 2016

Jawa Timur Trip - Missing Sunset, Missing Suramadu

Jembatan Suramadu (Bridge of Suramadu) is a bridge that connect Java Island and Madura Island. It got the name from the abbreviation of Surabaya and Madura. This cable-supported bridge has 5.4 km length and was the first sea-crossing bridge in Indonesia, operating since 2009. Since then, the bridge has become one of the tourist attractions in Surabaya and most Indonesians, behaving like Indonesians, like to alight from their cars or bikes in the middle of the bridge to take pictures even it is strictly prohibited.

We did not intend to do that of course. We only wanted to view the bridge and took some pictures with the bridge and the sunset as the background. As the old saying says, human can plan but God decides, we missed both Suramadu and the sunset.

We were already driving towards the north when the driver told us that some riots between football supporters were ongoing nearby and it would not be safe for us to approach Suramadu. We love our lives and we concerned about safety so we agreed to cancel the plan. He then brought us to a shopping mall nearby called Grand Palace Mall.

Grand Palace Mall

We were not so interested in shopping malls so we only spent less than an hour here. We called the driver to bring us to the next stop, which would be our dinner, Sate Klopo Ondomohen. It's basically chicken satay served with a twist. In the normal circumstances, chicken satay will be char grilled and dressed with peanut sauce, but here, the chicken satay is rolled in grated coconut before grilling. The result, terrible.

I am not so sure why the net praise this place so much. For me, the coconut shield the chicken to be grilled properly. The coconut is mostly burned and the chicken inside is dry and not juicy. There is no taste of marinate too. And the peanut sauce served with the satay is not as much as expected.

When we walked out of this place, we smelled like satay ourselves.

The not-so-obvious banner
The place where they grill outside and diners eat inside
Sate Klopo Ondomohen

We tried to console ourselves with ice cream and we went to Pondok Es Krim Zangrandi. This is somewhat like legendary ice cream depot in Surabaya. I had my hope quite high for this place.

Pondok Es Krim Zangrandi
The interior, quite cosy

We ordered various ice creams and cakes. The ice creams were generally too sweet for my taste and they melted easily. The cakes were not up to my expectation as the first layer and second layer of the cake did not suit each other, for every single one that we ordered. I was quite disappointed in the quality.

Our order
As long as we are together

We then got back to the hotel and packed our suitcases for the next day's travel back to the real world.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Next - Farewell Surabaya

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