Wonderful Malang

Tuesday, July 3, 2007--Surabaya

Although it took a lot of effort to find my hotel room last night, I like it. I'm so glad that I ended up here. It is a good location that is central to the entire city and has a street out front lined with lots of tent restaurants serving good food at inexpensive prices. The room itself is nice with lots of white tile--walls, floors, patio, etc. All the furniture and the doors, windows, and facings are all stained natural wood. It's very clean. The patio faces a nice garden with green plants and lots of cages filled with tropical birds. They leave breakfast out on the patio in the morning--a thermos of hot tea and a covered platter with a sweet bread. Then they come again in the late afternoon with another thermos of hot tea. The sweet bread this morning was a simple roll spread with marshmallow cream and chocolate sprinkles.

Because the room is so nice, I decided to stay another day and try to explore the city. There is an old section built by the Dutch. I walked there and found some wonderful buildings. There are many narrow streets lined with old Dutch stucco houses with lots of tilework. But I just couldn't keep going. I started to feel bad. As my cold symptoms have tended to disappear, my flu symptoms have flared up. I feel as if I have a fever, and I have aches and pains. I stopped at a shopping mall to eat, and couldn't decide on what to order. I felt so bad, I just didn't want to analyze the offerings. Instead, I went to A&W and got a burger, drink, and ice cream cone. Then I returned to my room. On the way, I was almost hit by a motorcycle. I was crossing at a crosswalk and it ran through it trying to get to the red light to be up front when it turned. Furtunately, he just bumped my side instead of hitting me head on. I bet he was relieved. It probably would be a disaster for someone to hit a foreign pedestrian in a crosswalk with a green light for walking.

I took an Advil and went to sleep exhausted and aching all over. Later, I had to push myself to get out of the room to have dinner. I ate Chinese noodles with celery, chicken, and spinach all stir-fried together at one of the nearby tent restaurants. Then I returned to the room and went to bed again.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007--Surabaya to Malang

I'm still not well. I took an Advil before heading out for the train station. I walked slowly. I continued to be uncomfortable all day with fever, chills, etc. There were two horrible kids with their father seated with me on the facing seats of the train. One was hyper active and kept climbing to the top of the back of the seat and then falling to the seat cushion next to me. The other one couldn't talk without yelling in a high pitch. The father never said a thing. I had to put up with that for over two hours!!!

I was exhausted by the time I got to my hotel and got checked in. At least there was a room for me at my first-choice place. I took another Advil and relaxed. But I was hungry, since my breakfast had just been tea and a sweet bread. So I walked down the street to find a place to eat. I had a local specialty--dark, thick beef soup served with rice. I ordered a juice that the man said was local Indonesian fruit. Well, it may have been acai, the drink that I like in Brazil. It had the same color and a very similar taste. Since it was juice and not frozen as I get it in Brazil, it was hard to tell if it is the same or different. I enjoyed it and drank two of them anyway.

Malang is a beautiful town. It is an old Dutch colonial city with lots of nice, impressive buildings of stucco with orange tile roofs. The streets are all lined with huge trees that have been growing for 200 years or more. It's a pleasant place to visit.

There is a place here that trains blind people to give massage, so I went there after lunch to get a massage. It was so nice to relax. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't had a slight fever and been sniffling so much. Still, it was a very good massage that lasted about 1 1/2 hours. Best of all, it cost less than $3 U.S., including tip! I'll be going back there every day I am here.

I really didn't want to go out in the evening. I was feeling too bad. I pulled some nuts from my suitcase and ate them as my dinner. I went to bed around 20:00 and slept for 11 hours.