INDO DIARIES 2010 - Wednesday 14th July - Hello Malang!!

The taxi journey passed quickly enough and we were more than ready to jump out at the hotel, exact cash in hand.

Quaint room

 The hotel, Enny's Guest House had reserved for us a very cute bamboo room on the second floor. The door was decorated with traditional batik and lead into a beautiful wooden room. The beds, the floor, the walls, even the decoration of the shower room were all bamboo. Outside was a cute little garden area with bamboo (of course) table and chairs waiting for us to enjoy.

Cheers! A well deserved drink!

 The garden was beautifully decorated with bansais and lovely greenery, all made to relax us. It worked! As we talked about our situations, venting at what had been, marvelling at the current turn of luck and guessing at the weeks to come. We still had a few weeks to go, with a flight out of Surabaya airport on 24th and then out of Bali on 30th.

We had indeed lucked out; our little courtyard was idyllic. It faced towards the back of the hotel and was shared with the room next door, although there was no one there, and even if there had been, there was enough space for privacy. the plants were impressive. One in particular always catches my eye in Indonesia, it is the spiky bush with pink and yellow flowers (I still don't know the name). And, another fat-rooted one, from Africa, we are told.

To bring us fully back to life once again, we need food, dinner, and, as delightful and healthy those meals were, we wanted anything but organic and anything but tembe.

We had heard a few good words about a Dutch place in town 'Oen' (pronounced 'un'). Apparently, the mix of Indo / Western food was perfect and their ice cream very popular indeed, so given our 'trauma and need for decent food, we set off in the direction of the city centre.

The street that led us there was a busy one with cars and mopeds rushing past our bodies as we tentatively trod on cracked paving and tree roots. We found a couple of hotels that we want to peek at as well. (We could only stay at Enny's the one night as they were fully booked; it was the weekend soon enough.)

Fendi's guest house was the first hotel we found. It was plush and very clean. The room we were shown had chairs outside where the breakfast was to be served, looking into a clean and beautiful courtyard. I noticed some bird cages too. We made a reservation there, promising to return after dinner to pay the deposit.

As we continued down Jalan Kawi, we found one more hotel where the rooms they showed us stepped out onto a delightful terrace. They had shown us the superior rooms, which were pretty lush, but were only available for the one night. We couldn't be fussed with moving night after night, so we would be at Enny's tonight and then Fendi's the next two.

We continued with our journey for a mere couple of footsteps. As Ian bounded out to cross the busy road, something caught on my foot. We had both stupidly worn flip flops out to walk the unfinished streets of Malang. It looked like something was caught on his show too as he was struggling to get across the road. I managed to  free myself from the thread or wire that had bee holding me back. Ian made it to the island in the middle of the road but was hobbling. The wire had ripped right through his flip flop. I giggled. He would have to (hip) hop back home. What a nightmare, but what on earth was this massive wire doing lying in our path? The streets of Indonesia are as mad as the wild forests.

We turned back. We could not really venture any further away. Even getting back would be hard. The staff at the hotel we had just been to rushed out to help us when they saw us coming. Luckily, we were still laughing and were not too fussed. They even offered to buy Ian some flip flips (from where? I certainly couldn't see a shop!) for 50, 000 IDR. When we mentioned Ian's big feet, they weren't too sure of success either, so we left it. Good job too for we found a supermarket not far from Enny's and bagged us some flip flops for 25,000IDR. You see, those dudes would have pocketed the difference and we would have been none the wiser (albeit 500yen versus 250yen).

We collected some fruit and snacks and also found a restaurant serving steak. We couldn't ask for much more.

Smothered in sauce

Heavenly

Accompanied by avocado shakes, (with chocolate sauce, the only way it should be served), prawn cocktail starter,the steaks, potato salad, and weren't amazing, but having not eaten since breakfast, I wolfed it down.

Back to the bamboo heaven for a solid and sound sleep!