Indo Trip Day 2: From Surabaya to Yogyakarta by train
On the second day of the trip, we were going to check out of the hotel and make our way from Surabaya to Jogja by train. But before that, all of us woke up bright and early, and Sandy took us on a short ten to fifteen minutes stroll around the area, to get to our breakfast stop. He brought us to this quaint little local eating house - also known as warung in Bahasa Indonesia, where all the food were served in open trays. Basically, you just point to the staff to tell them what you want on your plate, and then the total cost of everything will just be added up at the end of your meal.
Related: Surabaya Day 1 | Reasons to visit Surabaya
To be honest, there was quite an extensive amount of Indonesian food that you could choose from. Anyone who loves authentic local cuisines or are open to exploring their palette would be elated. But being the picky eater that I am, I grabbed the vegetarian dough fritters known as bakwan or jemput jemput, as most locals would call it. I know... I'm boring. Shadiq got so annoyed that I kept dumping my veges on him. Hahaha! But the food was amazing and the boys, on the other hand, had a whole variety of dishes piled up on their plates. We only paid about SGD2 per person for the meal.
After the hearty meal, we rushed back to the hotel to pack, check out and made our way to catch our train to Jogjakarta. We honestly thought that we were gonna be fine arriving a few minutes before departure, but in the end, we totally underestimated the weekday crowd. The whole train station was filled with locals trying to grab a seat on the train. Thankfully, Sandy managed to get us our tickets and had us all seated together. I don’t think we could’ve gotten our tickets without his help! Thank you Mas Sandy!
We faced with some kinda last minute stress when we realized that we were seated - but in a completely wrong carriage. Hahahaha. We panicked and ran out with our bags and had to ask for help, but somehow everyone that was working at the train station that day were cranky and didn’t feel like helping us. In the end, another passenger guided us to the right location and we had to literally run from one end of the train to another because it was about to move off. Hahaha that was a great memory.
It was a five hour journey and surprisingly, I didn’t even leave my seat throughout the entire ride. Thank god for my portable charger though, because I completely forgot to charge my gadgets the night before. The views on the train were also really beautiful, especially towards the end, when we were almost reaching Jogjakarta. I remembered how excited I got when I saw a hint of the mountain - I literally started jumping out of my seat and trying to snap a photo or video at the same time, I can’t remember. It might not be Russia’s scenic train ride but it was my first old school train ride where I’m old enough to appreciate the views, so this was really a cheap thrill for me.
Surabaya was really something else. The whole place was just chill, laid back, so if you expect super quick service or super advanced technology, you might want to think twice. But I liked it because most people mind their own business and almost everyone speaks Indonesian. I realized that only the military personnels / hotel and airport staff could speak English. Probably due to their exposure to tourists? But despite the language barrier, they are all really welcoming people! I’m definitely adding Surabaya to my list of places to visit in the future, and next time, I’ll make sure to spend more time experiencing this cultural city.
Five hours later, we reached Lempuyangan Station, Jogjakarta! I’ll leave that to another post for Jogjakarta! Til next time you guys ♥
