On The Sea Again, I Just Can't Wait To Get On The Sea Again: ATW Day 48

We are back in Surabaya, Indonesia. Surabaya, a city of 3 million people, is a major port as evidenced by the number of cargo ships anchored off shore as we sailed in.

And the big guy guarding the port.

If you check out my post from a year ago, you'll see that we did not have a very good experience:

https://lindaandlarryontheroad.blogspot.com/2025/03/trowulan-torture.html.

Today it was hot. How hot?

So, rather than doing something like exploring the old town or Chinatown, we did the unthinkable - we went to the Tunjungan Plaza Mall! Yes, it was air conditioned! Since the shuttle bus was full, we grabbed a Grab to get there. Driving from the port to the city provided quite a contrast. The old parts of the city seem to us spoiled Americans as quite third world in nature.

And then you get to the more modern part of the city with a guy guarding it.

As for the mall, let's just say that it is huge. It's either the largest or second largest in Surabaya with well over 500 stores many of which seemed to be restaurants. Linda concluded that no one in Surabaya eats at home.

We actually did some shopping for a few provisions and I bought 2 locally made shirts for a total of $35. You have to love how inexpensive Indonesia is. After our good walk through most of the 6 buildings that made up the mall, we resisted the temptation of going to the rotating sushi restaurant and went back to the ship. The Grab ride back was interesting, no wait time and fast. The interesting part was that the driver was quite adamant in telling us that we could not fasten our seat belts! I have no idea why.

At the port, we stopped at the market and bought some Luwak coffee. If you don't know what that is I suggest you Google it.

Just to backtrack for a moment, the sail away from Bali provided yet another beautiful sunset with Venus making a grand appearance.

Tomorrow, as we sail to Singapore, there will be a special presentation giving us the details of the complete refurbishment of the Oceania Nautica. She's even being renamed - Oceania Aurelia. It should be very interesting.

And now for the latest news regarding the shower on our veranda. We knew that there had been a good rain storm while we were off of the ship and, sure enough, the work they had done had not fixed the problem. When we returned, we found that they had plugged up the hole.

GM Evan is not convinced that this will fix the problem. We are anxiously awaiting another storm to see.

And one last comment for today. The thing we love most about Oceania is the amazing crew that we know so well. In Bali, Nyoman, who we know well and who had been our waiter in the Jacques restaurant when we were on here in December, returned and we had a warm welcome.