Ok, last day in Surabaya today. After our nightmare of a bus trip we were very glad of the luxury Ibis had to offer but alas we are not rich enough to stay in the ibis forever so Monday morning we moved off to sort out new digs and this was settled in the Orchid Guesthouse. We then headed into town. We first booked our train ticket for Jakarta, the station was very efficient and generally it all seemed easier then getting the bus tickets so hopefully the journey will follow in this vein. We then got on this type of rickshaw although we were at the front facing out and with the traffic in Surabaya being as it is, this was both scary and the most hilarious thing in the world. We got off near a Russian submarine called Pasopati which at some point had been brought into the Indonesian navy. We went round it, it was very strange. We then went into some of the Plazas, they were huge Im sure UK ones are not so big. We had a failry chilled out day as we were both suffering the effects of the bus journey.

The following day we made a visit to Surabaya Zoo. This was cool. Some of the turkeys had escaped from their enclosure. one of the monkeys escaped. When we got to the Komodo Dragons, there was people in their mowing the grass. I wa just thinking of all the forms that would have had to be filled out in the UK for that to be done and this brave guy had a man with a stick for protection. Their were orangutans but one the baby ones which was kept in the nursery was kept in heartbreaking place, Janec was nearly in tears. So was I. But my thinking has to be zoo 30 years ago in the UK. Elephants, tigers, lions, white tigers all kinds of birds and camels were all there as well.

Yesterday we walked from our hotel to go on the Surabaya Heritage Trail which was free. Its basically an English seaking bus-tour where you get off at a couple of sights. It was well done and as we got the early tour it was just me and Janec. Then we went round the House of Sampoerna which is the oldest kretek (cigarette) manufacturer. It was a well done museum and interesting in terms of social history and the only museum I think so far that was completely done for tourists from outside Idonesia in mind. Everything was in Indonesian and English and all the staff spoke English. We also saw the factory floor where the cigarettes are all still hand rolled. Heres some figures, they can roll one every 10 seconds with 3000 a day. It is so fast there hands were a blur. Janec thought that it was like watching people on fast forward which is a good way to describe it. It was amazing. All the rollers are women and one of the staff explained that this is because women make good multi- taskers so they can talk to their friends but still work. Im not kidding thats actually what he said. These cigarettes cannot be sold in the UK the tar cotent is 14g thats a huge amount, the nicotine is only at 1.0g.

Today we packed our bags again we are getting very good at this, very quick and we seem to be making more space. This is good as we have 15 kg weight restriction on our flight to Thailand. Now as Jane will know this was a concern in the UK as we appeared to be over. But in Jakrata when flying to Bali we watched the scales and both bags were well under. After investigation we discovered the scales had been being read wrong and now you've got to question how three people two of whom have graduated and one who is going to a very good university can get this so wrong, but it does mean we are OK for our flight.

Our train is this evening at 17.00 (GMT +7.00), so we are going to get some snacks have a big lunch.

We have uploaded pictures and attached them to previous blogs just in case anyone hadn't seen them yet.

Much love and here we come Jakarta.

Ruth and Janec

xxxxx