Our Holiday in Malang, Indonesia

Taken from Google Map

We just came back from our holiday in Indonesia last week. We stayed with Oma and Opa in Malang, East Java, for one week.

We took a two hour flight from Singapore to Surabaya. Mamae’s sister Tia Sita joined us at the airport and then we took a car to Malang. The car trip took around two hours too.

Malang is not really popular with tourists, but it’s quite an attractive city. Tourists usually would go to Malang only for transit before going to the famous Mount Bromo, which is located around three hours by car from Malang. Next time you visit Mount Bromo, you might want to spend a few days in Malang…. Oh, while I’m at it, here is a beautiful photo of Mount Bromo, taken by Opa back in 1975.

Malang is indeed surrounded by mountains. This is Mount Penanggungan, that we saw somewhere between Surabaya and Malang.

In Malang, everywhere you look, you can see mountains. This is Mount Kawi, seen from somewhere in the city.

So, what did we do during the holiday?

We mainly relaxed at home. Carla and Renan enjoyed playing music (read: making random sounds) with Opa’s musical instruments.

We also celebrated Carla’s birthday in Malang.

Carla loved her Spongebob, Patrick and Squidward birthday cake!

We went to visit Alun-alun Tugu, a small park in front of the city hall. You can see the city hall in the background.

We also visited Candi Badut, a 1400 year-old Hindu temple, located right in the middle of the city.

We went to the malls, and the kids played in the indoor playgrounds. Indoor playgrounds in Indonesia are nicer, and much cheaper than in Singapore. Only 35,000 Rupiah or around SGD 3.50 per kid, per hour!

  

We visited an interesting museum called Museum Malang Tempo Doeloe. It’s a must-visit place in Malang! We learned a lot about the history of the city there.

  

We also went to Batu, a small town located on the hills, only half an hour drive from Malang. There, we visited Museum Angkut, the biggest transportation museum in South East Asia, Pasar Apung (floating market) and Museum D’Topeng Kingdom, an art heritage museum.

 

We are going to write more about those places, so stay tuned!