After our exciting early morning adventure to Mt Bromo we were on the road again and another train to the city of Surabaya, Java's 2nd largest city. After 2.5 hour train journey we picked up a Bluebird Taxi (recommended as they have meters) and our strange taxi driver. The back seat pockets were filled with sweets, hand sanitiser and various other unrecognisable bits. "Help yourself" he said, "terima Kasih" we replied but decided against it. As he was driving, he insisted on showing us videos he had taken on his phone of some of his fares from various countries. After which, he then wanted to video us and Heather had to play act her delight and say a few words whilst waving to the phone - bizarre.

The main reason for our visit here was to stay at the Majapahit hotel that Heather had come across on her research and had low season special rates. Heather never able to resist a bargain and the history of the hotel had piqued our interest, so off we went……..

Hotel Majapahit is a majestic hotel located in the heart of Surabaya which has witnessed first-hand the changing history of Indonesia, from Dutch colonisation, through Japanese occupation right up to the declaration of independence on August 17, 1945 and beyond.

Despite it all, Hotel Majapahit still stands proudly with its authentic Dutch architecture to this day, and many tourists and locals visit the site to study Indonesia's rich national history. This fine 5-star hotel is like a public museum, with its black and white photos and antiques on display for guests to enjoy. In fact, the moment you step through the glass doors of the hotel, you feel as though you have travelled back in time, with the beautiful Dutch architecture featuring white pillars and walls, the landscaping featuring lush green bushes and palm trees, the trickling of the water fountains and the old 60s classical music playing softly in the background.

The Majapahit Hotel was built by Lucas Martin Sarkies, who had the idea to establish a majestic hotel for merchants and delegates from abroad who came to Surabaya for trading purposes. The Sarkies Brothers, one of whom was Lucas' father, were well known for building the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore and other luxurious hotels throughout Southeast Asia. The Majapahit Hotel was opened in 1910 with the name Hotel Oranje, which means Orange Hotel in Dutch. During World War Two, when Japan invaded Indonesia and ousted the Dutch, Surabaya was the country's capital. To make a point, the Japanese changed the hotel's name to Hotel Yamato, to symbolically show that the Dutch were no longer the rulers of Indonesia.

After the last remnants of the defeated Japanese imperial army had fled Indonesia at the end of the war, all Dutch prisoners who had been held in the hotel were released by the Indonesians. In September 1945, the Dutch enraged their hosts by raising the Dutch flag on top of the hotel, hence denying Indonesia's newly-declared independence. In an effort to settle the issue diplomatically, Surabaya's Vice President Soedirman, a prominent soldier of the republic and a politician, arrived at the hotel with a delegation to ask that the Dutch flag be removed from all buildings in Surabaya, including hotel. The Dutch leader Ploegman would not comply and drew a gun, and a struggle ensued. During the fight Ploegman was killed along with a member of the Indonesian delegation called Sidik. The Indonesians were further enraged after hearing this news and immediately attacked the Dutch military and internees in the hotel. In the end, the Indonesians defeated the Dutch and the Indonesian flag, made by tearing off the blue section of the Dutch flag that was previously flying, was raised on the roof of the hotel. Following this incident, known as "The Yamato Incident", the hotel was renamed Hotel Merdeka, in English, "Hotel Freedom".

We arrived at our historic destination and after a welcome drink and cold towels we were shown to our room. Unfortunately, the safe didn't work so we then moved to another room. That safe didn't work either so they said they would replace it with another one - this all took about 2 hours and we were not very happy. Dan spoke to the manager and got us a free upgrade.

The next morning, after a very nice breakfast, we took a taxi to the House of Sampoerna, the home of one of Indonesia's most famous kretek cigarette manufacturers. The building itself is a wonderful 19th-century Dutch structure, originally an orphanage but later converted into a theatre (Charlie Chaplin once dropped by).

The word "kretek" itself is an onomatopoetic term for the crackling sound of burning cloves. Partly due to favorable taxation compared to "white" cigarettes, kreteks are by far the most widely smoked form of cigarettes in Indonesia, where they are preferred by about 90% of smokers. And, you could certainly smell the cloves, it was overwhelming.

Upstairs there's a bird's-eye perspective of the factory's shop floor, where hundreds of women hand roll, trim and pack the Dji Sam Soe brand (banned from most countries as the tar content is so strong). The fastest rollers here churn out 4000 cigarettes a day, their fingers a blur of motion. Because air-conditioning can affect the tobacco (and fans would blow it around) it's a steamy, humid workplace. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos.

We then took their free 1-hour tour of the city where we visited a Chinese Temple and a small museum in an old bank - it housed items such as telex machines and old dial phones, which amused a lot of the younger people.

That afternoon we spent by the pool and in the evening had a treat of a couple of cocktails, a Christmas present courtesy of Al and Rachel and appropriately it was linked to the nice memories of Singapore Slings in Raffles 6 years before.