INDONESIA - JAVA: SURABAYA, PART 3 (BEING SICK IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY)

 July 7 - July 10, 2023

Our plan was to spend one day and one night in Surabaya and fly out the next morning to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, where we planned to stay at the Tangkoko Nature Reserve for a few days before flying to Bali on July 10th. 

It didn't quite work out that way.

But first, some information about our hotel in Surabaya, the Hotel Majapahit, which played an interesting role in Surabaya's history. It was built by the Dutch colonizers in 1911, then expanded in 1926 and 1930. Charlie Chaplin and various European royalty attended the opening. As a side note, I have discovered that Chaplin traveled to Java, Bali, and Sri Lanka in 1932 and made an amateur film of his time there. He was well-known and hugely popular on the islands, and I'm sure it was a boost to his spirits during a difficult time in his career.

Anyway, the Hotel Majapahit has changed hands and names many times in the last 112 years. Today it is a five-star hotel and one of the best hotels in Surabaya.

Photo from Hotels.com

The hotel neighborhood is pretty swanky.

During the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (what Java was known as prior to and during World War II) from 1942 to 1945, the hotel was used as Japanese headquarters and renamed Hotel Yamato. After the Japanese surrendered, the hotel reverted to the Dutch, who raised their flag over the hotel. However, on September 19, 1945, a group of incensed young Indonesian revolutionaries who saw the flag-raising as a symbol of Dutch colonial control climbed the flag pole and ripped the bottom blue stripe off the Dutch flag, leaving just the red and white stripes, which happen to be Indonesia's flag. It's a story that belongs in Hollywood.