Malang, Java, Indonesia
From our Homestay up in the mountains at the foot of Mt Semeru we snaked our way back down to lower ground before swinging North towards the city of Malang. As usual what was supposed to be a short 2.5 hour ride took nearly twice as long because of the roads and traffic. I’m not sure if it’s due to the fact that we are bang in the middle of volcano country here but some of the roads had some seriously crazy warps and buckles to them. Like riding some kind of tarmac roller coaster at times trying to navigate the safest passage through the bizarre black wave like roads.
We hit the outskirts of Malang with still another hours riding until we would reach our Homestay. You could tell that Malang was going to be a big city due to the amount of chaotic traffic swarming about on the roads.
After a little confusion and some help from some friendly locals we were pointed in the right direction of our Homestay. Nestled among a small maze of tiny lanes away from the busy main roads of the city.
The homestay was nice. Clean, comfortable, the family that lived there were great with us. There was free tea and coffee to help ourselves to. You certainly couldn’t complain for £9 a night. It was a great little spot in the middle of a bustling Indonesian city.
Malang itself really took us by surprise. We weren’t too fussed on Jember, the other city we briefly stopped at. Although to be fair we didn’t see a lot of it. Malang however was a great place to spend a couple of nights. It seems to have a great mix of cultures in the city. For starters we were able to find a couple of liquor stores. So there’s an extra 10 points already! Got to love a Chinese or Indian community in a predominantly Muslin country, they are always a source of the old sauce.
The mix gave the city a nice relaxed feel and as with the rest of Java so far, the people were amazingly friendly towards us. Happy to see us, and wanting to talk with us. That’s always nice when you turn up somewhere new. It’s great to feel very welcomed in somebody else’s town or country. The people of Malang certainly made us feel relaxed, comfortable and more than welcome in their city. Malang is apparently known for having a feel of the “old” Indonesia. We certainly found that to be a heart warming experience.
We enjoyed a drink our first night there and then with one full day to check out the city we headed out to see what we could find.
Having quickly looked up what we could see we decided to go and check out the colouful rainbow villages of Jodipan.
The Rainbow villages comprise of 3 Kampungs along the Brantas river. These villages are among the oldest in Malang and at one point they were considered one of the most run down, poverty stricken areas in the whole of Indonesia.
In 2016 a group of public relations students undertook a project that would transform the fortunes of this run down area. In collaboration with a local paint company, artists and the help of Indonesian air force troops they painted the village a myriad of colours and installed various artworks throughout the winding narrow streets.
Since it’s transformation in 2016 the village has firmly planted itself on the tourist map within in Malang and is now one of the cities main attractions.
We surprisingly ended up spending several hours just at the village. It’s quite a remarkable place and it’s good to see the local community there doing so well from what started out as a student project. We really enjoyed wandering around the colourful maze of narrow steep alleys.
As we have experienced in other parts of Java, being a westerner is somewhat of an attraction in itself to the locals. We got stopped on a regular basis to pose for photos with some of the locals there. It’s quite nice really and not annoying as you would imagine it to be. It’s a great way to get chatting with the locals who are more than interested to find out more about you. This is one of the reasons why we really enjoyed our short stay in Malang. When locals make you feel this welcome it’s hard not to like a place.
We experienced the same thing later that night. We popped into another liquor store to grab a few drinks and sure enough we got chatting with one of the locals in there who by the looks of it was having a huge party given the amount of whisky she bought! (we were hoping for an invite but didn’t get one!) Again we were asked for a photo and happily obliged. We have now started to get a photo ourselves every time we are asked for one and I will pull a little album together once we leave Java.
Even the parking guys in Malang were immensely friendly towards us. Happy to see you and always a smile.
I need to tell you about these parking guys and also the road traffic guys in Java. (I had to work this into this entry somehow!) It’s nothing something I’ve read anywhere else so I’m confident this will be something new to you all.
So….whenever you park your motorbike up, pretty much anywhere in Java, there will be a parking guy that covers his own small little patch where your bike is. Maybe a 10 yard stretch of roadside. These parking attendants aren’t employed by anyone, these are pretty much self created jobs, and everyone recognizes it. When I park the bike up outside any shop in a town a guy with a green singlet on will appear. He will also be holding a home-made red flag if it’s during the day and red flashing illuminated stick if it’s after sunset and dark. These guys have a pile of torn up cardboard boxes and during the day when the sun is hot and your black seat can heat up to temperatures exceeding a McDonald’s coffee they will cover your seat for you with the cardboard until you return to keep it cool. They also look after your bike and make sure nobody pinches it or steals your helmet. It’s fine to leave your helmet on your wing mirror here. It’s not going anywhere, especially with Mr Improvised-car-park attendant watching over it for you.
You give these guys a small tip when you leave of 2,000 IDR, about 11p! It’s really small change and these guys (I say guys by the way as never saw a girl doing this) have created jobs for themselves out of nothing. Also when you come to leave, particularly on a night when it’s dark and busy and hard to pull out at times. These guys will jump out into the traffic waving their flashing illuminated sticks and stop the traffic so you can pull out safely. Absolutely brilliant.
Also at pretty much any crossing or junction you will see similar guys as well. Same green coloured vest top affair. Red flag during the day, red flashing stick on a night. These guys control the traffic at these junctions. Holding up one direction while waving another direction through. Need to make a U-turn? They will stop everything so you can do it.
It’s amazing to see and utterly brilliant. There seem to be very few, if any traffic laws in Indonesia and the people seem to police it themselves which I think is very cool. Everyone respects these guys and is accustomed to following their guidance. They say stop….you stop.
At first we wondered if these guys were paid by the government, traffic department or local council. Something like that. But the other day we saw a lady in a van make a U-turn after the guy stopped both lanes for her and she threw him a small tip out of the window.
I think it’s amazing to see people organizing their own traffic and keeping it (relatively) as safe as they can themselves. Also people creating their own jobs. Quite inspiring to see this kind of activity, and as I said before, it’s not something I have been aware of before. So there we go, a quick educational piece on Javanese traffic attendants!
So, back to our day in Malang……That night we headed out to a very popular noodle restaurant. It serves up a dish called devil noodles that your order depending on how hot you want them. Number 1 being the least spicy and 5 apparently being the killer hot ones. Sure enough I had to try a 5 and wow! It’s probably the hottest thing I think I’ve ever had. I have a pretty strong stomach when it comes to spicy food but this was on another level. It destroyed me for the rest of the night….and following morning!
We weren’t sure where to head the next morning. We knew that we were creeping towards Mt Bromo but felt that we wanted somewhere else to stay to break up the ride there.
After having a quick check we decided to head to Batu. A smaller town North West from Malang. We really enjoyed Malang. If your ever in Java we do recommend making the effort to get there. Great people, great food, just all round great place to experience really.
Batu was only a short ride, maybe an hour or so and we were hauling our bags back off the bike.
We decided on Batu as it has a them park there. I know what your thinking. “You go to Java, all of it’s wonderful natural beauty, amazing culture, and you went to a theme park?” Well, at times we like to experience this kind of thing in other countries. No different to going to the cinema in Bangkok. It’s nice to see how the locals enjoy themselves and to join in with them. It doesn’t always have to be temples, waterfalls and high-brow culture.
We waited until after sunset to go to the theme park as it’s called the Batu Night Spectacular.
It was a decent laugh but nothing as spectacular as the name suggests. It seemed to be aimed more at kids with a few adult only rides thrown in to keep the older folks happy. It was certainly popular with the locals though, with many a coach load of teenagers arriving on a regular basis. We enjoyed a few rides and then called it a night. Tomorrow we will make the journey to Mt Bromo, high up in the heart of the island. It should be a great adventure.
