May 11, 2026
Some days I just don't want to sight see! My birthday was one of them. I just wanted to indulge in a good movie in a comfy, cool theater, eat some popcorn and follow with a yummy lunch! That's exactly what I did, despite some of my friends trying to convince me go on a 5 hour van to see 2 gigantic temples.
Bosco & I relaxed and enjoyed the new Devil Wears Prada 2 movie at the Century XXI theater at the Paragon Mall. Then we indulged in a yummy sushi lunch with fellow shipmate David, who I just happened to run into and invited him to join us. We had a ton of food and drinks and the whole bill was still under 48 USD! The movie was only 2.58 each USD. Crazy !! When did we pay that in the USA!
The ancient temple of Soo Poo Kong was our next stop. We were all wilting in the heat by then, but they promised an air conditioned room for a 20 minute movie on the history - so we rallied! Basically, the Temple was erected as a thank you to the Chinese Muslim Admiral Cheng Ho who let the fleet stop here on their way somewhere else in Asia back in 1416 because his helmsman, Wang Jing Hong, was sick. Wang recovered from his illness in a cave on this site and built first the statue and then the temple to thank Ho for his life.
SEMERANG is the capital of Central Java , the world's 13th largest island and the 5th largest in Indonesia. Despite it's size, it is the world's most populous island, holding over 150 Million people (over 55% of Indonsesia's population). Today, I did a 50 person bus tour of some of the Semerang's history , so I could cover a lot in one day.
Today we are in the second largest city in all of Indonesia, Surabaya. The Port is huge and busy, as there are tons of freightors and ferries here. We had a warm welcome when we pulled in yesterday evening.