Surabaya, baby!

Surabaya doesn't see a lot of Westerners.

I know this, because I've been asked to pose for 8 selfies in the past 24 hours. Because security guards and traffic cops keep grinning and waving at me. Because old women doing their shopping in the wet market stop to stare and shout "Hello, Mister!" at me (not a Mister, but I appreciate the sentiment).

The town centre has good pavements (so you can walk confidently on many roads, without worrying about falling into an open drain, tripping over broken paving stones, or bumping into parked motorbikes). The streets are often lined with flowers and trees, and there are many attractive old buildings to admire.

Arab quarter

Old meets new (meets cancer-stick advert, ptooey!)

There's a 1950s Soviet sub to scramble through (remember to duck), an evocative Dutch cemetary now used for grazing goats, and a small museum dedicated to Dr Soetomo (one of the founding members of the Indonesian nationalist movement, that worked towards independence) - drop in. The friendly staff will be delighted to see you.

Dunno what bunny topiaries have to do with Soviet subs...

Mmmm, cozy.

When you're done with exploring and history, there are modern shopping malls filled with brand names and iced lattes avaiting you.

Spot the goat

Food-wise, there isn't a particular "eating district" but there are restaurants and food stalls scattered across the city, from tiny coffee carts to Pizza Huts (often next to each other). Local specialities include rawon (a curry made from a type of black nut, which has to be pretreated for days or weeks to make safe to eat), and rujak cingur (a dish of blanched and fresh vegetables, fruit, tofu, cold rice cakes and almost-tasteless chunks of gelatinous cow nose, doused in spicy peanut sauce).

A note to Westerners: they seem to like their chili here. When I ordered rujak cingur, they asked me how much chili I wanted in the sauce. I said just a little spicy. They responded: "Two chilies?" I countered one would be sufficient, which they told me meant "not spicy". The resulting dish was so spicy it made my eyes water. It was good, but I was very glad they'd only included the one chili.

The cow nose is at the back

For tourists, this is a small big city - you can comfortably explore it in one day. But it's a pleasant town, and worth breaking journeys across Java here.

But I'd eat around give the cow nose.