Surabaya

There’s no denying that Surabaya is big, noisy, polluted and intimidating. As Indonesia’s second-largest city and the house on the country’s navy, Surabaya is a colossal port peppered with cranes, corporate buildings and crowded spaces. Against the calm of rural East Java, it's pandemonium writ large.

But though Surabaya has all the trappings of a modern-day city, it too has its contrasts. Brightly daubed becak still cut blindly from the waves of Japanese saloon cars, and the claustrophobic streets in the city’s old town hum with the sights, sounds and smells of earlier times.

For most foreign visitors, the city is simply a location to change buses or trains for Bali. For locals, however, Surabaya is closely linked to the birth on the Indonesian nation, since it was right here that the battle for independence began. To them, Surabaya is Kota Pahlawan (City of Heroes), and statues commemorating independence are scattered all over the city.