Surabaya Heritage Track by House of Sampoerna

Visit on July 30th 2015.

If you probably in Surabaya and don't know what to do,try Surabaya Heritage Track. I've been to House of Sampoerna in 2013, but didn't get chance to try Surabaya Heritage Track (SHT). So i just went visit the museum, which is quite fun also :)

What's in SHT?

SHT is basically a very short tour hosted by House of Sampoerna, which is completely free for everyone. 

SHT has few schedules in a day. Every few hours the bus is departed to some different places depend on what was written on schedule. This short tours only last for one hour. In that one hour, SHT bus takes you to two or three places. Although this tour is short, SHT has its own guide person explaining this and that and everything. Surabaya has its fame for city of heroes, and has so many historical story in it. That's why on the way to some places the guide will story telling about many things, especially about old buildings around. And he explain bilingual, Bahasa Indonesia and followed with English translation. So, worry not!

For some reason and for some people, the guide's English might not so clear because of pronunciation, but you can ask if you missed anything.

You can visit houseofsampoerna.museum for more info for schedule and reservation.

This was sticked in the board. Since they could changed this anytime,
visit their website for latest schedule.

SHT Bus

SHT has its own bus that specially modified so it's more tourist friendly. It's red colored, very easy to recognized everywhere. The bus's window is widen so we can freely sight seeing. Though it's free, bus is very clean, comfy seat and with aircon. Staff will handed a tourist id before the tour started, and you will need to give that id back after the tour finished. Overall i personally think this is comfortable for a short tour.

Lovely boyfie in front of the bus

SHT id

One Hour Tour

So there is a theme in every scheduled places. My theme was Surabaya - The Trading City.

We visited 2 places, Hok Ang Kiong temple and Ex. Escompto Bank.

Hok Ang Kiong temple was the oldest temple that has ever built in Surabaya. This temple formerly use as a warehouse by Chinese businessman. As time goes by, Chinese population increased in Surabaya and they thought they would need a good place to pray. Then it became a temple. This temple is very small but this one is oldest one, so worth to visit.

Hok Ang Kiong temple

Second place was Museum Bank Mandiri, or ex. Escompto Bank. When you entered, this is a simple museum that explain banking in Indonesia at old times. I must say this wouldn't be interesting if we went there without guide. Because the guide man explain many things, like the hierarchy photo of Escompto Bank's leader which is actually always a Dutch person as the boss on top, also 200 JPY in a frame, which arrive at the bank
but no one has come to picked them up until this very day (kinda mysterious money), et cetera.

Old typing machine, one of the museum property

That was an interesting one hour :)

Tips

- You need to reserved your seat at least two or three days before your day of visiting. I suggest to never come without reserved, their seats is almost full everyday. The reason i didn't get a chance on 2013 is because i came without reserved anything.

- Come 30 minutes before the bus departed. You will need to take your tickets.

- Don't forget your camera

- There are two seats right beside the driver. If you like too freely sightseeing in front of you, when they opened the bus, go in first :)

Though SHT is not a new thing, hope this help anyone :)

Having fun taking photos around while waited for the bus to be open.
Oops army couple! :D
*not even a couple shirt, but yeah, same pattern, so i'll counted this as couple shirt. Lol