House of Sampoerna-Old town Heritage-Ampel Mosque-Kalimas Harbor
Surabaya Heritage Tour
At 09.00 our crew will be ready to pick up You at the hotel where You stay. Surabaya is the capital of East Java province and were he 2nd biggest town called Metropolis where over 6millions people leave, this city officially founded on1293 and well known also as heroes city related with revolution of Indonesian independent day. Since Dutch and Japan colonization youth of Surabaya (arek suroboyo) had a great combat to get our freedom, the peak was on November 10 1945 when they succeed to occupy Oranje Hotel (now Majapahit Hotel) which was the symbol of colonialism.
For first stop we invite you to visit House of Sampoerna, located in old Surabaya this building was built on 1862 for orphanage and managed by Dutch colonial and for sure with Dutch colonial architecture. On 1932 the building purchased by Liem Seeng Tee and used for first production facility for Sampoerna company. Till today they still use the building but in various functions the main auditorium they changed become a museum and lust on the east corner you can find a nice café, inside the museum you will presented by many kind of collection belong to the owner of the company like tobacco, cigarette paper, lighter, old machine for cigarette blending and many else almost all the collection related with cigarette but they package it in a good way and good sight.
When you up to the 2nd floor you can find a small shop for souvenir and right in front of you there are hundreds women produce one of the best cigarette product which we call it kretek (combination of tobacco, clove, cinnamon and many others herbs) and they produce it manually by hand support by small wooden tool. Finish visit H.O.S then drive passing old Surabaya part where You can found many building from the end of 19th century to see the track of colonial and today already changed become offices and some others are abandoned and While continuing drive to visit Ampel Mosque (masjid ampel), Ampel Mosque was built on 1421 by Raden Achmad Rahmatulloh (known as Sunan Ampel) in combinationof old beautiful Javanese architecture mixed with Islamic Arabian style. Today this mosque is one of the destination for religious tourism. Sunan Ampel was died on 1981 and it's buried just next to the mosque till the beginning of 20th century this mosque was the 2ng biggest mosque in Surabaya.
Then continuing drive to visit Kalimas (mas river), this river is part of Brantas River and bordering two regencies Sidoarjo and Gresik it's known the river used from 11th century for an old traditional harbor and along the colonial period this river functioned to distributing goods route for small ships in and out the Surabaya town. The rivers divided into 2 different sides West side and East side, the West side including Gresik road and Tanjung Perak area where today famous as part of huge harbor and Marine basecamp, the east side developed for trade and commercial activity when you passing this area You can find hundreds traditional wooden boats which transporting goods for logistic. And end the tour by drop off You back to the Hotel, bus/train station or Airport.