Travels in Surabaya: Kenjeran Park

When looking for things to do in new places, I usually check google maps and see what looks interesting. When we were in Surabaya, a big pagoda near the water popped up. We were hoping that near the water would be cooler (as it has been so, so hot), and the reviews were good, so we ordered a taxi and were off. We went through a big gate that looked straight out of Disney World and the driver paid the entrance fee (which we thought was kind of odd) as all we wanted to do was visit the pagoda, but ok.

We were a bit confused when he stopped; and we could see the pagoda, but behind a 10-foot high stone wall. We asked, but his English wasn’t good; he just pointed to the pagoda and drove off. We stood, assessing our surroundings, first trying to determine if we could see where the wall ended, or a gate began but we didn’t see either. We were facing what looked to be an entrance for an area of the “theme park” but it did not seem to be a working park. We walked a bit inside, and bought some water from a woman with a small shop; this place had definitely seen better days. We asked the woman if we could visit the pagoda, and she told us it was closed.

We were confused as to what this place was; there were a few vendors selling the same things; snacks, drinks and such; but we saw no other visitors or people besides the few vendors. We went to leave, when a man pulled up in a three car kids train and got out. He asked if we wanted to see the park, and told us how much it would cost. He pulled out a worn, laminated map with some pictures of a couple temples, and since we were already there, we said, sure, and got in.

The place wasn’t deserted, as we did see some people but it still felt odd. The driver was enthusiastic, so we rode in the semi-rusted, gas-powered, sputtering, old mini-train car. We saw an odd horse statue and abandoned gate to nowhere along the way; as well as some larger structures that we never were taken to, but added to the park’s mystique.

After a 10-minute ride we arrived at the temple; we felt good seeing actual, new-ish cars there; and the driver got out and led us inside. We declined to have two men, dressed up in old, full body dog costumes (that were not the cleanest, either) take our picture in front of the temple entrance (very strange). We followed the driver around the main temple building, as there some men doing work on the entrance; to the waterfront. There we were greeted by the Kwam Im Goddess Statue, which was not at all what we were expecting (in a good way, as you can see).

Pretty amazing, right? Here are some closer pictures to get a sense of the size of it.

It was worth the trek so far, but this trip wasn’t near over yet. Which is funny, because I felt the driver asked for too much to take us around when we first started; at the end I realized it was a fair price.

Behind the statue, was the “water” of the Indian Ocean. This wasn’t normal water, however, it was mud. Thick, brown mud, as far as we could see. Once we started looking closer, we could see the mud-skippers of various sizes; some only an inch or two long, others near a foot.

Opposite the statue was the Sanggar Agung Taoist Temple, which was impressive in its own right. There were multiple shrines inside, and we saw a few other tourists taking pictures and making offerings as well.

We left the temple, again declining pictures with (or taken by) the two guys dressed up as dogs and went across the street to see the Four Brahma Statue, another quite impressive statue.

There was a smaller statue of Ganesha nearby too.

While the two statues above were very well taken care of, the rest of the area was a bit rundown, and white fences prevented us from seeing the other structures on the site. There were also these white plaster elephants that faced outward from the Four Brahma Statue; the lampposts were interesting.

Our driver had one last place for us to visit, the abandoned docks. On our way we passed a large group of school children eating lunch, and they waved, and we waved back; and at the dock, bought some more water from another small shop. There wasn’t much to the old stone and wood-slats dock; we did get to see many mudskippers and crabs playing. The old boats looked like they hadn’t seen action in a long while.

We had been at the park more than two hours, and after leaving the docks, the driver took us back to the entrance gate; it is hard to convey how bizarre it was being driven around, the only two passengers on this little kids mini-train, through this dilapidated but still semi-functioning theme park. It would end up being our favorite thing we did while in Surabaya.

Later we looked up the history of the park, and read some of the recent google reviews; it seems that some of the area it is open as a water-park, I guess. Possibly the parts we didn’t see? We didn’t believe the reviews we read after having such a strange experience. We believed only what we saw about Kenjeran Park, and that was enough for us.

More adventures in Surabaya to come!