Night in Surabaya's China Town
Kya-kya is located in Kembang Jepun Street, the old Surabaya. Kembang Jepun is Surabaya's China Town and in the nothern part of Surabaya. During the day, Kembang Jepun is one of the busiest trading centres in the city. In the past, this area was very desolate at night...because it was a very quiet area, nobody would dare to walk in this area at night.
Since 2003, Kembang Jepun street was turned to outdoor eating place at night with all Chinese adornment, namely Chinese paper lanterns, Chinese lion statues that guard the entrance gate for good luck etc. In this place you can have local, chinese and western dishes. My two favourite food stalls here are Ahong Chinese food and Mie Kembang Jepun (Kembang Jepun noodle). Their food is good with reasonable prices. Sometimes, there are live music performances, like dangdut (it is Indonesia's music specialty), jazz, Chinese, Javanese or Arabian music etc.
Ahong's cook in action!!
My last visit to this place was two years ago. I have come to this place for many times. Everytime my friends came and visited me in Surabaya, I always took them to have dinner in Kya-kya. I like this place and it was a cozy place. The only problem is when the rainy season comes ... because it is an open space eating place, then as you can imagine, nobody want to have dinner under the rain right?!
Unfortunately, I got information from my friend that Kya-kya is not as lively as two years ago. Many stalls are closed and some paper lanterns are torn. It is pitiful. I think this place can be a great tourist attraction if it is managed well.
2 comments:
Kya-kya, i heard that it is not as good as it's used to be. ??
I also heard the same thing. It is pitiful, because I believed there were lots of money, time and effort had been spent to establish this place...
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