Where to Stay in Malang, Jawa Timur

What is Malang known for?

On a high plain among the volcanoes where the Brantas rises, it kept the leafy villas and boulevards of the Dutch, and it keeps that colonial quarter with its Tugu monument and clock square, the Ijen boulevard of old mansions, the Brawijaya army museum, and the ancient Badut temple on the edge of town. Green volcanoes ring the plain. Cool air hangs over the streets.

What are the main landmarks in Malang?

The Dutch colonial quarter is the emblem of Malang. The garden streets and Art Deco villas, gathered along the Ijen boulevard and the Tugu square, spread through the centre, the mark of the city, under the trees. An old temple stands nearby.

The ancient Badut temple keeps its Hindu shrine at the town's edge, while the Brawijaya museum, the great mosque, and the Carmelite cathedral mark the streets of Malang.

What is the history of Malang?

Malang began at the heart of an ancient Javanese kingdom. The old kingdom of Singhasari rose on this upland in the thirteenth century, leaving stone temples like Badut and Singosari among the fields, and a market grew where the trade of the highlands gathered. Kings ruled here first.

Long before the Dutch came, the plain around Malang carried temples, rice, and the shrines of a Hindu-Buddhist realm. Under Dutch rule it became a hill retreat. The cool climate drew planters and officials up from the coast, and in the last century the Dutch laid out garden suburbs, wide boulevards, and villas that made Malang a show town of the colony.

The plantations fed the city. Coffee, sugar, and apples came down from the slopes to its markets and mills, and after independence it grew into a city of schools and army barracks. The old villas still line the boulevards.

Malang keeps its temples and its garden streets below the volcanoes.

Where is Malang?

Malang lies on a high inland plateau in East Java, about ninety kilometres south of Surabaya. The city sits some five hundred metres up on the plain of the upper Brantas, ringed by great volcanoes, with Arjuno to the north and the cone of Semeru, the highest in Java, away to the east. Green ridges close the horizon.

The river winds down through the town.

What is the climate of Malang?

Malang has a mild upland climate cooler than the coast. Warm days and cool nights cross the plateau through the year, softened by its height, with a wet season from late in the year and drier, fresher months around midyear. Mountain air keeps the heat off.

Mist gathers on the volcanoes at dawn.

How do you get to Malang?

Malang lies inland in East Java, about two hours south of Surabaya by road or rail. Trains and buses climb to it from the coast up the Brantas valley, and a small airport lies just outside the city. Mountain roads run on to Bromo and Batu.

Surabaya lies to the north on the sea.