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Stefanie's Travel Journal
Today I traveled from Singapore to Sanur, Indonesia (on Bali). Along the way I had a 4+ hour layover in Surabaya, Indonesia (on Java). I've uploaded a photo album with some pictures from Surabaya. Below are a short and long version of my thoughts on Surabaya.
SHORT VERSION
The short version of the journal is that 4 hours was plenty of time for me there and I was really happy to leave Surabaya. The Sampoerna museum was very interesting and it was nice to see another Indonesian city that is very different from the touristy Bali but I can't say I'd recommend Surabaya to anyone. I did learn a lot about Indonesia by seeing the primarily Muslim Surabaya and comparing that to the Balinese Hindu Bali. It was interesting to see what was similar across Indonesia (driving habits, street vendors, language, and government) and what was different (religion, attitudes towards foreigners, tourism industry).
LONG VERSION (really long!)
Saturday I traveled from Singapore to Bali. I had a 4+ hour layover in Surabaya which I admit I had never heard of before my travel agent sent me my itinerary. So I did a little reading and discovered that Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia (after Jakarta) and is located on the island of Java (as is Jakarta). Surabaya was the capital of Indonesia and a major port city for the country in the past and was the site of the beginning of the Indonesian war for independence. Given this information I imagined a modern, slightly westernized but still authentically Indonesian city. The flight on Garuda Indonesian airlines (like any other I've ever been on anywhere else) reinforced this image and I imagined we were arriving in an international hub for the airline. So I was shocked when I arrived in Janung airport.
The airport was very 'low tech' and I quickly realized I had reached the part of my trip where you carry your own toilet paper. My hopes of withdrawing cash from an ATM were quickly dashed (although I did later find several in the domestic terminal). So I changed some currency with the expensive money changers, fought my way through customs, and somehow managed to hire a taxi despite my pathetic lack of language skills.
Surabaya was hot and humid. Although less humid than Singapore, the dust and dirt and lack of air conditioning make it seem more uncomfortable and the ride was nearly 45 minutes long each way. I had chosen to go to the House of Sampoerna which was a museum and café since I thought that would be a good way to pass some time. I didn't realize the drive would be so long but that was good because I got to see a large majority of this very large city along the way.
Surabaya appears to exist in layers. At the foundation is an old city that seems like an old factory town that was deserted. Many buildings are boarded up, graffiti-ridden, have peeling paint, and generally look neglected. The sidewalks all have weeds growing through them, the curbs are crumbling, and the gutters are filled with garbage and dirt. Then on top of that layer, two seemingly incongruous layers exist. At the street level are thousands of hard working poor individuals and families selling food, pedi-cab rides, or miscellaneous items from shacks, carts, and lean-tos. These are everywhere, lining every street from the outskirts of town, in front of banks and hotels, to the road leading to the cigarette factory. It seems impossible that so many people could make a living this way but I understand its common practice for people to buy meals or necessities from these stands on the way to work. It seems odd that all of these little vendors work from these dilapidated shacks propped up in front of these closed buildings. And then on top of all this, the government is obviously trying to revitalize Surabaya because there are a few modern, glass, high rises and large billboards advertising hair gel, water parks, and condos that all seem ridiculously out of place looming over shacks selling fruit with clothes lines next to them and kids playing soccer in the dirt along the railroad tracks. It made me think, "Who are these billboards marketing to?". But then there seems to be a fourth layer of Surabaya, the middle class. There is a large cigarette factory, major hotel chains, banks, gas stations and even cab companies who seem to pay livable wages. The streets were filled with motorbikes carrying individuals and families with packages and kids. So I think Surabaya is a busy working city with a range of classes. It does not seem to offer a lot to a tourist (paltry few historical or cultural sites and the geography is flat and uninspiring) but it seems to be a typical Muslim Indonesian city with lots of street vendors and harried traffic. I found it a little unnerving (probably because I didn't speak the language and was wearing shorts which was a poor choice for visiting a Muslim country), inconvenient (due to the lack of conveniences like reliable monitors at the airport, clean bathrooms, or air conditioning), and unsafe (not sure if this was true or just a biased American feeling based on not being used to the dirty streets and unkept infrastructure). I felt safe with my taxi driver waiting for me everywhere and the armed guards at the museum and airport but I was very anxious to leave Surabaya and felt a huge sense of relief when the airplane wheels lifted off the ground. I was very glad to have seen this side of Indonesia as I think it was a more realistic look at life in this country than I will get in Bali but I was happy to leave also. (Stop worrying now Dad. I was very careful here and everything worked out fine. And I learned some good lessons, like wearing pants, that will make me even safer and less conspicuous, if I go somewhere similar again. I was very careful and am safely tucked away in my Hyatt hotel in Bali now)
The one interesting part of my visit to Surabaya was the tour of the Sampoerna museum/factory. Sampoerna is one of the oldest and fastest growing cigarette manufacturers in Indonesia. They specialize in kretek cigarettes which are made from tobacco and cloves (so they smell great! =) ). The museum talked about how the founder started selling items in a stall like the hundreds I saw outside at age 11 and eventually founded the company. It explained the manufacturing process (by hand!) and talked about the brands and the marketing. It explained how the company had diversified into printing and packaging also and how the company interacted with the community, its workers, the environment, the board of directors, etc. The museum was a fascinating look into the industry in another country where workers work six days a week hand rolling and packaging cigarettes but the company directly employs over 25,000 workers and indirectly probably supports four times that with the farmers, the food vendors selling to the employees, etc. Then upstairs you could watch the production up close. That was fascinating. And to think we think coding and testing gets repetitive - try rolling 500 cigarettes an hour, 6 days a week. Or hand gluing labels on packages - I have never seen anyone's hands move as fast as that woman's. I don't recommend a trip to Surabaya but if you happen to be there, I do recommend the House of Sampoerna - very interesting.
My flight to Bali was very short (oh! And I somehow ended up in Business class which was nice) and then after a quick cab ride I arrived at the Bali Hyatt. Although it was already dark when we landed (only 7:20pm) I could tell the resort is beautiful and the staff are very gracious. I was exhausted however and just wanted to head to my room to unpack and sleep so I did not look around at all that first night. The distance from Singapore to Sanur, Bali, Indonesia is not far but the trip had been quite long. I am looking forward to 5 relaxing days in Bali!
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