Summer holidays!
Be warned, this is one long post. I typed this up while I was without internet the last few days...
Live Journal - Post-dated entries
4 November
We arrived spectacularly early on Wednesday morning just before 6am. There was no sunrise to be seen this time (unlike the last trip we took). A friend kindly picked us up, and then, best of all, she took us to breakfast. :D Aaaaah, how pleasant that was, since hunger pangs were setting in.
By the time we got back to my grandmother’s place, I had already lost track of time, but as I was still wide awake, I ended up repacking my bag for the next leg of our journey, to Surabaya.
I tried to sleep, I really did, but I don’t think I got anything more than a cat nap. Luckily harlzen managed to get a few hours’ rest. By 11am we were ready to go again, so we headed into City Hall and did all the necessary financial transactions to make sure we would not be broke this holiday. For the rest of the afternoon, we meandered up towards Clarke Quay and then back to Bras Basah. We were both pretty tired though I think adrenaline really kept us going for much of it. We eventually met up with the friend who picked us up this morning and this is where it starts getting ‘interesting’.
My friend works in a building called The Golden Mile Complex, and no doubt, when it was named many years ago, it was hoped that it would live up to its name. Today, it’s better known as ‘Little Thailand’ for the simple reason that many Thai domestic helpers and labourers flock there, particularly over the weekend. As such, many of the shops there cater to Thai tastes. There are a plethora of dark one-room karaoke bars, many beer-halls, shops selling Thai food products (the supermarket smelled strongly of dry shrimps) and I have absolutely no doubt, Thai prostitutes.
Since my friend was still busy in her office upstairs, we waited downstairs for her and harlzen decided it was time for a beer. His first beer in Singapore and I am sure it will prove to be something he will remember for some time. We tried to find a place to have a drink at but it became clear to us that many of these drinking establishments were populated by tables with one or two older men surrounded by 2 or more women for each man. Uhuh, it was kind of obvious that they weren’t there just for the beer and food. We eventually found a place to sit but did not notice that on either side of us, there were two other mixed couples - one older gwai loh and a young nubile miss. It made me a little self conscious… ehehe… ^^;; Did people think that harlzen and I fell into that category? I also think harlzen also got gypped on the beer he bought… he paid nearly $10 for a bottle of Heineken that normally costs $6 in the kopitiam!
When we later went for a walk around the floors, I am sure harlzen got checked out to see if he was a gwai loh on the look out for some action. At least in one place, some guy (a pimp, perhaps?) sort of got up from chatting with a couple of young women and circled him. Maybe because I was following closely behind that he didn’t approach us. >.>
Eventually we all met up (together with chibi-porn, baka neko and my cuz) and had dinner in AMK Hub.
I always knew being white was some sort of premium in some Asian countries and this was proved even more conclusively on our first day in Surabaya.
We arrived at Juanda International Airport on Thursday afternoon and were picked up by my brother’s in-laws. Our first impressions of Surabaya? Let’s just say I would never drive here. I am certain there are places worse than here (people just don’t follow road rules here!) but yes, nope, never. There was lots of greenery though and Surabaya is not as filled with high rises as I thought it would be. Because there is a lot more land (than Singapore), the urban sprawl spread outwards rather than upwards. I think this is the first time I’ve seen anything akin to a slum or ghetto. Certainly, some parts we passed through looked as if a strong wind could collapse the home.
The hotel we are staying at is quite different though. As we approached a more built up area, we started seeing shopping malls dot the landscape and more traffic. We arrived at Java Paragon Hotel and Residences after making a detour to the in-laws’ home, where they kindly fed us traditional Indonesian Tauhu Goreng. This is quite different from any that I’ve had before and the peanut sauce set it off beautifully.
We eventually got to the hotel by around 5pm (I think, since I hadn’t reset my watch by then).
First sign of foreboding:
Our room number was 911. Hmmm….
The room was simply appointed but quite comfortable. I mean, it’s airconditioned! What more could I ask for? Well….
Second sign of foreboding:
We tried to leave our room to go for a wander around the premises. Our door would not lock behind us! In fact, our key cards had become useless. I headed up to M’s room to get some help (specifically, language help). She came down and made a phone call to reception to request someone to come take a look. So we waited…
Third sign of foreboding:
… half an hour later, no one had yet come. So we decided to use our secret weapon. The White Man now had to place the call and… voila! Help arrived in 5 minutes! I mean, I didn’t quite believe it when I was first told that the Caucasian foreigner was held in high esteem here, but this kind of boggled my mind.
It turns out it was the battery that was dead, so that was efficiently changed. Finally, we thought we could go out. We shut the door behind us and…
Fourth sign of foreboding:
… couldn’t open it with our key cards. Oh s**t. After several failed attempts, we decided to go downstairs to reset our key cards in case changing batteries had some home changed the cards’ effectiveness as well.
Fifth sign of foreboding:
Two tries later to reset the card (which involved long waits for the lift - only 2 lifts servicing 21 floors - there must have been something wrong with the hotel’s design) and still no luck. Staff at reception kept resetting it and fortunately the duty manager, whom we spoke to the first time to reset the card, came out the 3rd time we were downstairs and it was agreed that we would (finally) change rooms). He came upstairs with us with his spiffy electronic lock breakers and…. failed to open our door. So the old fashioned method (the MASTER key) came into play and we were finally able to get in, gather up our belongings and head to our new room.
New room = room number 1911. Er, okaaaaay…
At least this room locks. The phone is a little odd and I can’t ring out to other rooms, but I can still get reception to connect me. Other people tell me that they had a broken light in their bathroom, or some other minor thing is wrong. After the door fiasco, I’m learning that not everything works perfectly around here.
The day wasn’t over yet though. We all met in the lounge at 7pm (this being my brother’s wedding entourage, ourselves, and two sets of parents) for a tailor to come do a fitting for a couple of members of the entourage. The plan was to head out for teochew porridge dinner after that. By 9.30, the tailor had NOT arrived and we were hungry and cantankerous by that point. Harlzen and I excused ourselves and ordered room service, but fortunately neither of us were too hungry.
Room service is cheap though and both got a good night’s sleep.
Day 2 in Surabaya
The plan today was to go shopping but it’s incredibly hard to co-ordinate such a large group of people, especially those who like to go wandering (thanks, Dad, you shaved a few years of my life when we lost you in the maze of shops.).
We went to ITC, where we had lunch first in the food court. There were so many little stalls that it was difficult to make a decision about what to eat! Trust my parents to over order though. Hahaha! We ended up with satay that my dad ordered in very broken Indonesian. Except no one could figure out what kind of meat it was. In the end, it was not meat at all! It was vegetarian!
Shopping was fairly productive and I bought a couple of bags and a purse. We got back to the hotel by about 3.45pm and had a bit of a rest before being picked up again around 6pm for dinner. It was meant to be 5.30pm but the power had gone out in the street where M’s house was and where we were attending a pre-wedding dinner gathering. There was no power, so you can imagine how stressed the hosts must have been. I feel, for them, I really do. My short experience in this country so far is that its people beats to the sound of its own drum. They do things at their own pace and they are not averse to waiting around. There’s a sense of leisureliness about the place, despite the randomness and hurriedness of the traffic (but given that, they only drive around 40kms per hour in the city areas).
Dinner was good though. We were introduced to so many new faces but with our limited Indonesian and their limited English, there was only so much we could talk about. However, everyone was really friendly. After the bulk of the guests had left (it was very much an eat-run experience), my brother and his friends set off some fireworks - a loud startling process. It was quite fun to watch though but I think he got told to stop when he tried to set off the type that launched to the sky (he’s meant to do it from the rooftop of the house rather than on the street).
Live Journal - Post-dated entries
4 November
We arrived spectacularly early on Wednesday morning just before 6am. There was no sunrise to be seen this time (unlike the last trip we took). A friend kindly picked us up, and then, best of all, she took us to breakfast. :D Aaaaah, how pleasant that was, since hunger pangs were setting in.
By the time we got back to my grandmother’s place, I had already lost track of time, but as I was still wide awake, I ended up repacking my bag for the next leg of our journey, to Surabaya.
I tried to sleep, I really did, but I don’t think I got anything more than a cat nap. Luckily harlzen managed to get a few hours’ rest. By 11am we were ready to go again, so we headed into City Hall and did all the necessary financial transactions to make sure we would not be broke this holiday. For the rest of the afternoon, we meandered up towards Clarke Quay and then back to Bras Basah. We were both pretty tired though I think adrenaline really kept us going for much of it. We eventually met up with the friend who picked us up this morning and this is where it starts getting ‘interesting’.
My friend works in a building called The Golden Mile Complex, and no doubt, when it was named many years ago, it was hoped that it would live up to its name. Today, it’s better known as ‘Little Thailand’ for the simple reason that many Thai domestic helpers and labourers flock there, particularly over the weekend. As such, many of the shops there cater to Thai tastes. There are a plethora of dark one-room karaoke bars, many beer-halls, shops selling Thai food products (the supermarket smelled strongly of dry shrimps) and I have absolutely no doubt, Thai prostitutes.
Since my friend was still busy in her office upstairs, we waited downstairs for her and harlzen decided it was time for a beer. His first beer in Singapore and I am sure it will prove to be something he will remember for some time. We tried to find a place to have a drink at but it became clear to us that many of these drinking establishments were populated by tables with one or two older men surrounded by 2 or more women for each man. Uhuh, it was kind of obvious that they weren’t there just for the beer and food. We eventually found a place to sit but did not notice that on either side of us, there were two other mixed couples - one older gwai loh and a young nubile miss. It made me a little self conscious… ehehe… ^^;; Did people think that harlzen and I fell into that category? I also think harlzen also got gypped on the beer he bought… he paid nearly $10 for a bottle of Heineken that normally costs $6 in the kopitiam!
When we later went for a walk around the floors, I am sure harlzen got checked out to see if he was a gwai loh on the look out for some action. At least in one place, some guy (a pimp, perhaps?) sort of got up from chatting with a couple of young women and circled him. Maybe because I was following closely behind that he didn’t approach us. >.>
Eventually we all met up (together with chibi-porn, baka neko and my cuz) and had dinner in AMK Hub.
I always knew being white was some sort of premium in some Asian countries and this was proved even more conclusively on our first day in Surabaya.
We arrived at Juanda International Airport on Thursday afternoon and were picked up by my brother’s in-laws. Our first impressions of Surabaya? Let’s just say I would never drive here. I am certain there are places worse than here (people just don’t follow road rules here!) but yes, nope, never. There was lots of greenery though and Surabaya is not as filled with high rises as I thought it would be. Because there is a lot more land (than Singapore), the urban sprawl spread outwards rather than upwards. I think this is the first time I’ve seen anything akin to a slum or ghetto. Certainly, some parts we passed through looked as if a strong wind could collapse the home.
The hotel we are staying at is quite different though. As we approached a more built up area, we started seeing shopping malls dot the landscape and more traffic. We arrived at Java Paragon Hotel and Residences after making a detour to the in-laws’ home, where they kindly fed us traditional Indonesian Tauhu Goreng. This is quite different from any that I’ve had before and the peanut sauce set it off beautifully.
We eventually got to the hotel by around 5pm (I think, since I hadn’t reset my watch by then).
First sign of foreboding:
Our room number was 911. Hmmm….
The room was simply appointed but quite comfortable. I mean, it’s airconditioned! What more could I ask for? Well….
Second sign of foreboding:
We tried to leave our room to go for a wander around the premises. Our door would not lock behind us! In fact, our key cards had become useless. I headed up to M’s room to get some help (specifically, language help). She came down and made a phone call to reception to request someone to come take a look. So we waited…
Third sign of foreboding:
… half an hour later, no one had yet come. So we decided to use our secret weapon. The White Man now had to place the call and… voila! Help arrived in 5 minutes! I mean, I didn’t quite believe it when I was first told that the Caucasian foreigner was held in high esteem here, but this kind of boggled my mind.
It turns out it was the battery that was dead, so that was efficiently changed. Finally, we thought we could go out. We shut the door behind us and…
Fourth sign of foreboding:
… couldn’t open it with our key cards. Oh s**t. After several failed attempts, we decided to go downstairs to reset our key cards in case changing batteries had some home changed the cards’ effectiveness as well.
Fifth sign of foreboding:
Two tries later to reset the card (which involved long waits for the lift - only 2 lifts servicing 21 floors - there must have been something wrong with the hotel’s design) and still no luck. Staff at reception kept resetting it and fortunately the duty manager, whom we spoke to the first time to reset the card, came out the 3rd time we were downstairs and it was agreed that we would (finally) change rooms). He came upstairs with us with his spiffy electronic lock breakers and…. failed to open our door. So the old fashioned method (the MASTER key) came into play and we were finally able to get in, gather up our belongings and head to our new room.
New room = room number 1911. Er, okaaaaay…
At least this room locks. The phone is a little odd and I can’t ring out to other rooms, but I can still get reception to connect me. Other people tell me that they had a broken light in their bathroom, or some other minor thing is wrong. After the door fiasco, I’m learning that not everything works perfectly around here.
The day wasn’t over yet though. We all met in the lounge at 7pm (this being my brother’s wedding entourage, ourselves, and two sets of parents) for a tailor to come do a fitting for a couple of members of the entourage. The plan was to head out for teochew porridge dinner after that. By 9.30, the tailor had NOT arrived and we were hungry and cantankerous by that point. Harlzen and I excused ourselves and ordered room service, but fortunately neither of us were too hungry.
Room service is cheap though and both got a good night’s sleep.
Day 2 in Surabaya
The plan today was to go shopping but it’s incredibly hard to co-ordinate such a large group of people, especially those who like to go wandering (thanks, Dad, you shaved a few years of my life when we lost you in the maze of shops.).
We went to ITC, where we had lunch first in the food court. There were so many little stalls that it was difficult to make a decision about what to eat! Trust my parents to over order though. Hahaha! We ended up with satay that my dad ordered in very broken Indonesian. Except no one could figure out what kind of meat it was. In the end, it was not meat at all! It was vegetarian!
Shopping was fairly productive and I bought a couple of bags and a purse. We got back to the hotel by about 3.45pm and had a bit of a rest before being picked up again around 6pm for dinner. It was meant to be 5.30pm but the power had gone out in the street where M’s house was and where we were attending a pre-wedding dinner gathering. There was no power, so you can imagine how stressed the hosts must have been. I feel, for them, I really do. My short experience in this country so far is that its people beats to the sound of its own drum. They do things at their own pace and they are not averse to waiting around. There’s a sense of leisureliness about the place, despite the randomness and hurriedness of the traffic (but given that, they only drive around 40kms per hour in the city areas).
Dinner was good though. We were introduced to so many new faces but with our limited Indonesian and their limited English, there was only so much we could talk about. However, everyone was really friendly. After the bulk of the guests had left (it was very much an eat-run experience), my brother and his friends set off some fireworks - a loud startling process. It was quite fun to watch though but I think he got told to stop when he tried to set off the type that launched to the sky (he’s meant to do it from the rooftop of the house rather than on the street).