JMP, Pasar Atun, House of Sampoerna & Taxi louts ....

Shopping again in Surabaya... just like my students, I'm falling into this mindless but entertaining hobby... But Jembatan Merah Plaza (JMP) is worth a visit, since the best shopping areas are those where locals overwhelmed foreigners, which the 4 of us represented, basically... If you are into the alluringly lacy kebaya or batik, this is the place to indulge. The range of cloth is fantastic & I'm sure Thila would love this place... There are 3 shops serving the Indian taste. For me, I hope my resistance of the temptation to buy a nicely cut and cooling batik top will pay off in Yogya 2 weeks later.

From there, we hopped on a taxi to neighbouring Pasar Atun, the Chinatown in Surabaya. Do go there at an appropriate time (before 4pm for shopping and after 7 for dining). We reached there at an awkward 5pm, with most shops closed. We had to entertain ourselves by cajoling our 10-year old friend Alisha to try on the kiddie Korean hanbok and Manchurian garb and browsing over DVDs selling at only 7000Rp each.

The dreary continued when we met this taxi lout (working for Zebra) who took a super roundabout way to reach our next destination, the House of Sampoerna ... en route, we were somehow mesmerised by his enthusiastic manner in using English and it was some time before we came round to the fact that HOS is very near Pasar Atun....On the way back, we decided to stick to the tried and tested (and recommended by the magazines and locals) 'Blue Bird' taxi instead... The taxi driver was almost Singapore-like, in that he asked for which route we prefer (don't take the highway....)