Surabaya, Indonesia

It is Sunday in port and the last day of Chinese New Year celebrations. One of the recommendations of the EXC guides is to explore the Arab Quarter here in Surabaya. It is an open air market – one street sprawling with mostly clothing shops and food stands. The shops are small inlets with men's print and embroidered shirts and fancy, sequined but modest dresses hanging from floor to ceiling. Alternating with the posh clothing were shops with the traditional Muslim hats called peci pronounced “peji” in a variety of colors and prints. B suggested he get one of those to cover his bald spot and finally decided on a blue one that he paid 50,000 Rupiah for (about $4)...

Now we are 2 obvious Caucasian people, most likely Americans, walking through an Arab market wearing shorts, blue hair on me and a paci on B, wearing shorts and B's t-shirt reads “keep calm and think big”... How well do you think we blended in? LOL! Remember this is the Arab quarter in an Indonesian country and 90% of the women are wearing abaya (fully clothed wraps a bit like a sari) and he-jabs (head coverings). Folks were pointing at us, laughing and taking pictures outright and surreptitiously, and children often moved away from us & ducked behind their parents, while still shyly glancing at us. After taking my shoes off, I stepped into one shop and was dragged around by a 4' Grandma while her family followed and giggled after us. I asked about a couple of dresses, but they just giggled and said “no too big”... Now I have been called fat in more than one country in the world...lol! We had to take photos of these shopkeepers and then they had to take our picture.

B suggested we were probably the stars of Surbaya social media that day.  Here is B "dating" again...  I was amazed at the mounds of dates for sale...

The market street ended at the Mosque square and we decided to pick our way through an alley/restaurant – B has an unerring sense of direction, so I was only a tad worried about getting lost... We turned right, then left and ended up in a covered bazaar – I felt like I was in Turkey. It was a narrow isle with booths and shops on both sides. Mostly clothes again, but children's sizes, pajamas and even underwear. More paci were for sale and we saw a beautiful one in turquoise blue- I told B he could buy more than one, so we asked the price. We were told 10,000 Rupiah – B hesitated, bit his lip and thought about it, then said “all right, I guess I could pay 80 cents”...LOL!

Maneuvering out of the market we were on the lookout for a taxi to return to the ship. A really old man offered 2 rickshaws to take us back – he said it was about 5 kilometers and would be $5 each. B refused but I would have enjoyed the adventure... We ended up in an open door van which is used like a bus system – it costs twice as much as the taxi, but still was only $8. Our driver did not speak any English, so took us to an area where we could see the ship, but weren't sure we could board. Luckily a couple of the boys (crew) came around the corner fence and explained how to walk the 5 minutes back to the ship. About 15 minutes later we were back at the ship, because we were photobombing some of the locals pictures. Then they asked if they could take more pictures – we were quite popular here.

We had a sea day yesterday and have been anchored in Slawi Bay today so folks could visit Komodo Island a national park filled with Komodo dragons. We have been here before so have just stayed aboard ship writing, relaxing and eating. Tomorrow is snorkeling and the next 2 days are in Bali.

Have a great day today and a better one tomorrow