Four o’clock, I rushed from my office straight to Manic Street Walkers (MSW) #20 meeting point at Hotel Kemajuan. I was already late, yet my addled brain still managed to squeeze a wrong turn or two on the way … sobs. After the unnecessary long drive, I finally got to KHM Mansyur area and was totally surprised by the heavy traffic. Pedestrians, bike riders, and truck drivers were all willing to take any measures, be it acrobatic stunt moves and/or excessive horns honking for the sake of an inch worth of asphalt gain.
Thankfully, I arrived at Hotel Kemajuan in one piece. Today’s MSW set a new record as we had the youngest walker that ever joined MSW with us. Silvi, aged 7, daughter of Mbak Yuli, was with us and her chipper and energy already uplifted our mood from the start. It also meant that Tinta would go easy on the walk, so hooray for Silvi! Tinta gave an opening greeting and passed the torch to our warkamsi (local resident), Adhiel Albatati, to lead the walk.
Hotel Kemadjoeaen. Adhiel informed us that this hotel was built in 1924 to financially sustain the school program of the same foundation–Al Irsyad.
We took a peek inside Hotel Kemajuan. Adhiel informed us that this hotel was built in 1924 to financially sustain the school program of the same foundation–Al Irsyad. As we entered the hotel, we were welcomed with a huge semicircular arch with stairs on left and right leading to the second storey. It was a strictly no photo zone and we weren’t allowed to go to the second floor. So we walked to the back side of the hotel where there was an open langgar and a working (water) well. There were a lot of long alleys and windows. Generous cool breeze swirling throughout the hotel. A peaceful and relaxing ambiance, just a step away from the hectic KHM Masyur.
Adhiel also mentioned the ghost story—almost an obligatory accoutrement for any old building. Tinta immediately thought that it would be keren (awesome–it’s her favourite word!) to stay one night in this hotel together with friends and created a report of a 24 hour stay in Kampung Arab. We checked the hotel rate and the most expensive room is Rp.90.000,-, not bad :). As we headed out, we saw two ladies with big bags full of items stepping into the hotel. Immediately I formed a theory that they were out-of-towners that came to make big bulk purchases and resell them in their local town. It would be kind of cool to know about the sorts of people that stay in this hotel. Maybe staying a night in this hotel is not a bad idea…
Sun setting from behind Serang Mosque
Anyway, off we go to the second location. We headed to Pasar Ikan (fishmarket) Pabean. During our stroll, we passed an alley packed with perfume stores which ended with Serang Mosque at the corner. It was about sunset time and we could see the gold sun laid low in the sky, beaming lazily from the back of the mosque. We took a pause and enjoyed the view :). Nitchii met us around this spot, and we continued our march to Pasar Pabean.
Pasar Pabean
Boy, you sure can tell that you are near the fish alley just by the smell. As we got closer to the market, our olfactory system were alerted by the continuous attack of fish odour. It was a vibrant market, vendors were busy trying to sell their seafood bounty, while buyers were busy poking the fishes and haggling for a bargain.
As I was busy clicking here and there, a rickshaw with bags and bags of fish suddenly appeared in front of us. On our left was a car struggling to move forward with hopefully as few scratch marks as possible, and on our right were rows of fish vendors. There was no way to turn, it was a deadlock. I laughed and said to myself, yupe this is how I imagined it would be in Pasar Pabean. I waited patiently, and finally there is enough gap for us to move ahead.
That was when I saw a strange creature on one of the display the vendor had. It’s called mimi (and mintuno, for the female) in Javanese, belangkas in Indonesian. A horseshoe crab, it looked like a strange cousin of the crab family. There was no flesh, and the somewhat nice vendor (as nice as a Maduranese lady would when answering barrage of questions from a curious person that displayed no interest in buying) showed us the edible eggs hidden under the shell.
Mimi lan mintuna, or till death do them horseshoe crabs part.
Adhiel told me that there is even a keroncong song about mimi (“tresno kang sejati senadyan koyo mimi lan mituno” or, true love is like mimi and mintuno). The metaphor comes from some observations that mating horseshoe crabs cannot be separated, otherwise they risk dying. Some also believe that if you don’t cook them in couple, they would be poisonous, but safe to consume when cooked in pair. Thus “mini lan mintuna” means staying loyal (or attached, literally) till death do them part, ahem. Well, as Tinta said, you will always learn and find interesting thing when you walk…
Female parking assistant—Maduranese girl power?
As we were walking, I noticed a lot of Maduranese ladies sitting while counting a stack of money on their hands. Apparently, they were the tukang parkir (parking assistant) kekekeke. It so happened that I only saw the ladies holding the money, while the guys were always sitting quietly next to them? Maduranese girl power?
We headed to the river banks of Kalimas, and in the corner I saw a child having her bath in a plastic basin, his father asked me to take a picture of her and told her to pose for the camera, I happily obliged :)
We saw groups of people sitting and fishing by the banks. One of them caught a big nila fish before it slipped off his hand, so so close … A lot of big warehouses in this area, perfect for prewedding photo background, kekekeke … One warehouse is transformed into a municipal buiding open for public use.
We stirred right to Kalimas Madya 1 street and stopped by an unassuming langgar. It was dark and seemed abandoned, but there was a lady solitary chanting the Islamic prayer. We walked to the second story and there were hanging laundry and a guy in the corner also praying solemnly.
Right next to the langgar, three lady workers were busy packing shallots to the big sacks. A big fan gave them enough air to breathe in this stuffy warehouse.
We took a right to a narrow alley and somehow arrived in Adhiel’s neighborhood. There was a big house in this neighborhood that has been a favorite of ours with its authentic and beautiful architecture. Unfortunately, it is now undergoing renovation, a facelift-gone-wrong and now has this Mediterranean inspired facade that is popular and employed by a lot of houses in Surabaya. Another one bites the dust.
Ampel Suci, from clothings, apparels, holy water, olive oil, perfumes, yummy nibbles and prayer books and comics
We moved to Sasak street, where we were joined by Herman (vocalist of Heavy Monster) and Aryan Jaya. We went inside the Ampel Suci alley, where you could find various stalls selling items like Muslim clothings and apparels, (home-brewed?) perfumes, religious books (and comics!). And, of course, food: from the more “exotic” nibbles often exchanged as gifts like dates, chickpeas, cashews, to the more standard (though by no means less satisfying) fare like gorengan fried snacks and pecel or Indonesian salad with peanut sauce.
It was close to buka (fast-breaking) time, so there were a lot of stores that were left unattended and had the “Gone for Sholat” notice.
It was close to buka (fast-breaking) time, so there were a lot of stores that were left unattended and had the “Gone for Sholat” notice. We turned left to Ampel Magfur street, also known as Adhiel’s elementary school’s street, when we heard the prayer chants from the masjid’s microphone.
Finally, it was maghrib, time to break fast, and we all celebrated by taking a photo of all of us with our drinks, haha. We passed a masjid and saw a group of people broke their fast together cheerfully.
We took a quick stop to grab some gorengan and some shawarma wrap, before settling in the gule kambing (mutton curry) joint. Nitchii nicely observed about the universalness of food. Our shawarma is like a hotdog. The gule kambing is similar to chilli, and our ketan srikaya is the equivalence of creme brulee, ha! We ended the MSW with happy tummies and some ideas of possible routes for the next MSW. Dolly, anyone?
Samosa and mutton curry
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