Surabaya oh Surabaya,,

Welcome back to another episode of the Pathetic Travellers!

This will be a solo-pathetism by me, as Sani should have came along but he had to to do some job in the Military Academy (maybe ecchi ecchi stuff,, don't get your imaginations go wild just yet!). In early August as you all know I'll be chief of adjudicators for this National competition, who then will select who the country will fund to go to the Worlds round; in Antalya, Turkey!!! *wants wants* ^^

This time i had to go to the preliminary meeting located in Surabaya (one of Indonesia's major cities, west of Java) with the people from the Office of Higher Education (Indo : DikTi). Instantly i was already imagining a boring meeting like the pics from newspapers of meetings held in the house of representatives with fat-bellied representatives sleeping due to their oversized lunch, overcomfy recliners, and overcooled air conditioners hahaha.. booooooring!

Obviously i was wrong.. Read on..

The story of pathetism starts from my trip back from Magelang (a city 45 minutes north from my city), so after the comfy car ride in the Military Commando shuttle, who dropped me and Heru (me house mate) in the bus terminal, where we parked our motor bikes in one of those overnight parking garages.. After 5 minutes of walking where me and Heru argued which way was north, we reached the garage and lo! It was closed,, i checked the time; 12:30 AM,, *curses!*

so we walked anothe 5 minutes to the main road to get a cab back home *while wishing we had asked the Military Commando car to take us straight home instead of be goodie two shoes*. The bad thing about some of the cabs here is that they refuse to use the argometer (for those who wonder, its those bleeping cute red digital numbers that gets added with every kilometre you ride and automatically calculate your fare,, magical eh? :D) and instead they have a fixed price. Now this is the part where i was thinking of debating with the driver on how exactly did he make these "rates", and what are they based on; distance, terrain of road, weather or what? But before i could do that Heru saved us by finding another cab who was willing to go by the rules *also it was lucky since the debate i nearly waged would've probably cost us our lives, or at least our shame*

While watching movies like Need for Speed, have you ever wondered what it felt like to be in one of those cars? Now i have felt so. Imagine the speed like in the movie, without Eva Mendez or the flashy guy in the movies, downgrade the car by about 180 degrees, add an amazing stink sensation that awfully is close to what fart smells like, and offensive taste of music that makes you shout above "WHY oh WHY did humans invent Music????", and you're there! I thank God every day from that day that our car did not crash, or roll, or skid, or jump, or break into pieces! --"

So by the time i got home it was 1.30 AM, i needed a bath, i needed my bed, i was tired, and i felt i needed a psychiatrist to cure my taxi trauma.. Imagine going to bed with that,,

and wake up at 3.30 AM!!

So why did i wake up at that time? Because my flight to Surabaya was at friggin 6 AM in the morning!

Airports are so peaceful in the morning. I decided to sit nicely in the Dunkin Donuts stall the have there, sip a warm Vanilla Latte, sinking every taste of coffee milk and vanilla blended nicely in one warm mug, while munching into a lovely smoked chicke croissant.. Ladies and gentlemen I am practically in heaven (the way my body was numb from the night before, it actually felt like i already passed away). I observed people, as usual; there was another guy who wore sunglasses at dead dark mornings, there was this guy who jumped up and down because the debris of his cigarette caught his feet, there was a fat dad with a cute teenage daughter sitting beside me talking about which best; to get an iphone or the new Prada bag (yes very substantial compared to talking about petty issues, say AirFrance's recent accident and the loss of lives)

As usual, Lion Air's service and schedule didnt feel really "Lion-ey", felt more like a "Sick kitten" as they were late by like 2 hours due to "operational and technical reasons" - i bet the pilot just forgot where he put the keys to turn on the plane, or say the air crew was wondering where the hell was the left wing of the plane were o.O

Arrived in Surabaya just in time for the meeting. Nice city, not as bustling as Jakarta, and VERY hot my God i was trying my best to look as "corporate" as i can be and the heat just made me look like an out of place bussinessman in the middle of the fish market wondering where to buy meat --"

Meeting was good but i will not bore you to that, this is about the travels..

The way back to Jogja was very pleasant and educating for some reasons.

1) Be careful if you are in Surabaya's Juanda airport. If you don't pay attention to what the people are saying through the loudspeakers then you would think you're not in an airport. The way they delivered announcements make you feel like Sudanese people queing for food in a Red Cross camp, or a PoW about to be excecuted in Abu Ghraib.

2) Before checking in make sure you go to the toilet, for both (number 1) and (number 2). Once you get to the terminals lounge nearly all the toilets dont function. So if you gotta take (number 2) and you dont have enough choice then you can do (number 1) on the green plants they have in there and argue this is the innovative way of watering plants. If you must do (number 2) then pray to God your pants are both super absorbant and not odor leaking. I would suggest Nike's dry-fit shorts and 2 crates of Glade's de-odor products.

3) Check the type of plane you will be taking in your flight. A Cessna means you will be riding a windowless plane using seatbelts and helmets (true story!), a Boeing means you'll do fine but crampy, an Airbus is your best option, and a McDouglass means you must be careful! The last plane i mentioned is coded MD so note this very well. If you are assigned to seat 36D, as entertaining as that sounds (go wilden up your imaginations, there was a curvy lady beside me at the time who facilitated mine :D) that would mean hell. An MD plane's jets are at the rear of the plane, not on the wings like Boeings and Airbuses are. What you get in 36D is not squishy and enjoyfull "double pillows", but you will get a window the is right next to the jet engines. What next? If you're a fan of F1 or MotoGP you might enjoy this, as the sound, vibration and SMELL of the jet engines is not impermeable to by the windows, meaning it leaks!!

4) When number 3 happens, feel free to curse at hand, and spend 70% of your flight standing up, or stay seated but you will have questionable hearing and will need to go with me to a psychiatrist, but for more obvious reasons. Cute, hot, long legged stewardesses is not a help, as they can only offer you "cottons", now i would imagine they at least give you their numbers for compensating all the troubles but no thats not imperative. So what you end up is heart-ache.

So finally i can enjoy the week's end, full of shock and post-trauma of travels. How was your week?

long-live pathetism!!