Crossing to the Island

From the the harbour of Surabaya you can see the island of Madura only 4 km across the water. For a decade, there was a plan to connect the city and the island with a bridge, but financing never came through and the only progress was a few premature concrete pillars that now stand forlornly in the sea. A bridge would certainly be useful: every day, thousands of people from Madura cross by ferry to Surabaya, jammed in with livestock, cargo, cars and buses. The ferries run 24 hours a day.

Our route was somewhat circuitous. First we took a taxi to the Surabaya bus terminal in the south of the city, which in the heavy traffic took the best part of an hour. Then boarded a bus bound for Sumenep, a town in the east of Madura. The one-way ticket cost about 24,000 Rupiahs. Before we started a procession of about 50 vendors and beggars trooped through the bus, some of whom would have provided excellent practice for my dentist. Then it took the best part of 2 hours to get back through the traffice again to the city and to the harbour. The reason for the roundabout route is that the bus is full by the time it reaches the harbour.

The crossing to the island took only half an hour. Then we drove past paddy-fields and through a number of towns, hugging the southern coast of the island. Around Camplong we drove along long stretches of coast, with accompanying colourful fishing boats. Then through bustling Pamekesan, Madura’s capital and biggest town, thronged with becaks. Then past sun-baked fields of crops all cultivated manually, to Sumenep.

The bus dropped us off just outside the town, while it continued on to the bus station. There are no taxis in Sumenep (or anywhere else on Madura, apparently!), though there may be some bemos about, but we took a bacek (bicycle rickshaw) from the bus-stop to the town. The usual cost for a bacek ride here is 2,500 Rupiahs.

Our first choices of hotel didn't work out, but we did find a room in the single-story Sumekar Hotel, on Jl. Trunojoyo. 80,000 rupiahs (9 Euros) for a "de-luxe" room, which has a mandi (water repository, in place of a shower).

The Handy Mandi

A mandi consists simply of a cubed basin, perhaps three feet high and two and a half feet square. You fill this up with water and use a ladling cup to douse water over yourself. Great for a quick freshening up after a spell in the tropical heat.

Sumenep

After putting the Mandi to good use and doing a bit of unpacking, it was time to think about food. The hotel had a little restaurant, but we decided to walk into the centre of the town to see what was available.

The streets of the town were pleasantly quiet after the city—most of the traffic consisted of becaks. While Pamekasan is the administrative capital of the island, Sumenep is Madura’s cultural heart, and it was quite nice to get an eyeful of what it had to offer. On the road into the centre, Jalan Trunojoyo, we passed the Mesjid Jamik, the mosque, which is famous for its three-tiered Meru-style roof, Chinese porcelain tiles, and ceramics. Across the road from it, on the street bordering the ornamental grassy alun-alun (central square), there's a small vegetable market, with a couple of Kaki Lima (food carts, literally "five legs", two for the pusher and three for the cart).

Being, apparently, the only buleh (foreigner) in the town (if not on the island!), I was the centre of some attention, hearing on all sides "hello, mister". We passed a handfull of restaurants, all small, serving the usual Indonesian dishes, though at least two of them were run by Chinese. On offer was standard fare, ie, Nasi Goreng (fried rice), Mi Goreng (fried noodles), various kinds of Ayam (chicken), and so on. We settled for a Chinese-run restaurant that doubled as a furniture workshop, specializing in Madura wood carving.