Greetings from Surabaya (part 1)

It's my last day in Surabaya today and am now killing my time while waiting to check-out. Planned to go shopping this morning but it's too hot out there and I'm just too lazy to go out. Anyway, parts of this entry was written on the first day but didn't managed to finish it until today. As I normally say...better late than never! ;)
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What a start to this lone trip:

1. I witnessed a war of words between 2 makciks while queueing to check-in at LCCT this morning. It was only over a simple misunderstanding. Makcik A accused Makcik B of cutting queue while Makcik B thought the queue was actually split into two lanes (it was!) so she came straight behind me. Anyway, they were really nasty to each other up to the point that Makcik A called Makcik B Cina Apek (Makcik B is a Chinese) and wanted to terajang her while Makcik B cursed Makcik A that she would die in Surabaya...crazy huh? I really wanted to turn around to slap shut them both but I couldn't risk myself getting a terajang AND a death curse, could I?

2. I ended up sitting next to my BIG boss (the hospital director!) on the 2-hour flight and I didn't sleep a wink during the journey because of that. Just imagine if I accidentally lean on his shoulder while I was asleep ( and I have the tendency to do just that!), that would be a big disaster, wouldn't it? Thank god I brought along The Last Lecture that I borrowed from Dr Bubbles.. managed to finish 3/4 of the book by the time we landed in Surabaya.

3. Surabaya locals (are they called Surabayans?) DO NOT walk in the sun. When I walked from my hotel to the conference centre (about 5 minutes away) and then to Tunjungan Plaza, a HUGE shopping mall which is only about 20 minutes away by foot, I received a number of passing comments like “Panas bu!” and “naik teksi aja bu, panas!”. The walkways are clean and wide yet I was the only user most of the times…weird eh?

4. The locals are very friendly, polite and helpful, way beyond my expectations. I was a bit apprehensive at the beginning in case they have any untoward ulterior motives but after ½ a day, I truly warmed up to them. The hotel staff, security guards, pak polisi and even the waiter guy at A&W @ Restoran Khas Amerika were eager to help me with maps and directions and even dispensed tips on where to visit and shop. Unfortunately, I am not much of a shopper so I don’t think the info will be of much use to me. Oh, I love A&W here.. you don’t have to carry your food to your tables yourself, they have waiters to do that for you..always with a broad smile too. Cool eh?

5. Here in Indonesia, the letter ‘U’ is pronounced as ‘uu’ instead of the usual ‘yu’ while the letter ‘G’ is pronounced as ‘gay’. It was mind-boggling at first when they kept saying Lantai uu-gay when I asked the direction for the hardware store in Tunjungan Plaza… I was really blur until I saw a signage near an escalator that says Upper Ground (UG) Floor. I went “ooooooooh…” when it finally struck me. Hehe… a bit slow, am I?