A couple months in Dinoyo, Suroboyo

Surabaya (Suroboyo) is an east Javanese city named after the Javanese words suro 'shark' and boyo 'crocodile'; Two bad ass animals and Suroboyo is a pretty bad ass city. The main language spoken here, in addition to Indonesian, is a very crass and slang ridden Javanese and the people here are friendly but also very forward in relation to other more passive Indonesian cities I'd passed through. Also Surabaya is home to Southeast Asia’s biggest prostitution district which is of course shut down for the holy month of Ramadan in October. This district, 'Gang Dolly', is infamous throughout Indonesia and I quickly learned that I can get a genuine laugh out of almost anyone (especially police) by simply mentioning the name when asked “what is your favorite part of Indonesia?”
I often wonder if the existence and acceptance of Gang Dolly has anything to do with the fact that Indonesia was occupied by the Dutch for some three hundred years until the end of WW2, and of course the Dutch have the biggest 'Red Light' district in the world in Amsterdam...

I’ve been in Surabaya many times now, using it as a pivot point to visit other Indonesian islands (Kalimantan (Borneo), Bali, Madura). After returning from the villages in Madura and Bayuman, I wanted to spend a month or two in Surabaya and there was only one neighborhood that I really wanted to live in; Dinoyo.. Dinoyo is the kind of place that carries a rough reputation throughout the city and I was definitely the only foreigner living there. I rented a tiny room for the first month in a 'kos' (open air boarding house) for about $30 which had a mat on the floor for sleeping and I shared a bathroom with the rest of the inhabitants. After that first month I stayed with friends. In the beginning I was often stared at, but after the first two weeks the shock of a 'bule' living there wore off and I was just a normal person. I made many friends (and some enemies!) and talked daily with nearly everyone in my area enjoying the gossip and drama of everyday life. When asked “Why do you want to live in Dinoyo instead of a nicer neighborhood with other westerners?”
I would always say “It's the only part of town that reminds me of my neighborhood in Brooklyn!”

Dinoyo is about two square miles of winding mazes made up of narrow alleyways, most of which are impenetrable by cars, and I've never seen a police officer inside. This neighborhood is a polar opposite to the pure and picturesque Islamic villages where I'd spent the previous month in Madura. Dinoyo, by nature, is pretty grimy with open sewage canals on either side of all the alleys which require caution when walking at night and can be less than pleasant as the area often floods from heavy rain. Alcohol and gambling are the norm in Dinoyo and nearly everyday at dusk miraculously intelligent pigeons are taken about 2 miles away, then released and bets are made on which one returns to Dinoyo first. My daily activities involved lots of walking around, eating, teaching English to young kids in exchange for Javanese lessons, and a ridiculous amount of chess. My game improved so much in this month due to the vast amount of brilliant men always looking for a game. Despite being very smart and well versed in the ancient game, some of the guys I played with were homeless and slept on concrete slab tables in the open-air market after it closed, sharing a home with thousands of rats and roaches (these rats are well fed and literally the size of small cats, twice the size of their cousins in the NYC Subways). Every night I would play chess with these guys, usually until 4 or 5 am, and they would always offer me a glass of 'arak' (homemade rice liquor) which I would graciously accept.

All in all I will miss all my friends in Dinoyo and cherish my time here. This neighborhood has taught me a lot, it has that raw edge that evokes a sense of the 'real world', and a lifetime of enduring hardship can be seen in the still smiling faces of the elderly people...