As I have promised you, I will share with you my personal experience using the bridge. I know it’s a bit late but it’s better than never, sorry for the late-coming.
It was 21 June 2009, I was in Surabaya for a short weekend getaway. In the morning, I went to Holy Shepherd Church for Sunday prayer in Jemur Andayani district, near Kutisari, the place where I usually stay whenever I visited Surabaya. In the afternoon, I went for a lunch to celebrate my aunt’s birthday. After the chow, my cousin drove my mother, my grandmother and I to take a glimpse of Suramadu Bridge at first. Seeing how long the queue of cars there, we decided to cross the bridge.
The sign says “Reduce Your Speed, Suramadu Toll Gate 500 metre”
Do you notice the number of motorbikes queuing just to cross the bridge? Well, in a few months it won’t be the same view.
The car that my cousin drove was Honda Jazz, his car is an 11-year old or 12-year old Isuzu Panther. My uncle asked my cousin to drive on his (my uncle) car instead as my cousin’s car air conditioning system is not working at all and with the humid condition of Surabaya, I could die inside the car once it reached Madura island. Back to the photo, you could see a policeman with his motorbike, I guess, was patiently trying to control the traffic flows.
Here we go again! The traffic jam.
How could a car be on the motorbike way?
Repairing your motor, sir?
Jasa Marga is Indonesia’s highway operator. This photo shows one of its fleet patrolling in Kenjeran district near the Suramadu Bridge and trapped inside the traffic. For your information, the pick-up’s plate number is Jakarta’s ‘B’. Don’t they have any of their fleet with ‘L’ or ‘M’ plate? ‘L’ is the car plate for Surabaya and ‘M’ is for Madura island. ‘DK’ is for Bali.
A police car and ambulance among the vehicles parked by the road.
Jasa Marga’s ambulance on siege just in case anything unexpected happened. I hope nothing like today’s explosion in Jakarta would happen in Suramadu or any other parts of Indonesia again.
“Mohon Maaf Di Bentang Tengah Ada Pemeliharaan Sehingga Perjalanan Anda Terganggu”. Does Jasa Marga understand the Bahasa Indonesia Ejaan yang Disempurnakan? It should be written as “di bentang” instead of “dibentang” as the word “bentang” refers to a place, location and in this context, it does not refer to a verb. The sentence means “We would like to apologise for the maintenance check on the middle platform that caused inconvenience on your journey”.
300 metre seems that long.
This is what I called as abuse of power. Inside the van was not our navy members but their family. “Angkatan Laut” means Navy whereas TNI refers to Tentara Nasional Indonesia or Indonesia National Soldiers.
Some motorbike passengers were desperately waiting to cross the bride. At the back was a poster says “Bayar Tol di Gerbang Masuk” which means pay the toll fee at the gate.
Almost there but not yet
“Gerbang Tol Surabaya” or Surabaya Toll Gate
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That’s the first part of my report. Tomorrow, the second part and hopefully the third part could be posted as well. And also, my blog will be running special coverage of Jakarta blasts on “Jakarta Under Attack”. I wish you a pleasant reading. For now, good day/night.
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Read my special report for Akhyari’s blog here or at Good News from Indonesia.
Apa Kabar Bram 