Overview About Surabaya

a.  Brief Description

Surabaya is Indonesia’s second-largest city and the capital of the province of East Java. It is located on the northern shore of eastern Java at the mouth of the Mas River and along the edge of the Madura Strait. As the main seaport and commercial center in the eastern region of Indonesia, Surabaya has become one of the largest cities in Southeast Asia. Today, Surabaya’s population is around three million, and the surrounding rural area houses at least 7 million.

Plaza Tunjungan, Galaxy Mall, Surabaya Plaza, Supermal Pakuwon Indah, Surabaya Town Square, and Royal Plaza Surabaya are the famous shopping center while Hi-Tech Mall, WTC, and Plasa Marina are the computers and mobile-phones shops center in Surabaya. Surabaya is home to the Eastern Armada, one of two in the Indonesian Navy. Its strong maritime heritage is also reflected with the Submarine Monument, a real retired Russian submarine, called Pasopati, that was converted into a museum ship in the city center. Suramadu Bridge is also one of the most remarkable achievement in Surabaya. Surabaya also has Mangrove Park as the object for tourism and also research.

This city is located in the equatorial region. Hence there are only two seasons: a very humid rainy season and a dry season.  The minimum temperature in Surabaya is about 25 degree Celsius during the months of January, February and March. Usually the high temperature reaches to about 35 degree Celsius during the month of October.

Surabaya is a multi-ethnic city: foreign nationalities represented include Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, Arab, and European. In addition to Javanese and Maduranese natives, the city also has representatives of other Indonesian areas: Sunda, Minangkabau, Batak, Banjar, Balinese, and Bugis. They adhere to Islam. Other religions include Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism. Most citizens speak a dialect of Javanese called Suroboyoan. A stereotype of this dialect concerns its equality and directness in speech. The usage of register is less strict than the Central Java dialect. However, as a multi racial city, most people speak the national language, Bahasa Indonesia. English is also widely spoken at major shops, hotels and universities.

 b.      How to get to Surabaya

Surabaya is the major transportation hub in East Java, with connections to the rest of the island by any kind of transports.

Getting to Surabaya By Airplane

The Juanda International Airport (code : SUB), is nowadays served by major airlines from all around the world. Today, there is enough number of international airlines serve to Surabaya (from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hongkong, Bangkok, Taipei, etc). The city is served by most of Indonesia’s domestic carriers. There are flights more or less hourly from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta and Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali. After your arrival in Juanda International Airport, you can take airport taxi which cost around IDR 100.000 for about 40 minutes drive to ITS.

Getting to Surabaya By Train

Train is a comfortable means of transportation to get to Surabaya. After your arrival in Soekarno-Hatta Airport, you can use the airport shuttle bus to the Gambir Train Station. The shuttle bus leaves approximately every 15 minutes and the journey lasts about 30-60 minutes depends on the traffic. From the train station, you should take a train to Surabaya. From Jakarta, it spends a minimum of nine hours.