Modern traditional food

Cincau is considered a kind of traditional drink. It made from some kind of green "jelly" (not taste like jelly though) which is put inside cold coconut milk and flavoured/sweetened with coconut sugar. Refreshing traditional drink which barely found in a modern place like a shopping mall previously. However, this stand sells a variety of this previously traditional drink in a creative and interesting way. They have cincau with syrup, cincau with honey, cincau with tea, cincau with soybean milk, etc. And it comes with a nice package as well. So when you shop at Pasar Atom and feel thirsty, just try to find this stand at the second floor of the old building.

Jeans cutter

For a short person like me, I always have a problem when i own new trousers. They are always too long. So since I bought my own trousers which I can't remember when, I always find it very handy to have a place like the image below. There are some men who works as the jeans cutter. Look at the pile of jeans next to them.

There are many places like this in Pasar Atom, but as I remember this place is the beginning of this kind of business there. The price for cutting is considered very cheap, that is seven thousand and five hundred rupiah or less than one USD or approximately one AUD. So I just go there bringing my jeans, fit it in their fitting room (yes, they have a fitting room :D) and then let them put a mark on my jeans, wait for an hour while doing some shopping and then pick up my jeans. Pretty easy, huh ?

Is it a market or is it a mall ???

I found this sign during my shopping time at Pasar Atom. Pasar Atom was built in 1972. The word "pasar" shows that this place should be a market. However, the whole atmosphere of this place is very much different with the atmosphere of any other traditional market in Surabaya.





First of all this place is not dirty like just like the other market, and hmmm, you can feel the cool air from the air con which hardly found in any other market. And lastly, there are some expensive boutiques and barbershops inside which are impossible to be found in ordinary market.


Considering the fact that people are look at this market more like a mall, the owner then built a new mall right next to the old market. And to show that this new mall is connected with the old famous Pasar Atom, then he named this mall "Pasar Atom Mall", a name that sounds pretty ambiguous.

Fifteen thousand to fifteen million

This was, as I remember, the oldest shopping mall in this city. It was started with just "Tunjungan Plaza" or "TP", and then it was extended with a new building called "TP 2" that made people called the older building "TP 1". Then it was extended again with "TP 3". The last extension of this plaza is called "TP 4". The only identity which I could recognize about these four buildings is that TP 4 consist of expensive boutique. That's it. And as I remember, the owner once said at the opening of TP 4 that now TP is available for shopper who bring only fifteen thousand rupiah or fifteen million rupiah.

Green campus

This is the "greeny look" (pardon for my non English slang :p) inside the second campus (from 3 location overall) of Surabaya University (Universitas Surabaya) at Jalan Raya Kalirungkut. I was studied there before, and believe me, green and pretty are not the words that I would used to describe my university at that time; friendly maybe, but not pretty.

But now, look at these spots, they seems a bit ordinary actually, but pretty, the lamp, the leaves, the building, the stones ; and green .... Two thumbs up for the people works behind those changes !