(organization)
Hello ,

Greetings from a very wet Surabaya, last week I was telling you about my last crazy days in China, you can read about it here.

It's my first trip to Surabaya the major port city of East Java Indonesia. Much of our gift exports from Indonesia route through the port here. I have meetings with our shipping company here to find quicker and more efficient despatches.

The flight approach to the airport takes us over vast mirror like paddy fields reflecting sky back up to us like a stain glass window. The city is also vast, (second biggest after Jakarta) and flat, mostly low rise with a few pockets of high rise developments clustered together. In the distance Bromo volcano rises out of the plains spitting out occasional ashes that can close airports across the region.

Surabaya played an important part in the second world war, and hero's here help shape the future of the fledgling Indonesia. So they call it the City of Hero's. They fought and beat the British here killing a famous general, even so later we supported Indonesia to be independent. It's complicated.

I met up with our Indonesian agent Ringo at the hotel last night and early this morning we set of for several meetings and missions. This is an industrial city, massive factories make packing boxes that are efficiently shipped from the Port all over the world. But not much giftware, but we are looking anyway.

It rained a tropical storm in the night turning the city into one vast water way and swamped traffic jam. Our driver shrugged and said this is normal here.

He was recommend by the shipping company and is a cool guy, with a ponytail, tattoos, a north American Indian look and is called (bizarrely) in this Muslim city; Robert.
We learn he is from Manado a Christian city on the island of Sulawesi, to add to his uniqueness he has a Balinese wife.

After our meeting with the shipping company at the docks we took a quick look at the old port operating these days just for domestic cargo, old teak boats still ply trade between Indonesia's 13,770 (Ringo says) inhabited island's the way they have for hundreds of years.

I'm writing this in the back of our car battling it's way through floods to meetings and hopefully to the airport where Ringo and I fly to Bali tonight.

Robert is one Hero driver. I think he will get us there in time. I'll tell you next week if we make it.

Meanwhile lots of new products to show you , a container despatched from this very port just arrived in Sheffield.

Have a good weekend.
David

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