Touring Indonesia Harmoni #32: A White-Knuckle Bus Ride to Surabaya and Reunion with Nyak Ver

I then suggested to my wife that we simply stay overnight in Pati to rest. But she was adamant about continuing on to Surabaya. For me, rest is the single most important thing on a long-distance journey, all the more so since we had already covered a fairly long stretch, from Padang to Pati. While waiting for the bus, I had a chance to chat with the driver who had brought us to Pati. He had gotten off along with us and kept us company over coffee at a stall. He opened with something that touched me quite deeply: were it not for his child studying at university, he might have quit being a bus driver. He had been driving for more than three decades. So he knew every route across Java and Sumatra intimately.

He was a resident of Pati. While sipping his coffee, he said he was waiting to be picked up by his wife. After two days of rest, he would set off again for Sumatra. Such was the routine of his life as a bus driver. While we were joking around, a woman suddenly approached him. Smiling, he handed her fifty thousand rupiah. Not all of the buses coming in suited our taste. Then the driver said that this woman was the ticket agent for the Sabar Subur bus, which would arrive at 4 p.m. We ended up buying tickets from her for the journey to Surabaya.

Buses for long-distance journeys began arriving at this terminal at around 4 p.m. We were told that our bus would arrive at 4:30. My wife grew excited because it would not be a bus like the one we had endured from Merak to Pati. As soon as the bus reached the terminal, the crew directed us to board. It was fairly clean and had few passengers. We felt hopeful again that we would reach Surabaya around midnight. The bus set off with whatever passengers it had, usually picking up more if any were found along the route.

My wife had never once ridden a Java bus. It is an open secret that riding a bus in Java, especially with certain operators, requires a steady heart. Besides the tremendous speed, the driving style can at times gravely endanger the passengers. That night, the bus we boarded was exactly what I had imagined. My wife was then deeply shocked. She almost screamed. But I calmed her so as not to invite trouble with the crew. My only thought was to reach Surabaya safely that night.

The Sabar Subur bus was indeed extremely fast. It overtook one vehicle after another ahead of it. At times, the bus seemed to float above the asphalt. Such was our state inside. The tension was heightened by the atmosphere of Javanese dangdut koplo music. For Javanese people, this scene did not surprise them in the least, because this is simply how some bus drivers in Java drive, especially those heading to and from Surabaya. The tension of this five-hour trip was felt more keenly than our five-day bus journey earlier (Surabaya to Medan). We truly did not enjoy the ride; instead we kept imagining what would become of us if something unthinkable were to happen.

I then asked my wife to find lodging for that night. Before long, a place was found. As soon as the bus entered Surabaya and neared the Purabaya, or Bungurasih, terminal, I asked it to stop and let us off, since our lodging was not far from the bus terminal. We then ordered an online taxi and reached the lodging at 12:30. Once there, we rested right away. But first, I made time to order dinner, since hunger had struck me hard that night. In the end, we fell asleep toward 2 a.m.

I decided to stay in Surabaya for two nights. We needed adequate rest after the journey from Banda Aceh to Surabaya. The next day, Bro. Rio, a biker
in Surabaya, delivered Nyak Ver to our lodging. At last, after three weeks apart from Nyak Ver, it arrived in fine condition. After thanking Bro. Rio, I returned to our room. We discussed something that led us to abandon the plan to head to Bali and on to Kupang.

About The Author

Kamaruzzaman Bustamam Ahmad

Prof. Kamaruzzaman Bustamam Ahmad (KBA) has followed his curiosity throughout life, which has carried him into the fields of Sociology of Anthropology of Religion in Southeast Asia, Islamic Studies, Sufism, Cosmology, and Security, Geostrategy, Terrorism, and Geopolitics. Prof. KBA is the author of over 30 books and 50 academic and professional journal articles and book chapters. His academic training is in social anthropology at La Trobe University, Islamic Political Science at the University of Malaya, and Islamic Legal Studies at UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta. He received many fellowships: Asian Public Intellectual (The Nippon Foundation), IVLP (American Government), Young Muslim Intellectual (Japan Foundation), and Islamic Studies from Within (Rockefeller Foundation). Currently, he is Dean of Faculty and Shariah, Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Ar-Raniry, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

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