My trip to Surabaya last week was my first assignment outside Greater Jakarta, and my first flight, too.

But, that’s not of the thing I want to say here. Let’s just talk about the city itself.

Surabaya is the capital of East Java and is located on the northern shore of the province, right next to the Madura Strait. People say it’s Indonesia’s second largest city after Jakarta, but I don’t agree with that.

The fact is, although Jakarta is some 660 kilometer-square width and Surabaya is some 460 kilometer-square only, the former is a province, not a city. Jakarta, which is Indonesia’s capital, consists of five municipalities (North Jakarta, West Jakarta and so on), and those are the cities.

So, based on the argument, I say that Surabaya is the largest city in the archipelago.

Anyway, I hardly knew anything about the city’s condition before paying a visit there. I only heard that it had high temperature, even higher than overheated Jakarta (a thing I couldn’t imagine before because Jakarta is the hottest city I’ve ever visited, regarding the fact I’ve only paid visits to the capital, Tangerang (in Banten), Depok, Bogor, Bandung, Cianjur, Purwakarta (West Java) and Kebumen (in Central Java) during the nearly 25 years of my life).

But, as soon as I arrived at Surabaya’s Juanda airport (in Sidoarjo, actually, not in Surabaya), I learnt that the high temperature is not a rumor, but is a fact.

Sun does overheat the city more than any other cities I’ve ever visited (that I just mentioned in an earlier paragraph), making you wish for nothing but rains to fall over you all the time you’re walking along the sidewalks.

If you travel through the city with a well air-conditioned car, perhaps this overheated stuff wouldn’t bother you a lot.

I was formerly a little bit disappointed for finding nothing so special about Surabaya, despite the saying, claiming and stories that it’s the city of heroes (the name came from its occupants’ heroic role during Indonesia’s struggle for independence against the Allied-back Dutch).

I saw that Surabaya had no different physical appearance from ordinary parts of Jakarta. I guess it looks very like the Central Jakarta’s Harmoni area.

But, as I then traveled somewhat across the city with a new acquaintance, who is of Surabaya origin, I started to notice that the East Java’s capital had a characteristic that differs it from any other cities I have visited.

First, Surabaya has far cleaner, neater streets compared to Jakarta’s, although the streets are as simple and humble as the latter’s very ordinary parts. Second, it has better overpasses, again cleaner and neater, but also more artistic and unique due to cigarette brands decorating them.

The cigarette brands indeed decorate nearly all overpasses I saw in the city, making me think Surabaya deserves another name…The City of Cigarettes (I heard that Sampoerna, the country’s top tobacco producer which has been acquired by the United State’s Phillip Morris, opened its first factory in the city).

Third, well, Surabaya has better taken-care-of old town, compared with Jakarta’s, which looks rather dirty and smell bad due to the black, stingy Ciliwung river passing through it. I think most of the old buildings in Surabaya are still in use, too, not like those in Jakarta, which mostly are abandoned.

Fourth, riding on a becak (pedicab?) around its famous Jembatan Merah (Red Bridge) is also somewhat an unforgettable experience, especially because, I guess, of the neat, pleasant look of the area, which brings the typical aura of Central, East Java traditional towns.

Among the city’s weak points, compared especially to Jakarta, Tangerang and Bandung (where I’ve spent nearly all years of my life), is that the angkot (public minivan) drivers caused me a lot more resentment, and that we can’t find delicious foods in Surabaya’s streets as easy as we can find them in the other three cities.

Overall, despite the uniqueness, the famous monument of white shark and crocodile, etc of the city, I don’t think I want to spend my days in Surabaya again, unless I really have something to do there.

I just can’t stand the heat.