Ampel: A Story of Little Arab

As it well known for its multicultural and colourful society,Indonesia has lots of things to offer on tourism.The Nusantara term itself describes how this 4th populous country made up by hundreds of ethnics,tribes and races.You can also find the Arab-Indonesian heritage here.Based on 2010 census,Arabs (those who originally rooted from or half-blooded with Indonesian side) makes up 2% or at least five million of the whole population of the nation,came centuries ago as traders and held mission to spread Islam.And basically you can find them in urban areas.Much of them comes from Yemeni,Moroccan or Iraqi root,but Egyptian also exists.Lots of arabic adopted into Bahasa such as kursi,musyawarah,sujud,etc and lots of it culture smoothly assimilated and well blended like you can find in hadrah dance,rebana instrument,marawis,betawinese nasi kebuli,and so on.The biggest and busiest quarter is Ampel,Surabaya,East Java.

Ampel in Surabaya named after the Sunan Ampel's (islam saint)tomb which is existing there and the area is really bustling.It is nearby the Port of Tanjung Perak and considered as the city's tourism spot,especially for religious tourism and culinary spot.

Long time ago in colonial rule,ampel was meant to be Arabsche kamp,or kampung arab,and there they built the pasar ampel gubah,a middle eastern styled-bazaar(feels in Mecca),formed up a long straight way market with food,dates,clothes,gamis,perfumes,and other stuffs vendors.Ended up in Masjid Ampel,or Ampel Mosque,where the tomb lies and crowded as hell by the pilgrims,mostly from madura or other part of Indonesia,and also lots from Malaysia ,Yemen and Singapore.Sunan Ampel believed to led the Arabs to Jawi(Java).

Surround the bazaar,there are lots of old dutch styled housings.The buildings mostly looks vulnerable,especially some of mini sized-houses with a front curtain on verandah and circling the area like a labirynth.And it has a lots of alleys,Ampel Denta,Ampel Maghfour,Ampel Lonceng,Ampel petukangan,etc.One on the main street of KH Mas Mansyur,i consider as the most well-maintained as it protected by the city government as a heritage site-the Nabhan house.It owned by the Nabhan family,one notable clan in the kamp.

The remains family mostly are lower and low-middle class economy.Many of the younger have moved on to the another city like Jakarta,and ampel nowadays somehow,preassumably consisted of many more Madurese along with Arabs.

By the night,the area fulled of the youth,comes in group to have a dinner,a culinary experience.My favorite are Kebabs cart,the Kikil kambing vendors,and Restaurant Jumbo.The last one is the craziest.I have a kambing oven (grilled lamb in big size marinated in special recipe) for less than IDR50 while you can have the same stuff-less taste in many restos in Jakarta,for 20-40K more expensive.I also enjoy the traditional Surabaya style nasi goreng,the one with a more red tomato colour and mie goreng surabaya,the texture is bigger as udon.You can find them in the labirynth of the old houses.

While experiencing ampel in Ramadhan would be something for you as the hotels fully booked by the pilgrims come across the islands attending the haul event,the commemoration of some holy saints'death but for those who dont really into that kind of situation,just come there in some other month.

Traveling across ampel would be great by take a walk!i enjoyed a bunch of spot worthy to be snapped by my camera and if you want to go outside the ampel when it is too hot (Surabaya indeed way hotter as hell than Jakarta)just take a becak,traditional rickshaw.Its bargainable and you can get a very low tariff down to IDR5.I enjoy getting lost there.

If you're lucky enough,you can also watch traditional feast such as arabic weddings with balasik and samrah dance backsounded by gambus-arabian dessert orchestra!The most interesting part is if you go down the street to the Sasak street,you can find out its  no longer arabic quarter,it is  a chinatown of kembang jepun.Yes,Arabs and Chinese lives in harmony together with the locals.That is Indonesia.

The place is old,a bit dirty and crowded most of time but it always call me back(to dine out there).One more tips:beware of the pickpocket,especially when you are in the bazaar.Overall,happy tasting a bit of dessert in Surabaya.Ahlan fiil'Ampel!