surabaya thrift chaos: decoding the mystery of 1985528 and 1360012184
so i landed in surabaya with a backpack full of optimism and a phone that instantly warned me about the humidity. 92%? are you kidding me? my sketchbook pages curled up before i could even open it. but i'm a vintage clothes picker, so sweat is just part of the job description. first order of business: find a place to dump my haul before i melt.
i stayed in this crate of a hostel near Tunjungan Plaza - not for shopping, but because it's a hub for buses to the outskirts. the AC wheezed like an asthmatic yak, but the price was right: 100k rupiah a night. i met this other picker, maria from bandung, who told me to skip the malls and hit the 'pasar baru' area. 'it's a dump, but the gems are buried,' she said, gnawing on a fried banana.
the weather app said 26.12 degrees, feels like same, pressure 1007. whatever that means, but it felt like walking through soup. i checked again: i just checked and it's...well, it's exactly what the weather app said, hope you like that kind of thing. i was drenched by 10 am. i found a stall under a tarp selling old uniforms from the 80s. one jacket had '1985528' stitched inside the collar. the lady said it was from a former government worker. i bought it for 30k. another shirt had '1360012184' on the tag - no explanation, just 'original price 500k, now 50k'. i didn't argue.
someone told me that the best time to thrift is at 5 am when the suppliers drop off new loads, but i'm not a morning person. i went at 11 am and the pickings were slim, but i scored a set of embroidered pillowcases from the 60s for 10k. the seller was this old dude who spoke zero english, but we communicated through gestures and calculator banging.
if you're itching to escape the city heat, batu's only a short drive away - cool mountains, tea plantations, and surprisingly good vintage shops. i heard from a local on a TripAdvisor thread that batu's got european colony cast-offs. i'll save that for next time.
the train images i included? that's the commuter line from surabaya to malang. i took it one day, and it's an adventure in itself - packed, loud, and the views of bromo in the distance are stunning. but for thrifting, stick to the city center. here's a pic from the station:
. and another:
.
i also stumbled upon this white concrete building that used to be a textile warehouse:
. inside, it was like a vault of forgotten fabrics. i dug for hours, emerging with a silk kimono from the 70s and a military jacket with unit patches. the numbers? none this time, but the stories were in the stitches.
i embedded a map to give you a sense of the sprawl:
. that blue dot is my starting point, but i wandered as far as my feet could take me. the humidity made everything sticky, but also preserved some fabrics surprisingly well.
overheard at a warung: 'don't buy anything that smells like smoke or chemicals - it's been stored wrong.' also, 'the numbers on tags are often from old stock systems, ignore them.' but i'm keeping my two numbered finds as souvenirs of this humid treasure hunt.
links: check out this yelp list for more spots, and a local blog that has walking routes. also, the surabaya tourism board has info on markets, but they sugarcoat the chaos.
so, my haul: batik shirt (1360012184), leather jacket (1985528), pillowcases, kimono, military jacket. total cost: around 400k rupiah. not bad for a day's work in the sauna that is surabaya. next, i'm heading to the port area - heard there's a flea market by the docks with sailor jackets from the 40s. wish me luck, and bring your own towel.
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