Walking in Surabaya

A Ukrainian fellow takes a walk in the old city district of Surabaya on Java. Good video. There is a festival going on, and as a result a lot of chaos. Noise, shows, people milling about, and lot of cosplay. The people are also very friendly, a lot of them smile at the camera man, wave, and greet him.  

At one point a group people taking a picture with a banner called him over to be in the photo. That reminded me of a story from my sailor days. We were on a port visit to Keelung in Taiwan. For a joke somebody called the captain and trolled him by claiming they were planning a race riot that night. That got the wardroom worked up and so they decided they had to do something to head off the mayhem.

I was on duty, so they assigned me to shore patrol with a black guy. I guess us harmoniously being together would snap everybody out of their prejudiced frenzy, or something. Well, we didn't want to do anything -- either get in the midst of a race riot or bother our shipmates at all -- so we basically hid the entire night. 

At one point we were wandering around a hotel and opened a door to their meeting room. To our surprise a Chinese wedding reception was taking place in the room. Embarrassed, we tried to back out, but they were delighted to see us and rushed over to invite us in. They ended up stuffing us with food and drink. Yea, that wasn't exactly part of our shore patrol duties, but we were building rapport with the locals, right? 

At any rate, at one point we ended up flanking the bride and groom as they took wedding pictures with us in them. To this day it amuses me that somewhere in Taiwan there is a wedding photo album with me inside of it. I wonder what stories they tell about that?

 

New wedding traditions in Tukmenistan

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the former dentist and current President of Turkmenistan, is opening a new Palace of Happiness for newlyweds in his country. 

In fact, he is plunging headfirst into the wedding business. At a recent ceremony where he awarded himself the title Hero of Turkmenistan he also issued degrees regarding proper wedding day festivities. 

As the Guardian reports in the article Turkmen couples ordered to plant trees and visit monuments on wedding day: 

In the latest example of what might generously be called his eccentric approach to power, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has ordered couples to plant trees and visit the city's main monuments on their big day. While most couples might hope to be raising a glass or two of champagne, Turkmen couples will now spend their wedding day visiting such romantic sites as the Earthquake Memorial, the Monument to the Constitution, the Monument to Independence and, finally, a second world war memorial.

The new requirements highlight "the exceptional importance of preserving family values in modern society and raising the younger generation to respect the traditions and customs of the people", Berdymukhamedov said at a government meeting devoted to weddings last week.

I did notice that missing from the list of monuments was the Neutrality Monument, which is of course the giant twirling statue of the Turkmenbashi that I so admire. As the Occupy Wall Street protestors might say, "shame on you Berdymukhamedov, shame, shame, shame!"

At any rate, once the romantic nuptial tour of monuments is completed and they make it to their wedding reception they still haven't freed themselves from Berdymukhamedov's lunacy. As I reported earlier in Good news & bad news: 

Having apparently demolished the visual arts, Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Culture, Television and Radio Broadcasting has stated that all songs should now be orientated towards promoting the New Renaissance epoch. Of course, it goes without saying, the best way to do that is to sing the praises of the Arkadag [ED: another name for President Berdymukhamedov].

As the Chronicles of Turkmenistan report in their article Patriotic repertoire for restaurants and cafes, this even goes so far as dictating to dining establishments that that are "responsible for the content of the songs, performed during staff parties, weddings and other festivities which are held at their venues." In other words, it's now all Askadag praise, all the time. (emphasis added)

Gah, poor Turkmenistanis, there is no escaping the lunatic. Soon he'll be issuing decrees that they need to Honeymoon in Avaza.