Odd Tourist Attractions: The Soviet Sub in Downtown Surabaya

Tourists generally gravitate toward the most famous and noteworthy attractions.  If you're in Paris you head to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.  In London it might be Buckingham Palace and the London Eye gigantic ferris wheel which draws the crowds.  But, obscure and odd attractions also have an appeal, at least for me.  In Surabaya there are no marquee attractions, so one must search for the out-of-the-ordinary.  And I found precisely that sort of oddity smack dab in the middle of downtown Surabaya in the form of a gargantuan Soviet submarine that became a part of the Indonesian Navy. Just follow the river that flows through the city and you will eventually end up at Kapal Selam or "The Submarine Monument."

The submarine in question, known as the Pasopati, was built in Vladivostok in the early 1950s and was delivered to the Indonesian Navy. Its most noted action was in the Battle of Arafura Sea in 1962, when the Indonesian Navy met defeat trying to deal a blow to the Dutch forces that still occupied West Irian (New Guinea).

The Pasopati is an enormous ship, 76 meters long, but the sailors' quarters are horrifyingly cramped and I couldn't imagine living packed tightly together for weeks at a time in this naval sardine can. A person with claustrophobia would lose their mind after about an hour trapped on board this vessel, I don't doubt. After touring the Pasopati, what I most keenly felt was a sense of gratitude that I never had to serve as a submarine sailor. It's amazing what humans will subject themselves to in the effort to kill their enemies. 














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