Traffic was heavy for the last day of the Galungan break, so the drive to the airport required some diversions to miss traffic problems and took 4 hours. The Mandala flight to Surabaya was uneventful (that means good). The airport seems huge (compared to Denpasar) and the taxi ride into the city is along a toll road where the traffic moves swiftly. So welcome to a real city that seems to work.

The District Conference was in the up-market Hotel Bumi Surabaya a short distance from the city centre. We stayed in the more modest (but still very good) Hotel Cendana which was 5 minutes walk.

Our District Govenor, Thomas Aquinas, was the host for the conference and went through the daily roll-call where he called out club names. Some clubs responded with flags or rattles or other attention seeking devices. We had some air-horns which were really loud and caused heads to turn.

The conference was a mixture of Bahasa Indonesia and English. Some speakers used both, some spoke in Indonesian and had English slides, while others were all in one language or the other. There was little indication of what to expect before getting into the session.

Some Rotary VIPs were at the Conference. In particular, Past District Govenor Patrick Waite (from District 9940 in New Zealand) was representing the Rotary International President, John Kenny. (In the programme he is quaintly referred to as RIP John Kenny!)

The programme on Friday had talks from the visiting speakers, some choirs, a prayer time (because it was Friday), talks on End Polio, Thallasemia, Re-forestation, Shelterbox, and more.

The programme on Saturday had talks on the Rotary Foundation, the financial report for the district, the District Governor Nominee announcement, promotion for the Rotary International Conference next month in Montreal, and the next District Conference in Sanur in June 2011. In the late morning, there were 3 parallel breakout sessions on specific projects, then a report back from these sessions in the afternoon.