WITH its brightly lit glass cubicles displaying scantily clad women to the passing pedestrians, there's no place in Indonesia, or the Islamic world, quite like Surabaya's Dolly district.
The hub of the port city's expansive sex industry, Dolly is a narrow lane some 200 metres long, packed with brothels and bars, the touts jostling among the satay vendors and meatball soup hawkers to entice passers-by to ''jiggy jiggy''.
It's not exactly Bangkok's Patpong or Amsterdam's red light district, but it's not far off either. Named after a Dutch madam who set up a brothel in the area during the colonial era, Dolly has thrived for decades with the tacit approval of local authorities.
All that, however, may be about to change.
''Such a situation is not good,'' says Indra Istianto, head of the East Java government's social affairs department. ''It's not good for children and, besides, the reputation of Surabaya is tainted.