Travel Diary: Palembang 2017

A view from Chinese Vihara in Pulau Kemaro

I stayed in Palembang for only 3 days, super quick, short getaway from Jakarta around June 2017. But it was really fun, really worth it. I went there with my mum, grandma, and my two siblings, but I met my cousins who are Palembang descents there. They were also spending their vacation there.

Woke up to this, such a pretty scenery!

In Palembang, we stayed at this beautiful hotel "Novotel Palembang", it's very family friendly, they had this cooking class for children. It's quite fancy, actually. So if I had gone there without my family, I wouldn''t have been able to afford it.

Ampera Bridge on top of Musi River

My sissy looking so fine against the shadow

FILM CAMERA 

When I went there I was so eager to use my analog camera, but I didn't really develop all the films that I used I only developed one, because it really cost me a lot of money to you know, maintain this relationship with my analog camera. In this post, you will see pictures shot by my mom's old Fujifilm Camera.

PROLOGUE ABOUT PALEMBANG

Palembang is the capital of South Sumatra Province. It's really famous for its signature dish, Pempek and their fancy Songket fabric. It's another big city in Indonesia. The people here talk in Melayu, more like Palembang-Melayu. It sounds similar to Malay, but slightly different. The weather here is slightly hotter than Jakarta but less pollution so it's okay. What I love about this city is the food, they have a lot of sea food, and I also love the language, it's very poetic, and I had a great experience with water transportation here. It's been really entertaining.

Outside Benteng Kuto Besak

THE DAILY DOSIS OF PEMPEK

One of my favorite Indonesian dishes, is Pempek. Like, It never gets old. It's the signature dish of Palembang, South Sumatra. It's like a fish cake, I ate it almost everyday there. Some of them are filled with eggs, and nangka, but it basically tastes like fish cake.

TOURIST DESTINATION

Some of the tourist destinations here are very historical, there are a lot of ancient castles and museums. I didn't visit any museum due to my very short stay, but I visited Benteng Kuto Besak, it's an ancient castle in palembang. For me, Palembang really gave me a military vibe to myself. The city would be very "Stiff" if they didn't have that poetic language. My destination would be Benteng Kuto Besak, a night at Musi River, Pulau Kemaro, and this Songket Market. 

WHAT TO BUY IN SONGKET MARKET

I visited Palembang during the Eid Al Fitr vacation, so not many stores opened. There are a lot of markets that sell songket fabrics here, you can choose any market you like. Despite all of these fabrics and traditional clothes they had, they also sold beautiful table clothes made of pretty songket fabrics. I really recommend you to buy this, because it's really gorgeous and it's functional. 

A capture of Songkets

Stores nearby Songket Market. 

Brother outside one of the fabric stores

PULAU KEMARO

On our second day, we went to this little island, it's called Pulau Kemaro. In this island, there's a symbolic cemetery for the ancestors of the Palembang. We were told by the tour guide that the Princess of Palembang, Siti fatimah was married to a prince from China, his name is Prince Tan Bun An. But they both died when they were on their way back to South Sumatra when sailing in Musi River.

This island is very well-acculturated. There are both chinese and muslim culture elements here. It surely proves we did live in harmoney back in the days. so why not now? 

Me and My cousin outside the cemetery. Like I told you before this island is well acculturated with chinese culture, so there are a lot of dragon decoration in this place.

Me Outside the Chinese Temple in Pulau Kemaro, with my Analog Camera

A view from the 9th Floor of Ancient Vihara

In Pulau Kemaro, there's this Vihara where we can see the skyline of Palembang. It's not open for public though. I was lucky because my uncle knows someone who works here, so we got the privilege to go inside this Vihara. I didn't capture the photo of vihara itself, so you can check it out through this link: http://www.indonesia-tourism.com/south-sumatra/kemaro_island.html

So I guess that's it. My short Palembang story during my stay there. I would definitely visit it again to explore the museums more. It was really nice to be able to liberate myself from Jakarta even for 3 days. see you again, Palembang!

NOT SO IMPORTANT EPILOG

One of my lecturers told me to take some time to think about my ongoing thesis. I decided to fill my days with novelty instead. I started learning korean, and I can write Hangul pretty well now. I mean, it's not bad really. Anyways... I'm collecting myself piece by piece everyday as I've realized that after these 22 years of living, I have never been that determined of my goals. I spent my childhood and adolescence to study, get good grades, get to a good university, you know basic goals and all. But um, I realised that I have never been so determined in my life, to achieve something, or at least to do something that I like. SO, yeah I've been doing and discovering a lot of novelties, like hangul lesson, and I start writing again. And I was wondering what I should write today. So I figured, maybe I should share my past experience traveling in Palembang, South Sumatra.