Palembang Trip - Happily Ever After, Ahin & Juli!

The final day was finally coming.

We planned to have traditional Palembang breakfast, visit the sport complex of Palembang in Jakabaring, have traditional Palembang lunch, have legendary Palembang snack, and go to Ahin & Juli's wedding.

We achieved all the itineraries that have the 'food' element in it.

We started our day by having a morning chit-chat in my house.

With all the foods from Palembang, Manado, Medan :)

We set out of the house to have our late breakfast: mie celor! Mie celor is traditional Palembang food. It consists of thick egg noodle with thick prawn curry soup. Topped with fish crackers or melinjo crackers, it is heavenly delicious.

The place to eat this food is Mie Celor 26 Ilir. No other place can beat mie celor in this place.

Pretty mie celor

Because of traffic jam, we reached here pretty late and finished pretty late as well. Therefore, we decided not to go to Jakabaring and straightaway go to our second food destination: traditional Palembang lunch. Pindang Meranjat Ibu Ucha.

This is the place where you can get the best pindang ikan, the best pepes ikan, the best ikan seluang goreng, and the best ambiance of traditional Palembang.

Pindang Meranjat Ibu Ucha is located somewhere in Demang Lebar Daun. The venue is considered huge with traditional wooden huts all over the place. Inside the huts, there is only low table. Basically, you are required to sit on the floor and eat traditionally, too.

Friends from the sea

The highlights here are:

• Pindang ikan - spicy and sour fish soup
• Pepes ikan - grilled onion & chilli spiced fish wrapped in banana leaf
• Ikan seluang goreng - crispy fried rasbora fish

The fish are usually panga catfish or ikan patin, coming from the river. However now, people farm it in the pond for industry purpose.

Other than those menu, Pindang Meranjat Ibu Ucha also serves gurame bakar (grilled carp), sambal udang petai (spicy shrimp & petai), pepes tempoyak (grilled fermented durian spiced fish wrapped in banana leaf), lalapan (vegetables), many types of chilli sauces, and other seafood products cooked in traditional Palembang way.

Eating here can cost IDR 50,000 to IDR 100,000 (~SGD 5-10) per person depending on the varieties of food that you order. It is not necessarily inexpensive, but it is worth it.

Group photo time! See the ambience? Like it?

After lunch, we sat around for awhile before making a move to our next destination: Martabak Bangka Pulau Mas. This is one of the iconic snack of Palembang. Nobody can ever leave Palembang without tasting this. My favourite is the original flavour, peanut. When I recommended this flavour to my friends, they thought no good of it. Until they tried it.

The peanut is ground peanut, not peanut butter

Super Martabak Bangka

One portion cost IDR 30,000 (~SGD 3.2) and lasted less than 10 minutes on the table. 

After that, it's time to party. We wished Ahin & Juli a happily ever after.

The king and queen of the day

Wedding kiss

Group photo!

<3

And we ended our journey in Palembang with much happiness and love.

Love is in the air,

Little Feet

Palembang Trip - From Sungai Musi to Pulau Kemaro

We continued our journey to Benteng Kuto Besak!

Benteng Kuto Besak is a plaza at the bank of Sungai Musi (Musi River) that was once used as the centre of the kingdom. This place was built by Sultan Mahmud Badarrudin I in the eighteenth century by using limestone and egg white.

Since 2011, Benteng Kuto Besak, which literally means Great Kuto Fortress, has been refurbished and renovated to support government's initiative of making Palembang a tourist destination. The place has been equipped with huge parking lots to ease the visitors. In front of Benteng Kuto Besak, there is a newly built structure called Dermaga Point whereby people can chill in one of the cafes or take boat trip from there.

Besides Benteng Kuto Besak, there is a museum called Museum Sultan Mahmud Badarrudin II. You can park your car at Benteng Kuto Besak or inside the museum compound. We parked our car at Benteng Kuto Besak and we were straightaway asked for parking fee of IDR 4000 (~SGD 0.4) by the (illegal) parking attendant. Beware that many boat owner/operator will chase you to take their boat once you step out of the car.

Our first destination is to visit the museum. Therefore, I told the guy that we were going to museum and not taking the boat.

Boat Operator : The museum is closed.
Me: It's okay, we just go and take some photos.

So we went over to the museum and the guy followed us. If this occur to you, just ignore him.

Museum Sultan Mahmud Badarrudin II

The main door at the first floor which is not opened

We went over and found that the museum was not closed at all. The museum's operating hour is Monday to Saturday from 10:00am to 04:00pm and Sunday from 10:00am to 12:00pm. We bought the ticket that cost us IDR 5000 (~SGD 0.5) per person and we got free museum guide. The old man brought us along and explained every single artefact inside the museum.

Top: Prasasti Kedukan Bukit (Kedukan Bukit Epigraph) - Prasasti Telaga Batu (Telaga Batu Epigraph)
Bottom: Masjid Agung (Great Mosque) - Palembang's traditional house 

The type of ships that people used to cross the river in the past

The wedding decoration that is still used in traditional Palembang wedding until now

Palembang traditional wedding outfits 

Palembang traditional wedding outfits that got influenced by Javanese culture 

The traditional bridal suit. The scale at the corner is for the couple to weigh their clothes and two sides shall be balanced to illustrate everlasting love

There are quite a number of things that can be seen in the museum. From all the way back when Buddhism was the main religion under Sriwijaya Kingdom until it changed to Hinduism under Majapahit and how it finally absorbed the Islamic teaching through the Palembang Kingdom and Admiral Cheng Ho. Palembang is essentially a mixture of all. Even the patterns of the traditional wooden furniture still have some elements of Buddhism such as lotus flower.

We visited the museum for about half an hour before making our move to Dermaga Point. Dad already helped us to secure a more-than-ten-seater boat for IDR 200,000 (~SGD 2.2). To my surprise, when we stepped out of the museum, the guy who pestered us previously still waited for us there. We just walked and ignored him completely.

We took our boat to see Musi River and stopped over at Pulau Kemaro.

Dermaga Point and Pasar 16 Ilir (16 Ilir Market) at afar

The view of Jembatan Ampera while we set sail 

The view of Jembatan Ampera after I put on some instagram filter :)

The boat was just so-so with the engine rumbling like mad at our ears. I guess they can do better by covering the engine below the deck so we can save our ears.

However this guy still enjoyed himself 

We passed by traditional floating houses, i.e. rumah rakit

Factory of PT Pupuk Sriwijaya, the producer of fertilizer

After 30 minutes of annoying boat trip, we stopped at Pulau Kemaro. Pulau Kemaro is an island at the delta of Musi River that is always dry no matter how high the tide is. Kemaro means dry. So I guess that's how the island got its name.

Legend says that long long time ago a Chinese merchant called Tan Bun An falled in love with a girl from Palembang named Siti Fatimah. Tan Bun An brought Siti Fatimah back to China to meet his family soon after. After a while, they sailed back to Palembang. Before they set sail, Tan Bun An's family presented them 7 jars of presents and told them not to open the jars before reaching Palembang.

When they were on Musi River already, Tan Bun An opened one of the jar. To his surprise and disappointment, he only found salted cabbage in the jar. Being so angry, he threw the jars into Musi River. The last jar that he tried to throw fell onto the ship's deck and only then he found that below the salted cabbages there were many golden jewelries. He regretted his decision and threw himself to the river to get back his presents. His attendant also jumped with him.

After a while, Siti Fatimah, who did not see her husband coming up from the river, also threw herself into the river to rescue Tan Bun An. However, nobody ever managed to find these three people.

A few days after, a pile of ground was seen nearby the location. Over the time, the pile of ground turned into a small island. The island is believed to be the graveyard of these three people.

There are a Chinese temple and a pagoda in Pulau Kemaro and people usually come here to pray during Cap Go Meh Festival. The place will be full of people during the period of fifteenth day after Chinese New Year. When we visited the island, it was almost empty and the temple was closed. We just walked around.

Full team in front of the famous pagoda of Pulau Kemaro

There is a graveyard of Siti Fatimah and Tan Bun An inside this temple

There is also a huge tree in the middle of the island that people refer as love tree. It is said that when you write your partner's and your name on two pieces of paper and stick them on the tree, you will know whether you two are meant to be together a few days after when you visit the tree back. If both papers are still there, you are soulmates. However, now, nobody does that anymore. As replacement, surrounding the tree, there is wooden fence, and people write their names and their loved ones on it.

After walking around, we hopped on to the boat again and went back to Dermaga Point. Another 30 minutes and we stepped down the boat. Beware that the boat operator will ask for extra money from you. Just ignore him. When we went back to the car, the (illegal) parking attendant also asked for extra money, we just told him we had paid and drove away.

We then drove to Bakmie Terang Bulan to enjoy the famous noodle of Palembang. Bakmie Terang Bulan has been in operation for many many many years and the old man who cooks the noodle almost never smiles to the customers. He never hesitates to scold the customers even. But why people still come back? I guess it's because of the quality of the food.

When we reached there around 5:30pm, we were lucky that we could find seats easily. After we sat down, people started coming in and put themselves under waiting list. When unlucky, people can wait for 1-2 hours for that bowl of noodle.

There were two types of noodles served here, bakmie and fried noodle

And you shall try the pangsit (wonton)

The bakmie and the wonton are the best here! So, when you visit Palembang and you are not restricted to eat non-halal food, you must visit this place.

After we finished our meal, we drove back to Benteng Kuto Besak to catch a view of Ampera Bridge at night. We went to Dermaga Point again and stood there to wait for the sun to set.

The Golden Gate of Palembang

Indo CEE yeah :)

We ended our playtime at Musi area and went to Rajawali Village to chill for awhile before calling it a day.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Palembang Trip - Jia Zhuang in Palembang

Happy tummy is one of the indicators of happiness. My objective is to keep my friends happy when visiting my hometown.

After filling our tummies with all types of pempek, we went to purchase some souvenirs, which is another fish product, kemplang (fish cracker). Generally, there are two big family of kemplang, fried one and grilled one. However, there are many derivatives of kemplang that I will not talk about here.

We then went to the famous Es Asuk Koboi which sells es campur. Es campur is the mixture of red bean, cendol, grass jelly, fermented cassava in coconut milk and condensed milk topped with shaved ice. The old man that sells this started his legacy from being a street vendor with his wheel cart. Now he is a successful man with a shophouse as his store. Now, his es campur is sold IDR 14,000 (~SGD 1.5) per bowl.

Es campur - first look

Es campur - upon mixing

We then went over to our friend's house to participate in his jia zhuang occasion. In Palembang, we call it hantaran, whereby the bride brings over trays and trays of stuffs to enter her new house. As we are the friend of the groom, we straight away went to the groom's house and waited there. During the ceremony, we were asked to help taking over the trays and carrying them to the bridal suite.

We presented our handmade card, look at his delighted yet anxious face!

Jia zhuang done!

Then we continued our journey to explore Palembang. 

Love is in the air,

Little Feet

Palembang Trip - Pempek 101 (Pempek for Beginners)

The next morning was a good one. We started our trip with a grande breakfast at 'Pempek 888' at Taman Kenten Palembang. This is another speciality store that sells almost all kind of pempek and other traditional fish-related product from Palembang.

So, let's me explain.

Of course one shall try pempek (fish cake) when visiting Palembang. Hail to the inventor of pempek, whoever he was, for inventing such a brilliant dish. Some stories said that pempek was created the first time by a Chinese immigrant living at the bank of Musi River. He noticed so many fish left to waste if not sold out during the day. Therefore, he created this dish to prolong the lifespan of the fish. And from then since, he sold his fish cake on a wheeled cart. People then referred it as pek-apek and now pempek.

Along the way, the creator of pempek sure got more creative. More and more types of pempek were invented. The most common type of pempek is pempek lenjer, which is the original type of pempek: just plain fish and flour without any filling. The shape is usually small or big cylinder.

Pempek Campur

Other than that, there is pempek telor (egg filled fish cake), which is pempek filled with beaten egg. Upon covering the egg with pempek dough, pempek telor is boiled so that the egg filling becomes solid. Look at the bottom left corner for pempek telor.

Besides pempek telor, you can spot pempek keriting (swirled fish cake). It is essentially the same as pempek lenjer but with different shape. The dough is run over a copper sieve so it comes out of the opening in an elongated shape. The dough is then scooped with spoon to create the shape that you see right now.

At the upmost top of the picture, there is pempek pistel (papaya filled fish cake). This is in my opinion the most unique type of pempek as the filling is stir-fried sliced young papaya. The method of creating pempek pistel is exactly the same as pempek telur.

The ball shape pempek is pempek adaan. The ingredients of making pempek adaan is a bit different as it needs coconut milk and some leeks. Pempek adaan is not boiled but deep fried. After frying, pempek adaan is placed on a big container to be further shaken so as to let it retains the shape.

In the middle of the plate is pempek tahu (tofu fish cake). Half of the pempek is tofu and it is also fried instead of boiled. The dough of pempek tahu is similar to that in pempek adaan. In Singapore, it can be referred as yong tou fu, I guess.

Pempek Kulit ala 888

Pempek kulit (fish skin cake) here is also great and it tastes quite different from the one sold in Pempek Lenny. Maybe that's because some fish meat is used as a mixture to the fish skin here.

Lenggang Goreng

Lenggang goreng is pempek omelette. It is pempek diced into cubes and mixed with scrambled egg. After that it is fried in a frying pan. It is best to be eaten with sprinkles of ebi (dried tiny shrimp) and cucumber.

Pempek Tunu sold by street vendors, usually in front of schools

Pempek 888 also sells pempek panggang (grilled pempek). It is grilled on charcoal griller instead of boiled or fried. Pempek panggang, or people call it pempek tunu, is usually sold by street vendors on a wheel cart. Served hot and filled with ebi (dried shrimp), sweet soy sauce and chilli padi.

The friend of pempek panggang, which is lenggang panggang, unfortunately is not sold here. Lenggang panggang (grilled lenggang) is also grilled on charcoal grilled. The dough is mixed with scrambled egg, poured into banana leaf container, and grilled until everything solidifies.

Pempek Panggang (Source:burpple.com)

Lenggang Panggang, unlike lenggang goreng, is usually square in shape

There is one more thing which is not sold here. It is pempek kapal selam (giant egg pempek). Kapal Selam means submarine. I guess this is due to the size and weight of the pempek that cannot float when boiled. Besides the size, the thing that differentiates pempek kapal selam and pempek telor is the filling. Pempek telor is filled with scrambled egg while pempek kapal selam is filled with literally the whole egg. It needs certain level of advancement for mastering this art. Pempek kapal selam is usually deep fried before serving.

Pempek Kapal Selam needs to be submerged

And of course, all of those pempek shall be eaten with cuka pempek! It's the chilli-brown sugar-vinegar dipping sauce specially made to be the best partner of all kind of pempek.

Other fish products, speciality from Palembang

From the top left corner, there is rujak mie. Rujak mie is a mixture of fried pempek lenjer, fried tofu, egg noodle, glass noodle, cucumber and ebi (dried shrimp), poured with cuka. Besides rujak mie, there is tekwan. It is essentially pempek in bite size that is eaten in shrimp stock soup. At the top right corner, there is model ikan. Model ikan is pempek tahu eaten in shrimp stock soup as well. The bottom right corner shows pangsit ikan. Pangsit ikan is fish dumpling soup. The difference of pangsit ikan with other dumplings is that the dumpling skin is made from the dough of pempek. I bet you can't find it anywhere.

And at the bottom left corner is somewhat special from Pempek 888. It is model gandum. The stock for this soup is made from beef instead of shrimp and model gandum is not made from fish but wheat flour. Model gandum is fried wheat ball immersed in beef stock soup.

As Palembang people is so good in eating spicy food, all these soups come with complimentary chilli paste made of chilli padi. As chilli paste alone is not enough, Palembang people used to pour some cuka pempek into the soup to make it something more Palembang.

If you asked me, I can't choose which one is my favourite because I love all of them equally.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Palembang Trip - First Day with Food

The trip started with food. Upon arrival in Sultan Mahmud Badarrudin International Airport, we straightaway went to Cipta Rasa Restaurant for its nasi goreng merah (red fried rice). This fried rice was already a favourite since I was little and until now, it maintains the flavour!

The huge frying pan!

Red fried rice with side dishes of fried egg, sweet minced meat, melinjo crackers, and of course chilli sauce!

Then we went to Pempek Lenny. This is a food store that specialises in traditional food of Palembang, pempek (fish cake). The store sells all kind of pempek but its speciality is pempek kulit (fish skin cake). Pempek kulit is made of fish skin and flour, the shape is usually round and thin like a giant coin and it is eaten after being deep fried. Pempek kulit in Pempek Lenny is so crunchy and smells heavenly. One is priced as IDR 4000 (~SGD 0.4).

Crispy Pempek Kulit

We went to meet the lovebirds for dinner at Sari Laut Musi Restaurant. When we arrived, the lovebirds had been waiting for us and he had ordered enormous amount of seafood. There are kepiting saus padang (chilli crab), kepiting asap (smoked crab), cumi goreng tepung (fried calamari), ikan males tim (steamed marble goby), gurame goreng kipas (fried gurame in the shape of a fan), kari ikan (fish curry), and hotplate kangkung (morning glory hotplate). A lot, huh? But no worries, we are a bunch of eating warrior.

Posing before eating

After dinner, we drove one round to see the glorious bridge of Palembang, Ampera. However, both bf and I never went to the viewing platform so we went the wrong way and circled Ampera Bridge twice. We quickly gave up and moved on to our next destination: another food.

This time, we went to Martabak Malabar Boy. Martabak Malabar is essentially Indian style pancake, called murtabak, in Singapore. It consists flour, yeast, egg, and some filling (can be vegetables, meat, or just plain egg) fried on a giant circular pan. It is eaten with potato curry sauce. We ordered 1 special martabak (big size with both meat and veggie as the filling) at IDR 35000 (~SGD 4), 1 vegetable martabak and 1 egg martabak at IDR 20,000 (~SGD 2.3) each.

Three martabak, don't forget to pour the curry sauce and the chilli soy sauce onto the martabak. That's how you eat it!

Our first day ended here. We went home and slept early as we had more food to eat the day after.

Love is in the air,

Little Feet

Palembang Trip - History and Story

The story goes back to the seventh century AD when The Kingdom of Sriwijaya was suspected to be founded. It's believed from the discovery of epigraph called "Prasasti Kedukan Bukit" in Palembang. The epigraph iterated the story of the first king of Sriwijaya, Dapunta Hyang, who went for an 8-day journey to conquer a number of areas with only 20,000 troops. There is no other epigraph telling the story before this event, leading people to believe that Sriwijaya was founded during the period.

Prasasti Kedukan Bukit (source: sejarah-negara.com)

Sriwijaya consists of 2 words from Sanskrit. The first word sri means shining and the second word wijaya means victory. Therefore, Sriwijaya means shining victory. And that's not just a name. Sriwijaya continued to gain its victory until the kingdom covered most of South East Asia and became the centre of trading. Sriwijaya attracted traders from Arab, India, and China thus gaining prosperity even more.

Sriwijaya was ruled by 20 kings before facing its downfall. In the 13th century, King Chola from India attacked Sriwijaya causing Sriwijaya to lose its trading centres and routes. This event was made use by a lot of regions to liberate themselves from Sriwijaya. More chaos was ignited everywhere across the kingdom causing Sriwijaya to fall into the hand of The Kingdom of Majapahit at the end.

Palembang was the capital of Sriwijaya during its golden era. After the defeat from King Chola, Palembang became a small unrecognised town. Arya Damar, one of Majapahit warriors, became the mayor of this town. Arya Damar also assisted Majapahit in conquering Bali.

The history during this time has too many versions to explain. Whatever happened after 13th century was a blurry events. Only in the fifteenth century, Palembang was attacked by pirates from China and Admiral Cheng Ho was the one who defeated these pirates. Admiral Cheng Ho also formed Islamic belief to the people of Palembang who was previously under Sriwijaya with its Buddhism and Majapahit with its Hinduism.

Palembang then was under the conquer of The Kingdom of Demak. Some sources said that the founder of Demak was the son of Arya Damar. During this time, Indonesia was mostly influenced by Islam. Only in 1659, Palembang became a kingdom with its own name. The first king was Sri Susuhan Abdurrachman. Palembang continued to be in this state until The Netherlands came to conquer Indonesia and ruled over the kingdom.

Masjid Agung, a.k.a The Grand Mosque in the 18th Century (Source: iwan-lemabang.wordpress.com)

War between Palembang and The Netherlands was continuous within the 19th century until the declaration of independence by the first president of Indonesia on 17th August 1945. After that, Palembang became the capital of South Sumatera province. The birth of Palembang was recognised as the date of Dapunta Hyang's expedition, i.e. 17th July 688. With this date declared, Palembang became the oldest city in Indonesia.

Geographically, Palembang is divided by a river in the middle of the city. This river is the well-known Musi River. The southern side of the river is the upstream, called Seberang Ulu and the northern side of the river is the downstream called Seberang Ilir. Ampera River was then built and opened for operation in 1965 to ease the traffic between the two sides of the city. This bridge was designed as vertical lift bridge that can open up when large ship passing by. Sadly, this mechanism only worked until 1970 due to unacceptable 30 minute delay for opening up the bridge, or ban of large ships passing Musi River, or the flaw in the foundation system not allowing the mechanism to continue without risking the safety. Nobody knows the truth. But until today, the red bridge is still there, standing proudly.

The Construction of Ampera Bridge, 1962 (Source: kokocicipalembang.weebly.com)

Ampera during Its Glorious Day of Vertical Lift (Source: kokocicipalembang.weebly.com)

Ampera in this Millenial Era (Source: kokocicipalembang.weebly.com)

I am from Palembang but I have yet to talk about my own city. Here I am, preparing to take a trip as a traveller in this graceful old city. When I was little, nothing was done to enhance the beauty of the city. Palembang was left untouched and wrinkled by itself. Only after former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono proposed Palembang to be developed as water tourism city in 2005, things started to be tended and mended. Renovation of Benteng Kuto Besak, a plaza in front of Musi River facing Ampera Bridge, kicked start the effort. After that, Ampera Bridge was repainted and lights were installed along the bridge. Museums and ethnic centres were once again relived. And in 2008, 'Visit Musi' was officially launched together with Sea Games 2008.

And now, I am proudly saying that my hometown has been more well known, not just as 'the city where SilkAir crashed in 1996'.

So, what are you waiting for? Visit Musi, visit Palembang.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet