Palembang Indonesia Exposed

Palembang South Sumatra Food and Transportation Exposed
Real Life Experience


1. PEMPEK-PEMPEK
City Palembang is located in the South Sumatra on the Musi River. The city is not famous for almost anything but Pempek Pempek which is considered to be their national food. This regional delicacy is the best described as “Sago” (Papua core tree) dumplings. It is interesting that Palembang has to import the Sago from Papua in order to make this food. Pempek2 Gulai (yellow curry sauce)is the most famous among locals.

2. AMPERA BRIDGE
Palembang is famous for its Ampera Bridge which is an Indonesian version of overcrowded Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The Musi river is murky and it is nothing really special. There is an island in the middle of the river with the Chinese Pagoda. The population of the cit is around one million.

3. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
Even according to the Indonesian standards, Palembang is considered to be very crowded, polluted, and far away from being clean city. It is well known as a transit city in the Southern Sumatra.

The public transportation is “Uzas” and it consists of a bunch of ten years old or older Suzuki mini vans, the closed-back Toyota pick-up trucks originally from the 90s, and the “prehistoric” diesel motor buses that are probably from the 80s (if we are talking about the newer models).Taxi cabs are almost non existent as there is only one taxi company (The White Cab) that holds monopoly in this city and has outrageous prices (rp. 50,000 minimum payment and rp 25,000 per kilometer). Note that this price might be even higher or slightly lower depending on your Bahasa Indonesia negotiating skills.

4. DISCO PURE STRESS BUS
The mini vans and “prehistoric” buses are driven by youngsters who are in their 20s and are known to be notorious drivers. They usually smoke (like fish) and play super loudly Indonesian techno music. Their right hand is also usually the notorious, fast and furious, bus assistant who collects the bus fare payments usually without providing the money back. The same bus assistant often plays “catch me if you can” game. In this game he plays a reality game show called "Dumb for Real!”. He pretends he is super busy by soliciting the passengers on the street, entering the bus through the back door and exiting the bus through the front door. As soon as he collects his money from poor passengers, he keeps the low profile and doesn’t provide the money back. For example, whoever has given him rp 50,000 might not even get the money back unless he/she chases him throughout the bus. It is very similar to the “cat and mouse” game. Throughout this game the bus assistant either screams to get more customers from the outside, or taps the bus door zillion times to let the driver knows where to stop. He is careless to help the passengers getting off as he and the driver don't care about your existence. So if you don't know where to get off “good luck!” as you will definitely need it. I hate to ride “Disco Pure Stress Bus".

5. SMOKING DISCO MINIVANS
The minivans are a bit better than the big stress buses as you can pretty much control the driver. All you need to do is to scream at him every two seconds to drive slower and to reduce the-inner ear-lube-destroying -10 mp bass music. The minivans come in different colors and the different routes share the same colors. This vehicles often don’t operate after 9 p.m. At the same time, it is very difficult to spot the right mini van at night as they all look alike in the dark.

6. READING “BECA” AND “OJEK” DRIVERS LIKE AN OPEN BOOK?
Imagine that you are in the shopping mall or at the restaurant after 9 p.m.? If you don’t have your own transportation you might not be able to get back home, as only “beca” two wheel bicycle rides and “ojek” motorcycle share rides could be available. These two should be your last chance as they are far away from being safe.

The way to decide if you are going for a “ride of your life” depends first of all on your Bahasa Indonesia negotiating skills, and the multiple intelligences that include reading the body language and face expressions of a driver. The absolute no are the drunk,naughty, and over funny drivers. In addition you need to clearly indicate that they should provide a slow and safe ride. Again, have a native speaker to help you with this issue.

7. PADANG FOOD EXPOSED
The best restaurants in the town serve Padang food. These restaurants are amazing and offer wide variety of dishes rich in light “Indian” yellow curry sauce. Pagi Sore is definitely the best restaurant in town. When you get into one of these restaurants, as soon as you seat down they will bring you zillion plates with the most amazing dishes that include: cumi gulai (squid in the curry sauce), ayam opor (chicken in the curry sauce), ayam bakar cabe merah(grilled chicken w red chillies), sapi rendang (over-spicy and oily beef steak), otak sapi gulai (cow’s brain in curry), kaki sapi (cow’s feet), sayur daun ubi gulai (sweet popato leaves in the curry sauce) etc. It is up to you to accept or decline these dishes.

What do locals say?
It is suggested among locals that you don’t savour Padang cuisine at night but only for lunch. They pretty much open up at 10 a.m. so lunch is your best choice. The dishes are recycled and “panas lagi” warmed up throoughout the day multiple times. It was surprising to find out that “Kakap fish” in the yellow curry sauce was decided to be reused (and fee was not charged) for just eating the sauce and not touching the fish by itself. The plate served was not charged. Be aware they don’t follow the Western standards and they are far away from the modern Indonesian restaurants’ standards found in Jakarta, Bandung, and Bali.


8. BAMBOO HUT SARI LAUT RESTAURANT WARNING – GURAME EXPOSED
The best sea food restaurant doesn’t exist even though, in the local eyes, it is Sari Laut (the Seahorse) Restaurant. This famous place is located in the front of the Novotel Hotel. If you dare to eat their sea food, be aware the the cook smokes while he prepares the dishes. In addition, their Gurame fish from the fish pond is located next to the toilet (luckily toilet and pond water don’mix as their plumbing works). The fish pond, I found to be “relatively” dirty as I had had a problem to spot the fish I ordered. When I approached the restaurant manager in Bahasa Indonesia about this issue, he just mentioned that they had no time to clean the water pond as they were super busy. (He hasn’t offered to change or replace my dish).

My appetite radically decreased after speaking to the manager and thinking about the fish cleanliness. I went to see the same fish pond again to convince myself that I could eat the fish I ordered. I ended up speaking to the staff trying to catch the last Gurame fish in the almost empty but filthy water pond. This fish was supposed to be for another “unaware” customer. I asked the same guy if he could see the the last two fish he tried to catch in the murky water pond. He told me that the water got polluted from the dust falling down from the bamboo roof top which edge was facing the water pond. This answer somehow satisfied my curiosity and I pretty much forced my appetite to came back as I was super hungry. Finally, I finished eating the “murky” fish, avoiding the fish skin. I ended up paying around rp. 60.000 for this “delicacy”. That was my experience at the best sea food restaurant in Palembang. I kept thinking if their best sea food restaurant serves delicious food like this, how about their other famous restaurants?