Palembang Day 1

 Welcome to Palembang!

 

Welcome to Palembang! The OLDEST city in Indonesia (683 AD), and the second oldest city in Southeast Asia (after Hanoi in Vietnam).

Because it's the oldest city, so we went there to visit historical relics and sites that spread across the city. I'm kidding. We went there to attend our friends' wedding. Thanks for TPM fellas for allowing me to join the trip!

18:18. And the train would depart at 18:20, and we hadn't bought the tickets. and if we missed the train, we should wait for quite long since it's not as frequent as MRT Jakarta.

Alhamdulillah we made it! The train was empty. The interior is similar with MRT Jakarta. The most noticeable difference is on the handrail's color. It's yellow in Palembang, and white in Jakarta.

19:05. Cinde LRT station. It's nice and clean, like its brother in Jakarta. The difference perhaps it's very uncrowded here.

Apparently, the LRT route in Palembang is 24.5 km, while MRT route in Jakarta is only 15.7 rate (so far for the phase 1). .

While avg daily passenger for LRT Palembang is 4-5k, while it's 91k in Jakarta. Whoa, jomplang banget ya.

Jadi penasaran, apakah LRT Palembang secara ekonomi menguntungkan? Sbg penumpang sih saya seneng2 aja. Tapi misalnya saya adalah penduduk Palembang yg bayar pajak? Anyway, saya kan bukan penduduk Palembang, ya udah lah ya, wkwk.

19:09. I stayed at RedDoorz during my stay in Palembang. Well, it's my first time staying at RedDoorz. Why I stayed at RedDoorz? Selain harganya terjangkau, lagipula saya hanya sendirian dan cuma numpang tidur.

Eh kok sendirian. Yang lain gimana? Nah berhubung saya ikutnya last minute, jadinya yang lain sudah booking hotel. Kok saya ga ikut nginep di hotel? Males bayar lebih aja sih. Lol. Plus ingin nyoba RedDoorz aja. Entah mengapa unless bener2 ingin leisure, atau merasakan fasilitas hotel, atau dapet hotelnya dengan view yang oke, menurut saya ya isi hotel gitu2 aja kok. Apalagi kalo cuma buat numpang tidur ya.

Misal sampe hotel jam 19. Check in. Makan malam di luar baru balik jam 22. Terus tidur. Bangun anggap jam 5-6. Terus jam 8 breakfast, terus keluar hotel untuk beraktivitas.

Sebenernya saya seneng juga sih nginep di hotel bagus. Kadang tergantung mood aja. Lol. Satu kali, "ngapain sih, kan sayang uangnya?". Di lain kali, "duh tanggung, mending yang bagusan sekalian aja ga sih mumpung di sini". lol

Okay back to topic. Jadi menurut saya RedDoorz oke lah buat numpang tidur. Ada air hangat, AC, dan kamarnya relatif bersih. Ohya, di depan penginapan yg berlokasi di jln Sudirman itu, berhubung itu malam minggu, jadi ada pasar malam. Sungguh ramai!

20:39. Malam itu kami makan di luar bersama. Tujuannya adalah Restaurant Riverside. Jaraknya sekitar 1.5 km dari hotel tempat kawan2 menginap. Kata Google Maps, sekitar 20 menit jalan kaki. Ga terlalu jauh lah ya. Jadi kami putuskan untuk jalan kaki saja.

Rute terdekat untuk menuju ke sana, kalau berjalan kaki, ternyata umm, cukup "menarik". Jadi lewat jalan2 kecil, gang2 sempit nan gelap. Kalau sendirian sepertinya saya bakal mengurungkan diri dan cari rute lain.

Alhamdulillah, berbekalkan Google Maps, setelah melalui jalan berliku, akhirnya kami sampai juga di restoran yang berlokasi di tepi Sungai Musi ini. Soo exciting! Kami sudah lapar!

20:58 Restoran tersebut besar dan sangatlah ramai. Berlokasi di tepi Sungai Musi, kami yang di sana sebagai turis berusaha mencari lokasi dengan view yang bagus. Ya di deket2 sungai gitu lah. Untungnya sungainya ga kayak ciliwung ya. Kalo kayak ciliwung, pastinya kami cari yang jauh2 dari sungai.

Spot yang kami incar untung saja pas banget baru ditinggalkan oleh tamu sebelumnya. Langsung buru2 kami duduki dan kemudian kami pesan makan.

Agak lupa sih kami pesan apa saja dan rasanya gimana. Seingat saya sih rasanya enak ya, tapi memang lagi lapar juga sih. lol.

Ohya, spot tempat kami duduk itu bisa langsung melihat pemandangan jembatan ampera. Sungguh indah, dan syahdu. Well, ga syahdu juga sih karena restoran tersebut menerapkan konsep open mic. Kebetulan tamu2 yang menyumbangkan suaranya saat itu kebanyakan cukup fals. @rosaliaad disuruh nyanyi tapi malu2 kucing. Gagal request biduan ibukota utk urun suara.

22:37. Seselesainya makan malam, kami lalu berjalan kaki terlebih dahulu menyusuri sungai. Ya, lebih pas kalo dibilang menyusuri pasar kaget sih, sungguh sangat ramai. Pedagang berjualan, masyarakat berlalu lalang.

Kami lalu melalui Benteng Kuto Besak. Benteng Kuto Besak merupakan satu-satunya benteng yang dibangun oleh orang Indonesia, bukan oleh penjajah kolonial seperti Portugis atau Belanda. Katanya. Bangunan ini adalah lambang supremasi Kesultanan Palembang Darussalam. Hmm, saya baru ngeh ada kesultanan ini di Palembang, hehe. Benteng ini sendiri dibangun oleh Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin I, kakeknya Mahmud Badaruddin II yang namanya dipakai jadi nama bandara kota Palembang.

Benteng Kuto Besak mengalami tiga peralihan fungsi, yaitu sebagai istana kesultanan, benteng pertahanan, dan sekarang menjadi rumah sakit. Konon katanya satu2nya di Indonesia yang mengalami peralihan seperti ini.

22:43. Ternyata sudah semakin malam, tapi suasana masih sangat ramai. Yaa, dan sampah dimana-mana juga. Kalau ingin merasakan kehidupan muda-mudi Palembang di Sabtu malam, tampaknya ini adalah spot yang tepat.

Kami kembali ke penginapan dengan memanggil g#car. Sungguh sudah uzur, tak sanggup lah jalan sudah lelah.

Royal Caribbean Cruise - Day 2 (Cruise Tour, Penang Tour)

 Ohya, to help with our agenda inside the ship, we were provided with a cruise compass, containing all information about daily activities that they offer in the ship. Well, it's not a real compass, but a 4-pages leaflet distributed in our room. Well, a digital one would be preferable. But well, there would be no signal on the middle of the sea anyway.

But only by reading the compass, it makes me excited instantaneously. Because of its thrill and enjoyment that it brought kali ya. Tapi mungkin juga karena pemilihan kata-katanya, seperti:

Your Adventure Starts Here

07:14 We were early risers! Niat awalnya ingin melihat sunrise, tetapi apa daya mendung menggelayut. Tidak hanya mendung, tapi hujan cuy. Jogging track nya pun jadinya basah.

Tapi karena kadung bangun, ya sudah lanjut saja lihat-lihat (mumpung sepi) sekaligus foto-foto.

Not a pretty pic, tapi upload aja sekalian untuk bersih2 storage. lol.

07:30. That morning, we chose the Windjammer for our breakfast place. The privilege of early risers was we're able to choose quite freely which table that we want to. Otherwise, the queue was gonna be long (see photo #4 and #5)

This time, we chose a table at the far back near the rear window, deemed as our fave spot. Why? Because it's really at the rearmost part of the ship, so we could see the trace of the ship on the water (duh mau membahasakannya susah. Itu tuh jejak kapal di air, ada istilahnya tersendiri ga ya?)

Btw, windjammer itu artinya apa? Kirain artinya penghalau angin, tapi waktu googling ternyata artinya sailing ship gitu. wkwk.

So, thi restaurant was similar to an all-you-can-eat hotel buffet restaurant. Where there're several sections: western, Asian, Japanese, and so on. There's also vegetarian corner, usually dedicated for Indians. Those who prefer safer options able to pick the food from this corner.

Nevertheless, I'd say that this restaurant was even more generous than a hotel buffet restaurant in term of menu selection. couldn't generalise though. Anyway, the desserts were so good, pretty pretty good!

Even better (or worse), you're able to have these AYCE galore like three times a day! Kalau misalnya abis pulang cruise trip terus jadi babi, gw sih ga akan heran.

08:34 Never thought that I needed a map just to navigate myself throughout the ship. Since there are 15 floors to explore.

But thankfully they already served it very thoughtfully. So, in the front of every elevator, there's an interactive screen showing us where we were, how to get to the spot that we were heading to, and so on. It also provided the schedule for the day! Other than that, there's a also this mini model, in form of ship, showing where's where. Pretty nice.

Yeps, for the schedule, as I wrote before, they provided a booklet called cruise compass, delivered daily. Then an interactive screen in front of the elevator, as well as an in-cruise TV channel, where the chief of entertainment explaining the highlight of the activities for that day and how we can participate.

So, one of the perks in having a trip in a cruise ship was many free activities. I tried to join the free workshop about Footprint Analysis. Kenapa saya tertarik? Soalnya dulu kan pernah ikut lari 5K, nah setelah itu somehow kaki saya sakit selama beberapa hari setelahnya. yang sakitnya itu bagian telapak kaki gitu, kalo ga salah telapak kaki kanan. I knoww saya jarang lari. But still, saya kan penasaran, adakah yang salah dengan telapak kaki saya. Jadinya, saya ikutan lah, hehe.

Sesi tersebut diadakan di bagian gym, di kelas yang biasanya dipake buat yoga sepertinya. Waktu masuk situ, masih relatif kosong sih dan acara belom mulai.

Tak lama kemudian, akhirnya acara dimulai, pesertanya sekitar belasan orang. Sesi tersebut diawali dengan penjelasan dari instruktur mengenai pentingnya kesehatan telapak kaki, apalagi kita sebagai makhluk bipedal. Hmm, ngarang deng, saya sudah lupa awal2 dia ngomong tentang apa. Lol.

Tapi hasil dari Internet: Your feet are the foundation of your entire body, enduring tons of pressure each and every day. When your feet are not properly supported, your whole body can become misaligned – resulting in pain in your feet, knees, hips, or back.

Apparently, if your feet are properly supported, it'd be reflected on the way you step when you walk. To check, we performed the test walk. The facilitator prepared a large stamp mat which had been inked. Then she would lay a paper on top of it, then she asked us to walk, stepped on the paper, once for each of our foot.

(cont in comment)...

10:32. There's a library inside the ship, named Jay Pritzker library. A huge photo of him was hanged inside a library. I had no idea who he was until few minutes ago when I tried to google it. Lol. Tadinya kirain tokoh fiktif supaya library-nya terlihat cool saja, taunya tokoh beneran. Dia adalah salah satu co-founder Hyatt Corporation, dan juga Royal Caribbean dulunya.

It's a really neat one, but, well, I think they have this library for the sake of just completing the check list. The book collection was dismal. And almost no one inside the library.

Well, I can't blame them. Although comfortable, but I don't think that I'd spend my time inside a library while in a cruise ship. I brought my kindle with me, but I prefer reading in a spot where more cruise ship-y, rather than in a library. If only the library had windows with ocean view, it'd be much better and I might consider to read in it.

Royal Promenade. Lalu saya malah penasaran dengan arti promenade. Lol. From wiki: an esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of esplanade was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide clear fields of fire for the fortress's guns.

In modern usage, the space allows the area to be paved as a pedestrian walk; esplanades are often on sea fronts and allow walking whatever the state of the tide, without having to walk on the beach.

Nah, mirip-mirip kayak trotoar di pinggir pantai kali ya. Kalo di cruise ship ini, lebih mirip kayak main avenue gitu sih, dimana di kanan kiri ada toko-toko tempat jualan, ada juga beberapa cafe di sini (satu yang gratisan, wkwk). Terus di sini biasanya juga ada band yg main gitu di jam2 tertentu, persis lah kayak di mall.

Yang bernuansa ungu itu kalo malem, kalo siang mah warna cahaya natural aja. Kalo lagi jalan di dalam promenade ini, berasa kayak lagi ga di dalam kapal sih, lebih mirip di mall, wkwk.

Ohya, di sini juga ada tangga turun ke casino. Kalo di kanan kiri atas bisa diliat ada jendela2 kamar. Aku bingung, ga berisik apa ya.

Corridor of the staterooms. What is stateroom? It is a private room on a railroad car with one or more berths and a toilet, or in this case, cruise ship. Mirip koridor kamar hotel gitu.

Kenapa dinamain ini? Konon sih nama stateroom dipake di mansion di Eropa untuk tamu2 state officials, designed to impress gitu katanya. Kalo kamar kami di sini mah ukurannya seiprit. Will share it later.

Okay, but I think the corridor is very well-designed, with art decorations here and there. Not sure whether they are original or what. Since for me, it looks unconvincing. Lol. Sorry.

11:36 Quiz Session! One of the free activities was quiz session! There were several quizzes held in several different sessions, such as word search challenge, general knowledge trivia, visual trivia: famous landmark, and so on.

So yes, not all activities were physical, but they also accommodated the behind-the-desk kind of activities. I think it's so thoughtful of the organizer. Oh well, I haven't posted the physical activities aside the ice skating. Soon!

12:29 There were quite many interesting things for kiddos. Such as this one (not sure what it is, lol). But from the look of it, seems futuristic.

And yes, there's also a free movie session played in the theater, still inside the cruise ship. That day, they played the Incredibles 2 at noon, and Smallfoot at night. It's 3D and they also provided the 3D glasses. I was impressed!.

for teenagers, they had a specific designed activities.

and they also had a playroom for toddlers!

Berhubung waktu merapat masih lama, jadilah saya muter2 kapal. Dan di bagian belakang kapal, lantai berapanya saya lupa, ada Conference Center. Tadinya nyangkanya kayak business room gitu kayak di hotel untuk tempat ngeprint or internetan. Tapi ternyata tidak.

Kalo di web, keterangannya seperti ini:
Reserve a conference room at no extra fee.Conference Centers can be converted into smaller conference rooms or different configurations to suit your group’s requirements.Choose from a variety of room configurations including theater, classroom, boardroom, card room, or mini trade show setup.

but I don't really understand why one would have a conference at a cruise ship? oh wait, I know, some companies reward the high performing employees by giving them cruise ship trip. and well, they could do the gathering at this conference center.

Ternyata foto sebelumnya itu menunjukkan gerbang masuk ke game center. Why I didnt remember that?

Let's go outside and see what's going on there. In the basketball field, there were kids playing basketball, and a woman with her instagram husband, I guess. Ok, perhaps more Facebook husband considering their age xD.

Hey, it's pretty windy out here. Let's move.

Some people were playing table tennis in a not windy spot (yearite).

14:53 Penang! TANPA MELALUI PROSES IMIGRASI! yeps, one of the most interesting experience that I had during the trip, was I didn't have to go thru imigration process in Malaysia when I was about entering the country.

So, what I had to do was at the exit gate of the ship was only scanning my cruise card, and voila, I could enter Malaysia.

And I even didn't bring my passport with me. Well, our passports were still kept by the cruise ship official.

and here we go!

First thing we saw once out from the pier: The Jubilee Clock Tower. It is a Moorish-style Jubilee clocktower at the junction of Light Street and Beach Street.

Built to commemorate Queen Victoria's 1897 Diamond Jubilee, the tower is sixty feet tall, one foot for each year of Victoria's reign. A corner of the wall surrounding Fort Cornwallis is situated behind the tower.

Tak lama kemudian, kita langsung dengan mudah menemukan becak fancy, dimana hal serupa juga kayaknya mudah ditemukan di Melaka. Dulu malah ktmu yg muter lagu lagisyantik ya kalo ga salah. lol

Walau sebenernya Penang dan Melaka memiliki kesamaan. Apakah itu? ya, keduanya merupakan UNESCO Heritage Site.

Still undecided what to have for breakfast this weekend? Don't worry, this sunny side up gets you covered!

Btw ini lebih ke makanan jadi2an yang cem suka dipasang di etalase resto jepang, but the size is much bigger.

We didnt go inside since we had no much time.

Karena sebenernya ga ada tujuan spesifik ingin melihat apa, jadinya kita jalan kaki dari dermaga. Sebenernya pengen cari mural yg terkenal itu tuh, tp tampaknya dengan jalan kaki juga bisa.

Arsitekturnya memang menarik ya, dan terawat gitu. Mungkin usaha peremajaan or renovasi juga. Dan somehow di bagian sini sepi banget! apa karena lagi weekend ya?

Ada suatu rumah, atau mansion lebih tepat kali ya, dengan arsitektur chinese, berada di antara bangunan yang ada di situ. Halamannya sangat luas. Kebayang pasti punyanya crazy rich penang.

Ambil keterangannya dari inet sahaja:

Seh Tek Tong Cheah Kongsi (or just Cheah Kongsi for short) is the oldest of the Five Big Clans of the Hokkien community in Penang which in the 19th century together formed a Hokkien neighbourhood centred on the Tua Pek Kong Temple in Armenian Street.

These clans were formed for self-defence and mutual support and they sent money back to their home villages in southern China which were experiencing political unrest and banditry at that time.

The building is classified as a category one heritage building in the core zone of George Town UNESCO World Heritage Site, Penang. A study has been carried out by the architectural team to justify every element of the temple, remove some additional elements and recover the temple to its most original historical state. 

Masjid Lebuh Aceh ( Masjid Acheen St) adalah masjid abad ke-19 yang dibangun oleh masyarakat Aceh yang terletak di Jalan Acheen.

Di sebelah masjid terdapat pemakaman dermawan asli masjid, Tengku Syed Hussain Al-Aidid dan anggota keluarganya. Rumah-rumah yang mengelilingi masjid saat ini adalah bagian dari pemukiman Muslim asli pada pertengahan abad ke-19.

Pemukiman Muslim Lebuh Acheh terus berkembang pesat dan pernah disebut sebagai Jeddah Kedua, karena para peziarah dari dekat berkumpul di sini sebelum berangkat ke Mekah melalui laut./wiki

Music street performance by @kicaubilau. Beautiful and captivating! Walau pas awal ada rasa penasaran, wah dia pake angklung, apakah mungkin dari Indonesia?

Setelah googling (barusan), walau ke sananya udah dua tahun lalu, ternyata mereka emang asli Malaysia. Tapi kok ada angklung? Nanti diklaim dari Malaysia?.

Tenang guys, angklung sudah diakui UNESCO bahwa berasal dari tanah parahyangan kok. Tapi memang sudah menyebar ke negara tetangga, seperti Malaysia, dan juga Thailand serta Filipina. And that's fine. Malah bagus kan bisa untuk mengekspresikan rasa dan menciptakan keindahan :)

Tidak lengkap rasanya apabila ke Penang tapi tidak mencicipi kulinernya. Well, sebenernya lagi ga mood makan2 karena kebanyakan makan di kapal. But let's try.

Jadi kami mencoba makan cendol, es kacang, terus kwetiau (atau laksa asam ya? lupa). Cendol penang ini ada kacang merahnya, beda dengan cendol indo. Tapi saya lebih suka cendol indo sih, lebih manis. well, selera masing2 memang.

Salah satu yang terkenal di George Town, Penang adalah street art yang berlokasi di Armenian Street. yak, jadi ini adalah Armenia yg memang nama sebuah negara. Konon jaman dulu, memang cukup banyak orang Armenia yang ke Penang.

Salah satu mural paling terkenal adalah anak naik sepeda itu, yang ternyata bikinan orang Lithuania yg menetap di Penang.

Penasaran ga sih kenapa namanya George Town? Jadi jaman dulu pas masih dijajah Inggris, namanya Penang adalah Prince of Wales Island (karena gelar utk pangerannya seperti itu). Lalu nama George Town sendiri adalah karena utk menghormati King George III.

Anyway, kenapa pula George Town ini jadi UNESCO World Heritage Site? Alasannya mirip2 sama Malaka, yaitu jadi pusat perdagangan di Selat Malaka sehingga memiliki akulturasi budaya yang unik. Hmm, di Indo ga seperti itu ya? kan kita dilalui Selat Malaka juga.

Nah yg di bawah ini copas dari wiki :p
George Town was the first British settlement in Southeast Asia.Together with Singapore and Malacca, George Town formed part of the Straits Settlements.

Shortly before Malaya attained independence from the British in 1957, George Town was declared a city by Queen Elizabeth II, making it the first city in the country's modern history.

From the old town (actually I dont know what the exact name), we then went to Gurney Drive to taste a bit of Penang Culinary.

We tried Pasembur (quite a peculiar name). Pasembur is a Malaysian salad consisting of cucumber (shredded), potatoes, beancurd, turnip, bean sprouts, prawn fritters, spicy fried crab, fried octopus or other seafoods and served with a sweet and spicy nut sauce. Mirip2 gorengan pake bumbu kacang gt kali ya, tapi bumbunya ada manisnya gitu. Rasanya sih ya not bad ya menurut saya. Altho I love batagor better.

In other parts of Malaysia, the term Rojak Mamak is commonly used. In Singapore, it is called Indian Rojak.

Ohya, jadi di Gurney Drive ini macam ada dua area gt, bagian makanan chinese dan makanan melayu.

19:00. Nah, sebenernya sih dibolehin untuk balik ke kapal jam 10 malem. Tapi kita balik cukup awal karena tidak ingin melewatkan jatah makan malam plus atraksi yang disuguhkan. lol. Iya, ga mau rugi. Kalo ke Penang, insyaAllah bisa lain kali lah ya.

Malam itu, ada magician show yang cukup atraktif walaupun tidak terlalu memorable, hehe. Tapi ok lah menghibur.

Dengan melihat foto-foto ini, saya jadi appreciate dengan layar besar di panggung yang menampilkan orang di panggung secara zoom in. Mengapa? seringkali kalo nonton, tapi ga ada versi zoom in di layar, biasanya hanya bisa bertanya2 mereka abis ngapain. wkwk.

Sehabis menonton pertunjukan, saya putuskan untuk pergi ke luar kapal lagi, mumpung belum berlabuh. Untuk apa? Ya, untuk melihat penampakan kapal dari luar pada malam hari. Ga penting ya? haha.

Well, tapi penasaran aja, dan bukan pemandangan yang bisa dengan mudah didapatkan kalau lagi di Jakarta.

Dan, kesan saya: gemerlap! Mengingatkan pada kilau gedung-gedung pencakar langit di kota besar, tetapi bentuknya memanjang.

21:21. Well, the night was quite young, so I tried to take a look what's going on outside.

Memang tampak meriah ya, dengan lampu yang berwarna-warni menghiasi. Kebetulan di malam tersebut lagi ada event juga (tunggu di post setelah ini).

Welcome to Bollywood Beach Pool Party! padahal ga ada pantai2nya, haha.

As usual, Indian parties are full of music and dances! Even the vibe was so dancey (is that even a word?). Like everyone is dancing, no matter how old you are, from kiddos to oldies.

So you can go back, please enjoy your party. I'll be here.

Yeps, continuing from the previous post. I was enjoying observing people partying, rather than having the party myself. It doesnt mean I hate the situation. So I just lied on my back and lived in the moment.

Walking in this part of the ship at night somehow reminds me of Titanic. Why? Since it's at night, and the life boats just gave me that feels.

Oh, and I found some guests were playing in this corridor, which is fun!

At the promenade, there's musical performance at certain hours, with different themes, from jazz, classic, OST, and so on.

Happy seeing those kids dancing! and some adults then dancing too!