Tanjung Pinang in Brief

Tanjung Pinang in Brief

 

Hello world!! This is my second chance to write again after a few weeks break. Well you know….. my job take almost all of my time…well I guess maybe the company want to make me worth every penny.

This time I got a chance to visit Tanjung Pinang, capital city of newly established province called Kepulauan Riau (a.k.a Kepri). It used to be part of Riau province until it’s separated on 2003 I guess? Correct me if I’m wrong. The flight to Tanjung Pinang only 1 time per day and served by Sriwijaya Air. It’s scheduled 18.10 WIB but don’t be hoping for on time scheduled, the flight delayed until 18.45, still reasonable considering the price we paid and they’re the only airline that served this route.

By the way, this time I’m not alone. Mr. Rudy AB my colleague accompany me. For him this is his first visit to get to know our distributor, Mr. Sukianto and also his last visit (at least 2-3 years) because after this he will be transferred to Surabaya for his new post. We also met interesting girl called Sara while we’re waiting in the boarding room. Why interesting? Well firstly she studied at Jogjakarta, the same town with me when I took my bachelor degree. Secondly the subject that she take was Theology and now she’s teaching Seminary at Bogor… Quite rare isn’t it? We share story about Jogjakarta, specially the food ….. ha ha ha yeah what else? “ I really like Nasi goreng kambing and Martabak Bandung in near Kotabaru church! “ she comment. So do I Sara, Jogjakarta full of nice memory, and also the town where I met my beautiful wife that now become mother of my two cute children. Anyway the conversation with Sara was cut off by airport announcer “Passengers leaving for Tanjungkarang please board to aircraft!”… “There you go Sara, nice to meet u” We did share our email address and hopefully we can keep in touch!

Airport announcer finally called us to board, around 7 pm. Me and Rudy did not waste our time directly we hopped in.. The flight to Tanjungpinang quite ok, a little bit shaky, considering we just being terorized by someone who spread out the recording in blackbox of Adam air that crashed Jan 2007 at Majene (South Sulawesi) that containt capten and co-pilot last conversation, it will take us extra gut to deal with it. Anyway our live is in God hands, correct?

“Hallo Bos Sukianto!!” I called out my distributor name after we landed safefully at Tanjung pinang, Sultan Fisabillah, correct me if I’m wrong, with a big smile we shake hand and he and his nephew Afen, gave us a warm welcome,”You guys must be hungry!” “For sure!” I answered it in my heart, and he took us some seafood restaurant, yummy! For Rudy it’s his time to try local snail called

Gong-Gong, unfortunately I left my camera at the Hotel so I can’t take the picture, next time I promised, well after some short conversation, since we already quite tired, he sent us back to Hotel Kaputra…. What a day! After short shower I finally rest my weary body ….. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The following day Mr. Sukianto took us to have Bakkutte for breakfast, it’s kind of chinesse traditional medicated soup serving with pork rib, or you can order assorted like kidney, heart,etc. Served in hot boil bowl it’s really tasteful and healthy…

Don’t say we were only eating… we also do our job, after some customer visited, Mr Sukianto took us to try Selat Panjang Noodle, it;s tasty, the way they served it with the red pork meat and some chilli sauce on it, another different way of noodle style cooking.

In the evening we try some seafood ala TG Pinang, well the location quite deep in the alley, the crab it’s wonderful, and one thing for sure Mr. Sukianto and his nephew it’s quite a drinker…once full of colesterol food..oh man I really have to check my LDL to the lab!!

Almost forgot, that time almost near to the celebration of our National Independence, and youngster at TG Pinang really got the Independence spirit. The government held the marching contest and they rehearsal until 11 pm!!! We got to give credit to them

In the final day we spent our time visiting the beach, and we rented the cano.Mr. Sukianto already looked like professional canoer ready for Olypic games ha ha ha. On that final night we had Sago Noodle as our dinner, you all should try it! Well lads, that’s all G’ day !!!

 

 

 

The Longest Journey Gorontalo & Palu

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         Well lads, last week I had a bussiness trip to Palu and Gorontalo. The trip it self quite exhausting since I faced so many flight delayed ( thanks to LION AIR!!). Flight to Gorontalo is on 6:30 am WIB and I have to check in 1 hour before and since my house at Bekasi, which has a very bad traffic, I have to leave around 4:30 (can u image what time I should wake up???).. But anyway the flight from Jakarta to Gorontalo quite ok, after short transite at Makassar I arrived at Gorontalo around 12 pm local time (1 hour earlier than Jakarta)… My Distributor at Gorontalo (Mr. Johan) directly took me to have lunch..( yummmy ).

       A small Chinesse restaurant which served quite deliciuos food filled my empty stomach …. Well Gorontalo it self is a very nice town, surrounded by mountanious scenary. The town is the capital city of Gorontalo Province which is one of the newest province in Indonesia. The most source of income come from agricultural ; eg. corn,clove etc… One thing for sure is that there’s no traffic jam at all at Gorontalo…..(heaven). Here, the major transportation mode is using BENTOR (Becak/Threecyle combined with motor cycle) and the unique thing is they installed incredible sound system….even the sound system price can be higher than the Bentor it self.. And the result is noisy voice all over the town…bumm bummm!!! , and there’s nothing police can do about it (like usual….) But since people protesting a lot,they’re start to lower down the noise….

My distributor , Mr. Johan told me that here that have special traditional food called Nilu Siram, kind like soup from corn but quite hot taste, but he did not recommend me to try it, he said ‘You’ll get your stomach burn!” Actually I would like try it, maybe next time…

But Mr. Johan indeed give me Nut Pie as a gift, a local Pie made from nut ..

I spent one nite only at Gorontalo, the hotel was so-so I even forget it’s name ha ha sorry, so this time I haven’t had enough time to travel around, not to mention I still have to put my job in higher priority…

The following day is kind like a longest hell journey to me…. Here we go:

Lion Air flight from Gorontalo to Palu via Makassar scheduled at 11:45 pm, the result was a delayed until 05:00pm local time… For Christ sake… over than 5 hour at Gorontalo airport with very less facility (can u imagine ???)…not to mention I missed my flight from Makassar to Palu which scheduled at 03:00pm…. Finally I arrived at Makassar around 06:00pm. The smiling Lion Air operator at Hasanuddin airport told me I have take the next flight at 09:00pm…(come on !) but I don’t have any choice….

Combo 1 package from KFC fill me up and a little bit lower my stressfull mind.. come on Kentucky is the best for Chicken ! All of us have to admit it!!! Mc Donald was nothing ..

I thought my disaster finally end…but here we go again.. the announcer said that the flight AGAIN delayed until 11:30pm… so totally I’ve got delayed around 10 hours, well done LION AIR..!!!

I think this is the face of Indonesian’s air transportation … JUST 1 WORD MESSY!!!

Enough about Lion Air!!

Palu, hmmm nice town.. u know the shape of the town is very unique (like U shape). It’a located at Gulf of Palu, end the other edge is the small town called Donggala, which have quite nice white sandy beach..

Many people, including me, thought that Palu is not safe due to horizontal conflict.. but I found out that actually it’s quite the opposite way.. People here quite friendly, my distributor Mr. Yames (who is A Indonesian born Chinesse) said that “The local people is the one who protect us when there’s a threat!”..

So, the conclusion is that actually some provocator from outside the province that start the fire (my God have mercy on them!!!)

Here,I spent 2 nite at Aston Silae Hotel, a 4 star hotel and the best hotel in town (at least until now) which rate around Rp. 490,000/nite. The first day Mr. Yames took me to ABADI Restaurant, which served KALEDO soup (KAki LEmbu DOmba) a local traditional soup contains of local cow leg soup.. yummy but we look like barbarian, since the size of the leg soooo big!! It remember me of Asterix and Obelix…

The second day after my long day working hour, Mr. Yames took me, together with his wife and his son, to Donggala Beach. The trip took around 45 minutes easy driving from Palu..

The beach has a white sandy and blue water ocean.. beautiful, peaceful, and yet again less concern from government.. It has beautiful diving spot which provide beautiful underwater scene (coral , fish, etc), I wish government spend more time to take care tourist site like this, imagine how it can help the local inhabitans economics situation… such a waste!! We never be grateful for what God have given to us!

After spending few minutes resting my weary mind, body, and soul.. we head back to Palu..

Again, kindly Mr. Yames took me to A local seafood restaurant near Donggala beach. It called Terminal Indah restaurant which specially served roasted fish..local fish like kakap, etc… very delicious but spicy.It served with jackfruit coconut milk soup (usually we find on Padang food) .. Strange combination isn’t it?  Ha ha ha but no problemo I try to swept all the food, but the storage is overloaded…

I highly recommended all of u to try it! The special food souvenir is nut (wrapped with flour and roasted) it’s tasteful!

Well the flight back to Jakarta is quite ok, I met some Ambonese we chit-chat all around , and he said that Ambon is very safe now, and develop a lot. One thing that make me interested about Banda Neira, a small island south east of Ambon, may be next time I will have chance to visit it! Wish me luck!

I finally reach Jakarta around noon, can wait to see my beloved wife and kids…

SEE YA!

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