Palm Coconut Plantation

My company sent me and my manager to conduct a language proficiency test at the Palm Coconut Plantation at Air Molek, a 3-hour drive from Pekanbaru. The three hour drive with 120 km/hour speed is the last thing I ever expected from a helldriver. I tried to sleep during the trip, but ended up banging my head over the window. The great thing is that trying to relax with the typical local songs played loud on the tape. Yeah,yeah, it's a free country.

The single road with nothing much seen a far seems to be a good reason to shut your eyes and save the energy while you can. The picture of the bridge over the river is anyway a great scene for your blog.


I have never been to any real forest in my life. Not even on a camping site as a girlscout. But this time, the lined coconut palm trees are for real. To make it even more impressive, they do not have a special training room for the test, but only make the best use of the dining room. What startled me was the way they throw jokes --for example "Lonte" for lontong sate (for the word means prostitute in Jakarta slang words) or some other words I prefer less to remember.


With limited if I can not say low proficiency level, the participants endured the two-hour test plus interview.

I wonder how you have to rate these people when the interview went like :

" Tell me about yourself"
" rrrr.."
" Tell me about yourself"
" ....(silent)"
" What's your name"
" ...(silent)"
" My name is Kenny. What is your name?"
"....rrr..Kenny? yes,yes".
Then I just smiled at the guy who was sweathing and trembling as if I was an alien trying to abduct him. I was totally at a loss and felt guilty at the same time realizing the fact that we shot a mosquito with a bazooka.

We spent the night at the guess house, had durians in the morning, took the original forest honey bee at a PET bottle. Before we left the camp, they took us for a tour. They showed us the fruits -- palm coconut bunch and where they processed them into the crude palm oil.
















I left the site with a little sensation of diarrhea, not really sure the cause was. Perhaps it was because the last question I asked, about this place. They said proudly "oh, this is the lake where we get the water from. We use the water after refining it for drinking and washing." Yeah, right.
Must be very practical that my digestive system complained.

Anyer beach

Beach used to be a popular spot for holiday. Since
Tsunami's tragedy in Aceh, people prefer to avoid beaches.
Somehow, the beauty of the sandy beach with the lined
palm trees would attract the metropolists who try to get a
new meaning of holiday.


Some quiet strolls along the beaches would offer more than clear air.



The sun is pretty friendly for those who are willing to take risks taking the water jet ski or banana boats.



Those who fancy seafood would long for the barbeque after dawn.


We could just watch the sun go or come. Sit side by side, talk over future or dreams.

Just one hour drive through free way from Jakarta, in Anyer, you could totally forget about the crowd, polluted air, trafffic jam, deadlines.

Horas bah !

Here is Medan.

If you ask what they call this public vehicle in Medan, the answer is ...becak motor. Some people say that there is a philosopical reason for this special design. In other places we might find that the becak driver is behind the passanger, somehow in Medan the driver is next to the passanger. Do you know why? they value the principle of equality as the becak driver is equal to the passanger.


Who say that people are after branded fashion only? In Medan they have branded durian. Each seller claims their durian is the best. Some famous brand of durian could send orders to different parts of Indonesia









when you travel a lot like me... the fun is good food and good place to eat. Diarhhea? It's part of traveller's life style I would say.



Medan has humid temperature, but it's a heaven for food. Most people confuse Medan with Batak , as the matter of fact when you mention Medan's authentic cuisine, they will call it Medan Melayu food. It's similar to Padang food, but it's different.



What to eat in Medan? Try this :

Look like Padang food , right?

But they have less spices, less hotter,too --which is good for my spoiled stomach. They have many kinds of seafood. Look at the prawns!!!

Next time, we'll be in Berastagi !!!

Pontianak

Pontianak is one of the big cities in Indoneisa. Pontianak(Khun Tien) is actually the word used by the Malay to call a woman ghost (kuntilanak in Bahasa Indonesia) who died of childbirth , thus she preys on pregnant women or babies, driven by jealousy. Formerly the area was only dark forest where few dwellers so that they call it the place where the ghostly spirits live.

A dutch historian, VJ. Verth, wrote in his book that The Dutch entered Pontianak in 1773 M. According to VJ. Verth, Syarif Abdurrahman, the only son of Syarif Hussein bin Ahmed Alqadrie (alias Al Habib Husin) left the Mempawah kingdom to look for the fish in the sea. In Banjarmasin he married the sultan's sister: Ratu Sarib Anom.He was a very sucessful merchant that he could arm his lancang and pencalang boat. With the help of Sultan Passir, Syarif Abdurrahman managed to pirate the dutch 's boat near bangka while the British and French ship ported at the Passir port. Eventually Abdurrahman became a very rich man and open the new land near Kapuas river. He discovered the river branches of landak and developed the area into the trade center which is known now as Pontianak.

With the majority of Chinese (31.24 %) and Malay (26.05 %) Pontianak Dayak ,Pontianak has lots of unique scenes. There are lots of local coffe shops where the gentlemen drink the famous "Suka Hati" coffee and fried banana and other fries during the evening. Some of the coffee shops have big TV screens for the visitors to watch the football games.

If we take a closer look at the city, there are many funeral agents providing services for the Chinese community. Each agent caters for certain clans of family: for example Funeral Agent A provides services to Tio Ciu Family while other clans are served by other agents. As one clan can consists of a big number of people and each of them has its own traditions.

Another interesting thing here is that there are privately-owned fire fighter station. When any fire occurs, people in the neighbouring areas will be ready to use barrels full of water to shower the fire. The state fire fighters are not found in Pontianak as they rely on their neighbours in case of fire.

The water is not consumable so the people of Pontianak use the water from the rain. They have some kind of containers on the rooftop and pipes that flow the water to their washing area.

Pontianak is famous with its spicy tamarind, dodol durian and kwetiau. Indonesian people conotate oranges to Pontianak as the famous sweet local oranges are from Pontianak. You should also try the aloe vera ice when you visit the city or soyabean milk (es air tahu) .

The food stalls in Pontianak serve curry rice like this with chicken or lobster on top. If you are an avid pork consumer, you will feel very lucky to be in Pontianak it is available with reasonable price at the food stalls by the side of the street.

I just learned that we have a great deal of diversity--not only in terms of culture but also food and beverages.

If you happen to visit Pekanbaru, they have lots of different names for beverages.: Laksamana Mengamuk (mad captain) and Sri Mersing which you can find here. I forgot the names--but they are really unique ones. This is one of them. Really colorful.

the bottom layer papaya juice, then soursop and the marquisa on top. How does it taste? Try yourself!

In Makassar, they have green banana ice. The banana is swindled by green tapioca, then it is mixed with coconut milk and syrup with shredded ice on top plus condensed milk. Terribly sweet !!

I'm searching for other kind of ice , maybe you know some?

Losari Beach

O Sky , blue sky

I would not find everyday

Cool sea breeze

from which I find some peace

Gonjong Roof

When you visit Minagkabau, West Sumatra region, you'll find gonjong-roofed houses and buildings: government buildings, hotels, restaurants. The word Gonjong means buffalo horn-shaped which was formerly described in ancient Minangkabau literatures as the roof of Rumah Gadang (Rumah= house, Gadang=Big) where a big family of the Kingdom lives.

There are two kinds of Gonjong- roofed Rumah Gadang : Koto Pialang and Budi Caniago. Koto Pialang gonjong consists of 3 hornes ( 3 right gonjongs, 1 front gonjong , 1 gonjong at the back ) which can be found in Luhak Tanah Datar area, while Budi Caniago Gonjong has 2 gonjongs on the right, 2 on the left ,1 gonjong at the front dan 1 gonjong at the back.


These gonjongs are taken from the Minangkabau Village in Padang Panjang where you can find all kinds of traditional houses in Minangkabau.

90 kilometres from Padang, you can find the Jam Gadang-- the Big Ben of Bukit tinggi-- which has tiny gonjong roof top.

If we drive to Batu Sangkar from Bukit Tinggi, there is Pagaruyung Palace .The original building was built by the Minangkabau kingdom founded by Adityawarman in the 14th century, but it was destroyed by fire in 1976. A replica of the palace has since been built in its place .

The bull's horn shaped roof stems from the legend of Minangkabau.

Once upon a time, Javanese Majapahit soldiers came to West Sumatra to conquer the area. The locals challanged the Majapahit folks to a bullfight (bull vs bull). If the Javanese bull wins, they will happily became part of Majapahit. If locals' bull wins, the Majapahit soldiers must leave.

Confidently, the Majapahit soldiers brought a strong female buffalo with heavy horns. On the other side, the locals brought a small baby bull with knifes attached to its head. The Majapahit soldiers laughed at the small opponent. However, when the fight started, the baby bull immediately ran into the belly of the big female bull, trying to suck milk from her nipples. In the process, the knifes attached to the baby bull's head disembowelled the big bull. Ever since, the locals called their area Minangkabau (victory of the bull) and adopted the bull-shaped roof forms that is so characteristic of the area today .

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One of the datuks (the head of the clan) says that the three gonjongs symbolizes three parties : government, the religous leaders or the house of represntatives, and the Wise. As the Minang people believe in the wise saying "Tiga tali sapilin" or "Tiga api sarancang" which basically means to make a good governeance, we have to include those three parties.

Interested in visiting Ranah Minang (Minang Land)?