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Tampilkan postingan dengan label what to buy. Tampilkan semua postingan

Senin, 06 Februari 2012

Trip to Pangkal Pinang




Most tourists will visit Tanjung Tinggi beach, where famous movie “Laskar Pelangi” took a scene there, a fabulous white sand beach with gigantic stone. And me? Not!
I’ll give a quick trip through the city, only the city.

Where to visit?

From the airport, it took around 15 minutes to the city center. What can we see from the city? When I was there, I had a round trip, watching old houses, old PT Timah employee houses, the company that once has a great success there.


Its quite hard to found what is interesting there (my personal opinion).


What to eat?

Most island near Sumatra has great durian, stinky thorny big fruit. If you want to try, just do the bargain and let the salesperson select the fruit. If he/she give raw durian, ask for exchange.
The problem is, this word “bargain” is very problematic for me. Its hard to judge this durian costs appropriate with its size and taste.




One of the local food here name “Bakmi Koba”, a noodle soup with fish stock. Noodles is good, the stock taste delicious and lil sweet. Be careful with the chilly, because its very very hot!









What to buy?

Hmmm... Pangkal Pinang is famous by its marine crackers from fish, shrimp, sea cucumber and dried shark fin. Its one of the exclusive food ingredients, the bird nest.



It said that shark fin for 50 grams cost US$39, and for the bird nest below is US$94,8 per 50 grams.




There is two types of fish cracker, true fish cracker without sauce, and the Amplang, fish cracker with sauce.



For coffee addict, you can found a great coffee (that I was underestimated). Taste like Sumatran Coffee that I was bought from Starbucks. The salesperson said that this coffee was originated from around Pangkal Pinang. Altough this coffee has already grinded, its not sour, taste great.
A recommended thing to buy.



If you are a batik maniac, you can find batik, unfortunately I found this in the duty free shop at the airport, not in the local market





I expect somebody will explore the island broader than I did, to let the world that theres something there, not just the “Laskar Pelangi” beach.



Senin, 23 Januari 2012

trip to Samarinda


From Jakarta I flew to Balikpapan, because in Samarinda there is no big airport and for that I should took a trip by car for 3 hours.




Between travel I took a rest in a rest area-like with culinary specialty, sumedang tofu! Yup, a sumedang tofu, but I was not in West Java anyway.




They fried the Tofu's and sell it here, but made it somewhere else.

After taking a break, stretching old bones we continue further deep into Bukit Soeharto National Park.
Im very curious about many mining projects in East Kalimantan, because here is famous about its coal mining. unfortunetely I saw no mining landscapes, only some forest, prairies, villages and palm oil plantation. Most of the mining areas are located in Berau, Kutai Kartanegara and many remote areas up in the north.
And finally I arrived in Samarinda, the capitol of East Kalimantan.
Samarinda is located near Mahakam river, a big river that became the tagline of the city, "Samarinda kota tepian" (Samarinda, city of bay).

What to see and what to buy:
Unfortunetely I had a short time there, first I went to the "pasar budaya" (cultural market). There I saw ethnical souvenirs from samarinda/dayak tribe.
There are wooden shields, batik, bead bags, mat, t-shirts and many kind of souvenirs. Make sure you bargain, some price here can be bargained up to 50%.





This is one of the unique batik pattern, from Dayak indigenous tribe who inhabits Kalimantan.

Samarinda is famous of the amplang kuku macan crackers. A cracker which made from fish and flour. We can buy it in almost every souvenir shop. It cost $3-$5 per packing.
Taste yummy 😊






After that I visited durians seller near Mahakam river.
If you to Samarinda, its not be complete before you taste the durian, the king of fruit.
For the small one, it cost IDR 100.000 for 4 pieces. But for those big one, hanging on the strings, thats durian mentega. It cost more for buy it, up to IDR 125.000 for one fruit. Costly, but the price won lie.
The fruit inside is gigantic, compare to mineral water cup, the seed is small and the flesh inside is thick. 😊





Near the river theres a majestic islamic center, with towers and dome. It also functioned as a mosque. Some story said that it cost billions of rupiah to build it. Because it located near the river and it should has a good foundation structure, to avoid it from sinking.






What to eat here? Unfortunately I only have a chance to eat a beef stew. Like any other beef stew, it taste sweet and creamy. But with this portion, no one will seek a snack after ate it.