Palembang – 28th – 30th July

Essentially a layover

Leaving Bukittinggi behind I took a 24hr bus to Palembang – a mere 760km so c30kph – which tells you a lot about Indonesia’s roads. Often the two lane road would reduce to one lane where a landslide had taken one side – which created fairly long queues.

Long transits are nothing new to me, but this one sucked. I boarded in the morning and spent the whole day trying not to sleep in the warm while the AC wasn’t doing much. Then once night time rolled around the AC got its shit together and chilled the bus to near arctic levels. So I couldn’t even sleep if I wanted to as I was too busy shivering. But whatever, we got to Palembang eventually. Once again no hostels to stay in, but I booked myself a single room in a hotel for about £3 a night (with aircon and brekkie but no window).

Now my plan for Palembang was to stay for one night and then move on. But I searched for veggie food and there were five places within walking distance of me. At that point I knew I was staying for another day at least. There wasn’t a huge amount of interest in Palembang, so I spent most of my time eating – which I’m not complaining about.

Day one I took myself to the sights of interest which included Indonesia’s second longest bridge. A deep red suspension bridge doubling up as a clock tower, and a fish sculpture nearby – which was fish shaped. I strolled through the local markets where I was getting lots of attention and the most photo requests I’ve received so far. 

For dinner I tried the third veggie place, and it was outstanding. I think it cost me £3 and I got: an iced tea, a veggie scallops to start, then a veggie soup, and then a platter of veggie bits (a concerning number of which were fried). Stunning! I gave him a fiver because it was so good. I also got chatting to a local english professor whose english was unsurprisingly excellent. I went back the next day for the exact same thing.

On my second night however I decided to treat myself and took myself to the cinema. Actually before I get to that I did have a bit of unusual caper in the daytime. It was lunch time and I was once again at different veggie eatery. I was trying to order but having issues with the translation. The mother of a family eating helped me out and I ordered myself a portion of model which I had been meaning to try. Which was a soup with fried flour balls (kinda seitan-y) – tasty. Anyway I finish up and the mum invites me to join them to go to the bookshop. I had nothing going on so why not. We drop the dad off, and a girl in her twenties joins via a grab bike (quite an impressive logistical intercept). We’re at the bookshop where I find out we were here to watch a children’s drum recital – although I think there were ulterior motives as well. The drum recital was surprisingly good, some of the kids did really well – but bizarre to be there for sure. We were then browsing the bookshop, and I think the lady was trying to set me up with the girl. But I suspect it may have been the equivalent of a green card marriage rather than true love.

Back to the cinema, so I took myself to Oppenhiemer which was fantastic. Especially as the ticket and popcorn cost me less than a fiver. And about £7 including a bike-taxi return, or Ojek as they call them here in Indo. 

Once again it was time to move along. My time in Sumatra was coming to an end. There was a lot to the north of Sumatra I wanted to see, but it was the wrong direction and time was not on my side.