Palembang

Palembang is the largest city in south sumatra,indonesia..not really a tourist destination for a very good reason,the city do have very few attractions..an expensive place compare to cities and towns in java island.here's the few attraction the city has
1-ampera bridge,kind of san francisco bay bridge inspire but definitey on much more low budget..the bridge look pretty awesome at night thought because of the lighting
2)musi river cruise..you could rent a motorboat nearby the bridge area to tour the river..most indonesian going to kemaro island which is a small island with a recently built chinese pagoda..never pay more than rp200 thousand per boat..the boat could easily take at least 8 people.
3)there're a couple of museums in palembang but the only nice thing about these two museums are their building..the exhibit items in these museum are aweful but for less than usd1 entrance tickets you might want to spent half an hour looking at items which is not museum worthy
4)pasar ilir 16...this is the main bazaar or traditional shooping area in palembang..it's located at the beginning of the bridge and worth going to just to fell the hustle and bustle of locals
5)the city has several large shooping malls like palembang square,palembang icon and palembang indah..palembang icon is the latest built and has the same standard of modern mall in jakarta
6)the grand mosque or masjid agung in bahasa indonesia..the outer facade of the building look like an ancient hindu temple like the one you see on a temples in bali
If you like Indonesian food,palembang could be a good place to try a variety of food..pempek which is a variety of fish cake are famous and widely available anywhere in the city.pindang which is a kind of broth cook using either fish,beef bone or chicken..like any major cities in indonesia western fast food and franchise are widely available
If you're a western traveler,you will be almost the only ones while you're there.thanks to the newly found e hailing apps services like grab,uber and gojek travelling nowadays across indonesian major and second tier cities are much more conviniance and affordable.just made sure you has an indonesian sim card with internet.this could easily bought for around 50 to 60 thousand rupiah and should include around 180 minutes call time and 5gb internet quota..from my experiance drivers in indonesia will usually call you once u have made the booking to reconfirm instead of calling you when they're arriving.if you're a solo traveller,you could use a go ride option from gojek apps which is a motorbike taxi..they're about half the cost of already cheap taxi service and all the drivers wearing the company uniform.

yangon

if you like to experience something so different than other places in south east asia,Myanmar or Burma must be your no.1 choice.the country is cheap and tourist rip off is low.Unlike other counrties in S.E.A you must have visa in advance to enter this forgotten country.the visa process however is so easy and anyone who pay the usd30 fees will likely to get one.the capital city of Yangon i think the only country in S.E.A which banned motorcycle around the city limit,but they are plenty of taxis around the corner and while i was there many ask only usd1 for short trips.the tricky part about visiting this country is the use of balck market money changers,its because if you use the official money changers its likely will make your holidays many times expensive than europe.so their currency which is KYAT not available outside Burma and the easiest way to change usd to kyat is by using many shops at Bogyoke market which located at the centre of yangon and make sure your usd is in mint condition without any small wear and tear because they really sensitive about that.

food

the most amazing thing about yangon to me is the existence of so many briyani restaurant and muslim communities in the city.initially i thought the city is overwhelmingly buddist like phnom penh or vientiane.even the city is full of briyani restaurants the menu usually only three,chicken,mutton or veg briyani and the drink they sell usually only mineral water.the roadside foodstall is plentiful in every corner of yangon street and the food are usually various types of noddle soup.fast food is non existence and they also have french and other western restaurants but the price is steep and usually cost up to usd10 per person

accomodition

No county in S.E.A have such a limited number of budget places like Burma.thanks to their goverment oppresive nature to private entepreneurship.so most hotels in yangon is either 3 stars quality goverment run hotels or international hotel chain like traders hotel,sedona and park royal.the price is lower during rain season  and the parkroyal hotel i stay only cost me usd 60 a night.

medan

i visited this biggest city in sumatra in august last year.I only been here for 3 days and and will say like other indonesian city i like it.Because the stock market having once again experiance a meteoric rise so i decide to do some splurge this time.I book an executive room at jw marriot medan and also rent a toyota fortuner from the hotel.

to my suprise when i book the rooms it stated i will get executive floor benefit such as 5 time food offering and free wifi but the suprise is how good the food they offer consider its free of charge.they prepare a range of indonesian,western and japanese cuisines plus all type of free flow beer and premium liquor like johnny walker and jack daniel while on the booking page the free drink they said is only for non alcoholic baverages.they also have 3-4 staff serve the beautiful lounge when at the time i was there never exceed 5 people.

for nightlife the hotel basement house a club but u might want to check out the M3 or F1 for jakarta style clubs

everybody said while u were in medan u must going to danau toba but after see indonesia other danaus like danau maninjau,singkara and tondano i think that kind of place is not my thing.so i spend my time fool around the town to sun yat sen,suki mall and visit istana maimon and masjid raya

hong kong

I actually came here twice once in 2007 and than sometime in 2009.I know im not supposed to write about it after a long time it was done but i just feel so boring untill i write about this one.the city for a middle income kl guy is quite expensive.everything from food,lodging and even taxi ride.but i must say people there unlike many people say is actually friendly at least towards me.because the city have metro station everywhere u can use it to go to many places but still the ticket cost several times compare with lrt in kl.disneyland is the obvious choice to go and victoria peak came a close second.

the city is like bukit bintang area but in very large scale.to my suprise i found a very large mosque there and the mosque located in the middle of HK bustling strip,the tsim sha tsui road.its new and white.another mosque i been while i was there is located at wan chai area the place call osman ramju islamic centre.

vientiane

this is by far the most lame city i ever been.the food is lame,the nightlife is dead and u also feels some sense of inscure in this city.the city is so boring untill for the first time i forget what the hotel name i stay while im there.they have city front much like sisowath quay in phnom penh but the infrastructure is way behind.I try a couple restaurant at the river front,one is call fatima restaurant and one i dont remember the name which charge me 10 usd for a tilapia.the dont cook it themself but just buy it from many stalls on the river bank and dont bother to bring that fish from the restaurant entrance so i can clearly see i just get ripped off.

for 4 days i been there almost every day i went to maybe their only shopping complex(adjacent with street market).the place full of gold and jewelery shop and fake chinese goods.the place is talat sao .i ended up spend quiet a lot of money buy a few piece of jewelery for my mum and girlfriend.other place i visit is their temple pha that luang and the national museum which house so few things

this city will join bandar seri bagawan as the city i will never step foot again

the worst part is i forget to change some laos kip worth around 250usd which is invalid to change in malaysia and i suspect in many other countries as well

MANADO

I bought rm70 return trip ticket from KL to Manado last febuary.I must say the place is really eye opening for newcomers.Its took 4 hours from KLIA to get here which i think the longest flight u can take to east Indonesia.The place situated at the end of Sulawesi island.In the air before the airplane touch Sam Ratulagi airport i see what i familiar with.A lot of palm oil tress,actually the closer the airplane to land i realise its not palm oil tress like in KL.Its actually coconut tress,i never saw so many coconut tress in my life. From the internet search i done before i came here i knew Manado is 90% christians which i also think the most developed city in Indonesia with christian majority.But what shock me is the numbers of churches here.Its like one church for every few blocks.Its not just in Manado city but also built in a large numbers in other Minahasa areas.They must be really reliogous people.

Another point to remember is to get to Manado nowadays is much cheaper through KL rather than from other Indonesian cities particularly jakarta and makassar.Even manado situated about 3 hours flight from jakarta and suppose to be a least developed city its not really a place u can call improvised like cities in Cambodia and Vietnam.Its cant rival jakarta with its very few more than 10 storey building but have everything a city need.paved road across town up untill downtown areas,shopping malls,nightlife and 5 star resort as well.Bear in mind even though this place suppose to be cheaper than jakarta or surabaya but its actually not.Yes,cost here is if not more expensive still on par with jakarta.the price of rental car and food here is more than jakarta.

I stay at gran central hotel just accross the road to Megamall which is the largest mall here.They have other relatively big mall like Bahu Mall and Matahari department store.The hotel really live up to its name its really at the very centre of manado city.But most visitor tend to stay at one of many resort at Bunaken island.U can go to there for a day tour but its take 2 hours boat ride one way.Im not really into diving just a little snorkelling so stay at expensive island in secluded resorts is not my thing.

U can rent a car with driver and gas for 250,00 to300,000 rupiah a day about usd 25.They expect u to bargain the price.the places u should visit such as Bukit Kaseh a place where they built buddhist and hindu temple,a church and a mosqeu at the top of a mountain.the place i will say is so artificial unlike areas in Penang,Malaysia where people use these worship places in their daily life and with hundreds years of history.Bukit Kaseh is newly built place.Maybe the most historic place here is Waruga.Its an ancient cemetary dated around 1,000 years ago.the uniqeu thing about this cemetary is the deceased body not buried underground instead place in the big stone and put on ground.Manado museum also a good place to see a glimpse of manadonese glory in the past.

Manadonese love spicy food.Even spicy food is synonymous with indonesian but i must say manadonese really love spicy thing.Pork is available through out manado obviously because their religion allowed that unlike many other indonesian cities.But the best food here i must say is their seafood.Surrounded with oceon the supply of seafood is abundant and cheap.they have their own special way to grill the fist with coconut and come with very spicy sauce but with alot of tomato in it.taste good.

Now is the nightlife.manado is a gem for off the path nightlife seekers.Amazingly they have discos which i think on par with Zouk in Kl or Bedsupperclub in Bangkok minus the rich and famous crowd.SCORE at Bahu mall this is the place im talking about.They have up scale restaurant,live music,DJs,young and sexy waiteress and any drink u wanted.they also have pool table not just one table but 6 or 7 tables.this place is big.Girls here is known as among the most beautiful girl all over indonesia.they not familiar with tourist so u unlikely meet girls like u going to meet at B.A.T.S ,jakarta or bars in bali who looking for foreign sweetheart.

Go to Manado and i guarantee u will left this amazing city with very heavy heart and many stories to tell.

my second trip to jogjakarta
As anywhere else in the world jogja also hit hard by economy downturn.almost everything went up since my last trip about a year ago.the becak guys demand at least 10,000 rupiah(12,000 is about usd1) for short trip compare with 5,000 rupiah a year ago.A bowl of bakso now cost 10,000 an increase of around 3-4,000,even meter taxi went up from 3,500 to 6,000 for a flagfall and i reckon the per km rate also increase eventhough im not sure how much it is.the sirloin steak which i like very much at a japanese restaurant along malioboro call oshin sell for 65,000 now from 50,000
But the good thing is the hotel rate offer a steep discount and the airlines also offer very large discount.for example the hotel which i check last time quote at 200,000 rupiah offer their room for 120,000 even the owner said its only for a limited time period but judging from so many old and newly built hotel along molioboro small alley like sosrowijayan and dagen and very low occupancy rate i expect the rate will stay there for pretty long time.the airlines ticket is going really cheap now with airasia sell their ticket for just rm70(around usd20) including taxes for round trip journey between kuala lumpur-jogjakarta,but for a limited time period only and need to pre book about 3 months earlier.check out their latest offer at airasia.com.at the time i write this article malaysiaairlines.com a full service carrier offer rm249(around usd70) including taxes for round trip KUL-JOG.Can you imagine fly for 2 and a half hour for just usd10 one way.i did it.

But as i said earlier its all happen because of economy downturn so its maybe not a good time to travel for you.For you guys who think u can afford to travel i think there is never a better time to go because almost any place lack of business now so u will really get great value for your money.Particularly to Indonesia which rupiah going down very significantly.last year its about 8,500 for a dollar but now is hover around 12,000 rupiah a dollar.of course almost every currency take a beating but its look like rupiah hit very hard compare with other currencies.for your example 1 million rupiah cost me just rm310 now compare with rm400 last year.the rm(ringgit) actually going down from rm3.2 last year to rm3.6 for usd1.
so even with the price increase u still save some money because rupiah is very weak.its also make other south east asian countries like Cambodia and Vietnam became expensive because their currency tide with american dollars.

why pick indonesia over indo china countries
firstly,the very reason why people overlook Indonesia over countries like
Malaysia,Thailand,Vietnam and Cambodia is because they are Muslim majority country and people feel its not really safe there.The reality is it is as safer as the countries i just mention above if not even safer place.Indonesia is so vast and they have many millions of other religion than Islam.20% of the total population is non muslim which make up about 50 million people.its even larger than many country in this world.While Sumatras consist of heavily muslim population about 95% the rest of Indonesia like Java have very mix religious beliver not to mention Bali which about 85% Hindus.The Javanese who are muslims from my observation is much more lack in term of islamic practice compare with Malaysia and Brunei yet people across the world mainly westerners flock to this country for holiday.Its very rare to find a muslim women wear headscarf and alcohol selling at many outlet here.The main reason Indonesia receive so few tourist is because they have bad image in the world media which i think due to their weak goverment administration.