Palembang Trip 02

5. Musi River 
Kali Musi Palembang SumatraAfter visiting Kemaro Island and Kuto Besak Fortress, it is now the time to enjoy the panorama along Musi River. Functioning not just a transportation route for the people of Palembang, Musi River possesses 750 km length and is also a must-see tourism destination if you are traveling to Palembang, the City of Pempek.
One of the traditional way of enjoying the view of Musi is a by going along its body with “ketek”; is a traditional wooden boat  of Palembang. These ketek vehicles can be hired in the small pier/ harbor under Ampera. No need to worry about the tariff, because the price proposed by the operator is usually open for negotiation. The smarter you are in bargaining, of course the cheaper the cost will get.

6. Grand Mosque (Masjid Agung) of Palembang 

Palembang Grand Mosque is one of the heritages from the Darussalam Sultanate of Palembang. The mosque has been marked as the center (0 kilometer) of Palembang City. It was built in a time period spanning from 1738 to 1748 by Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin I, also known as Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin Wikramo Jaya. On its initial build, the palace covers ??1,080 square meters (about 0.26 acres), capacitating up to 1,200 jamaah. The land was then expanded by Sayid Umar bin Muhammad Assegaf Altoha and Sayid Shaykh Ahmad bin under the leadership of Prince Sahab Nataagama Karta Mangala Mustafa Ibnu Raden Kamaluddin.

From the year 1819 to 1821, a few renovations were conducted by the Dutch Colonial Government. After that era, further expansions were done in 1893, 1916, 1950, 1970, and the last in 1990. The mosque is very typical of Palembang tradition. Most of the wood contained in the architecture of the mosque has typical Palembang carvings called “Laker”. Today, the original building of the mosque is located within the new building, inaugurated by the fifth President of Indonesia; Megawati Sukarnoputri. The shorter of the two towers is the only part that retains originality from initial build. Also to be noted, the mosque was initially surrounded by Musi River; it is an interesting site to visit.

7. Punti Kayu Tourism (Pine) Forest 

Punti Kayu Tourism Forest is the only tourism forest in Palembang, located 6 kilometers from the city center. The forest is a conservation area employeing the developmental concept on the principles of protecting biological diversity of plants and animals.
Punti Kayu’s features range from panoramic pine forests (pine mercussi) which has aesthetic value as attractive scenery, as well as a mini zoo with wild animals; long-tailed monkey (Macaca fasicicularis), monkeys (Macaca nemistriana) etc.
There are a horseback arena, elephant area, flower garden, children’s playground, a boat dock, a children’s pool, a suspension bridge, open stage, and marquees as well. In addition to the zoo, this attraction also has a crocodile farm, and is known to be the largest city pine forest in Indonesia.

8. Songket (traditional cloth of Palembang) Center in Tanggo Buntung
Songket is typical Palembang fabric/ cloth. The making of songket in this particular area has been going on since the 1700s, gradually improving to be the central area for business as well as the largest songket craft centre. Here, you can choose from a lot of stores that display their eye-catching collection of songket. Not only as cloth, songket is nowadays already set up in such a way that provides a variety of forms such as shirts, dresses, bags and even shoes and so forth. Aside from songket, in this area is where you can find typical souvenir of Palembang, directly from the crafters. Some songket stores here among others are Cek Ipah, Cek Ilah, Fikri Collection, Zainal Songket, and others.
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