It was July 20th 2010, I and my aunties were going to Lampung, a province in Sumatera. This was my first trip to this place. If people want to reach Lampung from Jakarta through road way must cross Sunda strait, by ferry ship which parks in Merak harbor. The ferry ship we used this time named Manggala. It is not a big ship but can load many buses, trucks, and cars. On the ferry ship passengers can walk around and see the beautiful scenery of the sea and small islands. Manggala ship provides the passengers an executive class with some facilities such as air conditioner room, cozy seats, big screen television and toilet. But there is a price to have this, Rp.10.000 per passenger. It is worthy for two hours voyage on the ferry ship.
Arriving in Bakaheuni harbor, Lampung, our car began to run again. We stopped by for lunch in Simpang Raya, the nearest and the best Restaurant Padang from the harbor. There is a clean mosque beside the restaurant, so we could pray and take rest for a while. After that we continued again our trip. Along the street we could see many banana and coconut trees. For information, Lampung is famous with its banana. Anyone who visits this place won’t forget to buy banana or banana chips which sold in some places along the street.
Entering Bandar Lampung, the capital, we smelled coffee, since there were big coffee factories. This city is not so big, but not too quite. Many buses and trucks move around since Lampung is a passed province if people want to go towards Sumatera Island. Our destination is Kota Agung, where we spent a night in one hotel there. It is quite far from the capital because must pass some areas like Pringsewu, Pagelaran and Gisting to reach it and took 3 hours.
Actually my group’s aim to Lampung was attending wedding celebration one of our relative. The son married with Lampung girl. The wedding ceremony was at night but the party was celebrated the following day. After blessing the bride and groom, the next day we returned back to Jakarta. On the way to the capital, we bought some snacks like cassava chips and banana chips with various tastes and flavors such as chocolates, cheese, mocha, sweet, salt and spicy. These snacks would be our gift to our family who had waited and missed us at home.
Again, to cross the strait, we used ferry ship. This time I spent my time mostly out of the room to enjoy the wind of sea and to sea night view of Java Island from the ship. Coincidentally, I met a backpacker from Netherlands. His name is Jong William, a tall and friendly guy. From his talking I found out that it was his first trip to Indonesia, so I gave him some useful information about my country especially things related with trip like the nice places, the food, the people and the most important was to kept supporting his trip.
So, that’s my story about trip to Lampung. It’s not a magnificent one, but I quite enjoyed it. Because being the first time of everything usually has a different story. Hopefully I can tell much more story for another trip to another city or country.
