Arriving at Sumatra during the Ramadan was an odd experience after an overnight tiring bus-ferry-bus trip from Jakarta.
In the morning, the Teluk Betung, the older part of Bandar Lampung, that we can call the center, looked more like an abandon city, with the streets almost empty of traffic and people, closed shops and restaurants, empty markets… a feeling of numbness that wrap this place on the first day of the Ramadan, a totally opposite image of the usual pace of an Indonesian city.
But Bandar Lampung is far from be appealing for a tourist, but is not totally deprived of interesting things, like the Vihara Thay Hin Bio an old Chinese Buddhist Temple, where the quietness and solemnity of the place is surrounded by the red color that dominates all the interior of the temple, where huge candles burn permanently. This is the core of the Chinese neighbourhood, a community that settles down in Indonesia during the Dutch colonisation.
Visiting the Pasar Ikan Gudang Lelang, a fish market nearby the Impoverished port area gives another vibe, where the activity is still going on. Despite the slow pace, resulting from fasting that is observed during the Ramadan by the Muslim people, roughly from sunrise until sunset, the harbour are was the most vibrant place in Bandar Lampung during the day, where smiles peek from everywhere.
But as the sun reach the zenith all the city change, and lots of people move around, looking for the Ramadan treats to breaks the fast. The ground in front of Pasar Seni gets fill with the smell of the food, that a delight for the senses and a temptation for the stomach.
And just in front of the temple is the Aneka Sari Rasa, a keripik shop famous in town!! Kiripik is a typical Indonesian snack, a kind of chips made from banana, cassava, sweet potato or even jackfruit… and apparently Bandar Lampung is famous for the Kiripik. At the Aneka Sari Rasa, a shop dedicated almost totally to this chips you can find all the different versions, from sweet to salty, from chocolate to strawberry flavors… and there are dozens of workers there (in Europe for a shop like this you’ll don’t have more than two employees) willing to sell you something and super excited to have a foreigner there… It was impossible to resist to such an earnest and kind staff, and I end up with some packs of pisang kipirik, banana chips! Enak!!
[columns] [span6]
[/span6][span6]
[/span6][/columns]