BANDAR LAMPUNG, INDONESIA

Just last week, we tagged along with my parents to visit our distant relatives living in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia. It's not a tourist hotspot but the town of about 880K population has its unique charm.

Jo standing against the wall of a small traditional Chinese temple located deep inside a housing estate.  

Bandar Lampung is the capital of the Lampung province and is located at the southern most tip of Sumatra island. The Lampung province is famous for its coffee beans, cocoa beans, coconuts and cloves. But what's more interesting to us is its close proximity to the infamous Krakatau volcano. We can't see it from Bandar Lampung but according to my relative, one will pass it if they take a boat ride from Bandar Lampung to Jakarta.

 

My folks waiting for the flight to Bandar Lampung in the Jakarta airport. It's only about 45mins flight time from Jakarta. (Dad munching on a piece of cake. Om nom nom) 

Jo and I weren't there for very long. So we made the most of everyday by stuffing our face with local food. Jo took most of food photos (so when she posts up her story later, I'll link it to her page). Thanks to my awesome cousin; Yohanes, and his parents, they took us to the local popular food joints, such as:

 

Lunch at a famous sea food restaurant. Had fried fish with very unique sweet and sour and spicy sauce. And washed it all down with cool young coconut juice.

 

   

We had our fish in one of these little huts, surrounded by "labu" shaped plants

 

Chicken porridge dinner at Ah Chung, spelled as "Acung" 

 

Thereafter, washed it all down with cendol. Ahhh ~ 

Next morning's brunch, we had bakso noodles ("ball" noodles eg. meatball, sotongball etc) + sate 

 

Dad and mum stuffing their face with bakso and sate 

 

Dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We were probably their first customer that evening.

  
   

Thereafter, we had this tasty broth/soup (chicken and mutton). AND sate. AND some fragrant tea.

 
AND washed it all down with coffee...

 
We didn't stop a bit the next day and continued to soldier on with our food conquest. We had pempek at Pempek 88; a savoury fishcake delicacy originated from Palembang.


Then we moved on to conquer Nasi Padang at this famous restaurant with an epic name; Begadang II


After dinner, we had coffee again...

 

In the middle of the food fest, we took some time off to visit some relatives, the Hakka Association and some local sightseeing. This is an important picture. This couple here was the connecting "bridge" to our Indonesian relatives. Many years ago when my grandad was still alive, he made the effort to connect with this couple (the guy on the right is his cousin) through letters and telephone. Through this connection, we managed to trace more of our relatives living all around Indonesia in the recent years.

 

The Hakka Association is an interesting place. It houses the ancestral tablets of the earliest Hakka clan who traveled all the way from China to settle at Bandar Lampung. Oh, and how are we connected to the Indonesian relatives? We have the same great great grandfather. His sons, one traveled to Melaka and the other to Lampung.

 
There's this huge extension of the association...a multi-purpose hall. The construction of it is almost completed.

 
I found the wreath for the dead very fascinating. Rather than flowers, it's made of colourful cloth, forming the letters and symbols.

 
We also stopped by the famous Thay Hin Bio traditional Chinese temple. Probably one of the oldest temple in Bandar Lampung.

  

And nearby the temple, there was this shop selling local food products (coffee powder, sweets, cakes etc).We bought some simple food to feed our friends and colleagues back home. 

 
   

We also stopped by a beach just to hang out. 

And here are some photos of my relative's home and their pets:

  

Interior of the house

  

"Is there anybody out there?"

  

Their pet dog, Belly, which looks like the awesome John Carter's "pet dog"

 

 

   

Colourful singing birds

 

And the picturesque view outside their house

Kau Sern's 2011 movie reviews

Here's the compilation of all the 2011 movies which I watched, reviewed and posted up on Facebook. My review scale: 1 - awful, 10 - AWESOME, YEAH!

Counting up from awful to Awesome, here goes:

0/10 - TOWER HEIST. A complete waste of talent, film and my time.

1/10 (1 is for The Rock vs Vin Diesel, mano a mano style) - FAST FIVE. Stupid.

4/10 - GREEN HORNET, promising start but inconsistent throughout. Not too sure whether it was meant to be serious or comedic. The ending was silly-they had to destroy the entire city all because of a USB? Kato didn't think of Internet in the Black Beauty? (But there's a fax machine? C'mon!)

5/10 - RANGO is a technically well made film. And that's the problem. It checks all the boxes of today's expectation of animation films; eccentric characters, jokes to cater for all ages, references to popular film culture, breathtaking action scenes and self discovery. But it lacks heart compared to Pixar's UP, Wall-E, Toy Story3. The only thing that worked is the superior animation.

5/10 - Sadly, the most memorable thing about CAPTAIN AMERICA was The Avengers teaser right at the end of the credits. There's nothing in CapAm worthy of praise or dislike. It's a straightforward competently made movie. I thought Thor was better, well at least it made me care for a character I didn't pay attention before.

6/10 - THOR wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. It was just meh meh, making it forgetable, just like the Wolverine origin story. The only thing that was rocking about THOR was Foo Fighters' Walk as the closing credit song. I hope the other two upcoming origins movie (Xmen and CaptAm) will be more memorable.

6.5/10 - SOURCE CODE: Another mind-bending movie where existence is a state of mind rather than a state of being. The first 3/4 of the movie was engaging thanks to a solid performance from Jake (despite being "repetitive") but the final bit was trying to be too clever.

6.5/10 -  PAUL wasn't as funny as Simon Pegg's other movies (Shaun of the Dead) but it has more heart. Paul the alien is realistically rendered it's easy to forget he isn't flesh-and-blood. And Seth Rogen was a perfect choice as Paul's voice; heard but not seen, he's effective.

7/10 - "When we accept ourselves for who we are, we will experience inner peace". Although such concepts may lack the story telling sophistication one finds in Pixar films, KUNG FU PANDA 2 was still entertaining. Visually, it is good; cleverly using both digital and hand drawn animation.

7/10 - COWBOYS & ALIENS turned out NOT to be lame. I was half expecting it judging by the chuckles in the cinema everytime the trailer played in the last few months. In fact, it's was an engaging 2 hours peppered with comedic 1-liners (dampened with the occasional cliche scenes and the distracting dog). Key standouts: the believable mash-up of the western and sci-fi genre, Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. 

7/10 - for Peter Chan and the stellar cast for pushing this film to a new direction.WU XIA is a beautifully photographed piece of work with very strong atmosphere and tension (think se7en). It is an interesting take on the wuxia genre, leaning significantly more towards drama than action. However, it doesn't hit the emotional level as HERO did. 

7/10 - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL story seems to be built around 3 major action pieces: the bombing of the Kremlin, scaling of the Burj Khalifah with a sand storm thrown in and fight scene in a futuristic multi level carpark. And there lies the problem: too much action and inconsistent pacing. "Less is more" should have done the trick. But what I did like was Jeremy Renner and the IMAX experience of Tom scaling the tallest building in the world. The 1st MI movie is still my fav. 

7/10 (but a 9/10 for that feel good feeling when the credits rolled)- Although REAL STEEL is riddled with cliches, it is still a crowd-pleaser movie. The fights between the robots are very impressive so much so when they pound at each other, it is believable (compared to my cynical chuckle when I first saw the trailer).

8/10 - J.J. Abrams' SUPER 8 felt like a 2-hours version of Lost where what seemed ordinary in the beginning turned mysterious (and extremely engaging) in the middle section of the movie. But the build up to the final section was somewhat a let down when the 'magic trick' was revealed. But the main reason for watching the movie? The cast of charming kids. 

8/10 - At the heart of Studio Ghibli's latest, ARRIETTY THE BORROWER, is a tale about the tender friendship/perfect love between Arrietty and the boy in the house. Mr Miyazaki's trademarks are all there; environmental concerns, a feisty teenage heroine and the attention to details. Standout sequences include Arrietty's first borrowing expedition, the crow attack and the heartbreaking closing scene. Not as good as Spirited Away and the other classics, but it was still engaging.

8/10 - THE KING'S SPEECH is a simple but beautiful story on friendship and being true to yourself. The movie can be neatly summed up in this paraphrased quote: "Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to believe and encourage a friend's potential success." - Oscar Wilde

8.5/10 - The last installment of HARRY POTTER is satisfying. It doesn't feel forced like most trilogy and not bloated considering it stretched to 8 movies. I actually did care for the three leads overtime like how I did for the cast of Toy Story 3. The undignified death of one of the main cast was disturbing but will probably end up in the list of one of the most memorable scenes in the history of film making. 

8.5/10 - I enjoyed the X-MEN prequel. It didn't feel like a cheesy superhero movie and the drama and action was well balanced. 2 standouts: the bromance of the two leads & Michael Fassbender; his performance was forceful and magnetic. 2 letdowns: too much CGI action sequence & the predictability, Charles Xavier losing his legs...checked etc. Watch out for the well-used PG-13 rule of "only one "f" word allowed."

9/10 - The Adventures of TINTIN in 3D: The one thing that really stood out was the the masterfully rendered animation, so much so, it felt a little tad too technical ie. not much heart. But Steven Speilberg is back after a disappointing Indy 4. In fact, TINTIN felt somewhat like a young Indiana Jones, blending adventure, mystery, thrilling chases, quirky characters and sly humour.

9/10 - I thoroughly enjoyed SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS, probably because I never read any of the books and thus was free from any baggages. SH:AGOS is a far more superior outing than the 1st movie: the set pieces are believable, the villain is low key but dangerous, the visual effects is a standout (the jungle scene), the bromance works and the finale over a game of chess kept me at the edge of my seat! 

...and the no. 1 movie for me in 2011:

9/10 - I really enjoyed THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU. It has a compelling cast of characters, with a special shout out to Anthony Mackie, a member of the Adjustment Bureau who sympathizes with the two leads. A believable love story with twist of sci-fi and fate.