Palembang Trip : Indonesia Scrabble Challenge 2014 (Part One)

Yes! This is my first trip since I started to write blog. In this post, I'll share my trip and my experience during the trip :D. My trip this time wasn't intended only for holiday purpose, but the main purpose was for joining National Championship of Scrabble in Indonesia. The National Championship is called Indonesia Scrabble Challenge (ISC) and this year is fourth edition, having been organized annually since 2011.

2013 edition of ISC was held in Jakarta, so this year we planned to hold it outside Jakarta. Palembang and the organizer (Universitas Sriwijaya) there were the readiest, therefore we decided to choose Palembang as the 2014's host.

Finally, Palembang as my latest destination trip! I was so excited since it was my first time to go to Palembang. The Indonesia Scrabble Challenge 2014 itself was held on May 24th-26th.

First Day

Woke up in joy because I knew I would go to Palembang, all packed up and ready to go. Took a plane to Palembang and after one-hour flight I arrived at Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport Palembang.

The airport there was a decent one and the weather was no different with Jakarta. From the airport, I took TransMusi (bus rapid transit system in Palembang) to the central of the city. Had to transit twice before taking taxi to Palembang Square, where my hotel was nearby there. The taxi driver from B*lido (I guess it's a local taxi service) forced me and my friend to pay IDR 30k as minimum fare he said. We were a bit tired and hungry that time, we just paid for the amount he asked, ignored whatever he said and got out the taxi as soon as possible. How pity he was. Then, I dropped my luggage at the hotel and picked up another friends who were arrived earlier to found something to eat. After roaming around Palembang Square for a while, we hadn't found anything to eat yet and we were starving so bad. We opted Pempek Ekspress as soon as we saw it. First meal in town would be (and should be) its iconic food HAHA. We had a quite troublesome time while ordering, the waitress only used local language I guess. It was quite annoying and more, the Tekwan and Mie Celor - which we chose to order earlier - were sold out. One of my friend even quite disappointed and moved to another restaurant (not in too serious way). I had Model Ikan and Pempek Crispy. The Model Ikan was nice and tender with eggs in it and the soup was tasty. The fried onions here came in big cut, which I like very much, yay!

Pempek Crispy turned out to be one of my favorite, it's almost the same with the one we know as pempek kulit (skin). Its crispiness was perfect and a bit chewy, the spicy vinegar sauce made it so delicious!

After our tummies were satisfied, we went to Wisma Faeyza Syakira, the competition venue to meet the organizer and to oversee and check preparation progress then headed back to the hotel for a quick rest. At night, we took an angkot (public transportation) to Taman Ampera. Love the atmosphere and the ambiance there. From there, I could see the famous Ampera Bridge of Palembang. The view was just breathtaking at night. At the park, there were many hawker foods and beverages to enjoy. I had fried noodles and grilled skewered meatballs.

Next we went back to the hotel to have some rest and to prepare for the competition next day. I had a great and adventurous first day in Palembang :D.

Second Day

Here we go! The first day of the competition! The first round pairing wasn't like I expected, I faced the 2012 Champion, Christian Oktavius already! He got the better of tiles and beat me 511-410. In the second round, I was paired with one of the students from Lampung, Inas Firhan Aziz. My game was balanced, scored pretty well in each turn and I won the game with the final score 507-409.

Round 1 - Christian Oktavius

Round 2 - Inas Firhan Aziz

Third round, just before lunch, I met a Palembang player, who was actually the chairman of this year ISC, Ahmad Ramadhan. I won pretty comfortably 567-332, thanks to my triple-triple AEQUORIN for 199pts, which eventually became the High Word of the tournament. Then we had lunch that had been prepared by the committees. After lunch, it wasn't the result I wanted, I lost twice in a row to top Indonesian players, Julius Wilson and Fadlan Satria, 363-404 and 352-474 respectively.

Round 3 - Ahmad Ramadhan

Round 4 - Julius Wilson

I should go back to winning ways in the last round of the day and I did. I beat Yuda Eka Prasetia with a comfortable score 476-266. 3 wins and 3 losses, clearly it wasn't my best performance and should improve in the next day of competition.

Round 5 - Fadlan Satria

Round 6 - Yuda Eka Prasetia

Playing Scrabble drained our energy a lot, after the competition we directly headed to another Pempek Ekspress (AGAIN!) to have late afternoon meal. This time I tried Pempek Lenggang. At first, I thought it was just like the other ordinary pempek but it was SO YUMMY! I could say it was like a pempek omelette, and of course with the authentic vinegar sauce. You should try this when you visit Palembang (I MISSED IT ALREADY!).

We soon went back to the hotel to rest before took another walk to Palembang Indah Mall. We did nothing in particular, just looking around and searching for dinner. We returned earlier to the hotel because we wanted to watch Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid at midnight. But it turned out we overslept and didn't wake up to watch the final XD.

I'm done with the first part of my Palembang trip *big grin*

TO BE CONTINUED...

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