Sunday, August 28, 2016

Padang Trip - 'The' Shopping

As mentioned in my previous post, korang gi Padang carik kain sulam and telekung. Murah kate nyer, and please be aware that post ini adalah untuk kondem satu kedai made famous by a Malaysian blog. And that only one shop. Kalau korang Google 'kain sulam Bukittinggi Padang', this particular shop is most famous search result. And maybe because of that they are playing this price game, price semua displayed in RM okay. How bad it was ?? Enuf to made me made up my mind not to return to this city again.

Actually, my trip here to Padang is only for research. Nak survey harga, since my last trip to Jakarta they told me all those materials came in from Bukittinggi. I went to Pasar Atas first, but the price was ridiculous. Same shit, bukak harga 250k. When I said, ni kat Tanah Abang baru 200. Yg bukak harga 400k pun bole terus turun 200 lah. 

But this one guy dekat Pasar Atas offer a reasonable price. You should try check his booth. And this is definitely not the only shop I wanna condemn, this is the one I recommended.



So upon my failed hunting at Pasar Atas, I directly hire a cab to the most famous emboidery shop in Bukittinggi - Putri Minang. Determined to made my trip worth, I must go to these kind of individual shops. Since all the pasar's are too mainstream. 

So first I aim for kain sulam, and their price is beyond ridiculous. Lagi tak masuk akal dari Pasar Atas. Those old designs, aku dah beli dari 2011 they're selling for almost the same price I bought in Malaysia. Because of the ridiculous price, I just walk off the kain sulam area and went for telekung lah. And it was handled by 2 different girls both kain sulam and telekung, maybe you will know where I'm heading with this. 

When the kain sulam girl saw my selected items dah juta2, die bole dtg eh. Siap bawak contoh, 'kain sulam tak nak ke kak' ?? And again, I said NO NO NO. She tried to reduce the price. But still, lost my interest since the design was outdated. That's not the worst part.

So, during tawar menawar. The sales girl mcm biase la, 'akak ambik tiga saya bagi 280'. Aku bukan ambik 3 ok, aku ambik 5. Sampai kaunter, tokey tulis 330. Actually die nak kira in RM. I just say 'No, rupiah'. Then for another type, she said it's 39ringgit. He charged me 130k per piece, mintak 120 pun die tanak bagi. Actually it's not even 129k kalau convert, but that shop memang beyond limit. To that extend aku ckp kat mamat tulis receipt kat kaunter tu, 'just do whatever you want'. Argument was just waste of time at this point.

I was so mad, sampai aku campak lah duit tu. And you know what ?? Die bole nak bagi aku diskaun 50k. I seriously tell him this to his face, "No, I don't want your 50k. Take it". And I walked out. Sampai hotel driver taxi pun xberani nak paw because he saw me pissed earlier. This is not 'tabur pasir' dlm periuk nasik sesiapa, please. This is about 'customer always right', which in Putri Minang means 'customer have no rights'. 

So please, Putri Minang is not a best place to shop in Bukittinggi. I might be wrong, if you have a different experience please share your comment. So readers can justify. If you ask me ?? I will never retun back to this city. Seriously the price in Bandung is way cheaper. I requested the driver to take me back to the hotel, actually I wanted to go to Pasar Aur Kuning. But trust me, I had bad experience in 2 places. Why should I go to the third one.

Btw, the cab cost me 200k return. Siap tunggu la. That's why I advice you to take the private cab during the transfer from airport if you come in group. So you don't have to pay more for transportation because the individual shops are located half way from Padang Panjang to Bukittinggi. Jam Gadang & Pasar Atas is a walking distance within the Bukittinggi proximity. 

In my opinion, always compare the price they offered dgn range of price in Malaysia. Kalau kain sulam kat Malaysia bole beli RM80, buat ape susah2 pegi Padang for 250k ?? Same goes for the telekung, sampai 330k. Kat Malaysia pun bole dapat yg cantik RM180, tu harga Jalan TAR time raya kot.

And one more thing, they claimed the telekung 'Siti Khadijah'. I was imagining it was rejected batch of Siti Khadijah. Rupe nyer die copy Siti Khadijah punya head style so tak payah pakai anak tudung bagai, but with their design of embroidery and choice of material. 

Please share with me in the comment if you have a different experience. 


Padang Trip - Airport Transfer

Padang to Bukittinggi

Seperti yang digembar-gemburkan dalam internet & blog fashion, Bukittinggi Indonesia is sensational for their fine embroidery works particularly for kain pasang dan telekung. Makanya, berduyun2 lah umat Malaysia menyimpan angan dan impian untuk menjejakkan kaki ke bumi yg majoritinya Islam ini. Here's some travel tips for those who still living the dream, like the locals always said 'biar aman mbak'.

Upon arriving at the airport, just like other airports across Indonesia especially those already famous for tourist attraction just like Bali & Lombok. They are full of con men, wether the airport transfer of all kind - shared/private transfer or the boat transfer. They will be some local guys who will get commissions for getting customers for the drivers.

In my case, I was directed to the standard shared airport transfer and offered 60k for the transfer. Somehow the guy at the counter adviced me to go for a private taxi for 400k, reason being - "taksi nya langsung ke hotel mbak, kalau transfer nya lagi berhenti di bandar". So be firm, knows the option that serve best for your trip. Kalau pegi 3org tu, better ambik private cab je. Since they will bring you straight to shopping places, request pun bole. "Nanti nyinggah di kedai ini ya pak, kemudian ke sini". They will take you for lunch definitely, at your own cost of course 😆

When I said no to the private taxi, some other guy directly offered shared transfer for 75k and I immediately said yes. Kau ckp 'ok' je, they will grab your bag and tarik pegi kete which mostly will be couple hundreds meter away. So otw there, die ckp beg kau besar la. Bayar dua seat lah. Knowing these kind of things happened very often all around Indonesia, I strictly say "NO, 100k aja". And trust me, that is not rude at all. It was a negotiation 😆. 

Somehow, the driver buat muka. Suh tambah lagi 20k, jauh lah. Jem lah. So I was generous, since I just arrived at the airport. Bagi lah, 7ringgit je kot. So total damage for my airport transfer today is 120k, feeling dah worth it abis la tu. Sekali sampai hotel, I asked them to arrange for my transfer to the airport tomorrow afternoon and guess what ?? It will only cost me 80k.

Moral of the story: get to know roughly how much the airport tranfer will cost, it's better to book online or together with the hotel booking. And please, jangan nak berkira sangat beza 7ringgit.

Kbye


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