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 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 But still, lost my interest since the design was outdated.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.
