Bengkulu

Bengkulu is a province on the southwestern coast of Sumatra island in Indonesia.

Cities

• 1 Bengkulu

Understand

Nature

Rafflesia can grow as big as one metre in diameter

Bengkulu province labels itself as the land of rafflesia, the world's largest flower. Thomas Stamford Raffles and a British botanist Joseph Arnold collected a specimen of this yet-to-be-named flower in southern Bengkulu in 1818. Two years later, the specimen was given a name in honour of its discoverers, Rafflesia arnoldii. The species falls under the parasitic plant category which can only live off a certain type of vine, as it lacks its own leaves, stems, and roots.

The flowers attract large insects such as beetles and flies to pollinate by emitting rotten flesh odour. The fruit produced will be eaten by tree shrew which in turn spreads rafflesia seeds around. Its lengthy process of reproduction and unusual nature makes this plant becoming rare. Despite that, as many as 10 flowers can be observed to bloom in one year, especially during the wet season.

You may check the local news first to know if there are any rafflesia blooming (see Cope section below). The usual spots to see the flower are 1 Taba Penanjung Nature Reserve (30 km east of Bengkulu city) and Bukit Daun Nature Reserve (52 km east of the city).

Get in

By plane

The only airport with scheduled flights in the province is 1 Fatmawati Soekarno Airport near Bengkulu city.

Eat

Those who are familiar with Malay cuisine will be no stranger with Bengkulunese dishes. Most of them use coconut milk and arrays of ground spices which gives rich and intense flavour. The meal consists of steamed rice or coconut rice, accompanied by two or three dishes, steamed vegetables or soup, and hot sauce (sambal). Simpler meal is consumed for breakfast, such as lontong tunjang (rice cake with shin of beef curry), mie pangsit (wonton noodle), mie celor (noodle soup with thick gravy made of egg, chicken broth, and maize flour), or soto Padang (noodle soup with beef broth and beef chunks).

Fish and seafood are abundant, notable dishes including: sala (batter fried grounded fish), masak asam (hot and sour fish stew), gulai palak ikan (fish head curry), ikan pais/pendap (fish wrapped in spicy coconut shaving and taro leaves), and bagar hiu (shark cooked in fried coconut shaving and array of grounded spices), Pempek (savoury fishcake, either steamed or deep fried, served in sweet-sour sauce), which comes from the neighbouring province of South Sumatra, is also a favourite along its variations such as burgo (pempek with thick rice noodle in coconut milk soup), lenggang (pempek omelette), and tekwan (pempek soup with shrimp broth with rice vermicelli)

Other typical Indonesian dishes can easily be found as well, usually chicken or egg or beef dishes, such as roasted chicken, chicken curry, beef rendang, and dendeng (fried thinly sliced beef). Most vegetable dishes takes precedent from Javanese cuisine - locals cook them in coconut milk (at this point you might wonder if there's any light meal comes from Bengkulu or Malay-sphere). Such concoction includes rebung asam (sour bamboo shoot curry) and gulai remunggai (winged beans curry).

Fruits

Most fruits you find in traditional markets comes from other cities or provinces, such as orange, papaya, sapodilla, avocado, and duku. However, fruits listed below hold certain regard in the city:

• Calamondin
• Durian is the favorite fruit of the local people in Bengkulu. It has a spiky skin on the outside but contains a sweet pulp. Some people think it smells nice but most foreigners usually think it smells bad! You can find fresh durian only from December to January, but durian jam (lempuk) is available year-round. Tempoyak is a traditional dish made with fermented durian. Usually people steam it with fish and eat with rice.
• Melinjo
• Kepayang

Go next

• Jambi
• Palembang
• Lampung