Dina Charolina R Nhadien

I engaged Dina to be my guide for 2 days, from 9 March (date of the full solar eclipse in Palembang) to 10 March. Dina was very obliging to meet me on the night of 8 March, to guide me to a nice traditional restaurant for my first dinner in Palembang, as well as to preview the riverside where we would go next morning to view the eclipse. A thunderstorm broke out when we were at the riverside, but with Dina's charm she got a street vendor to allow us shelter under his stall umbrella.

Next morning, Dina was prompt to pick me up from the hotel before sunrise and go to the riverside. Again, with her delightful charm, she managed to get a policeman to escort us through the thronging crowd to the edge of the river, where I could place my tripod & camera and get a good picture of the sun with the historical Ampera Bridge in the foreground. After the event, while waiting for the crowd and traffic to disperse, Dina, at my request, searched amongst the massive crowd of vendors for the one who had sheltered us the night before, and there we had "Mee Tek Tek" (noodles, with "tek tek" being the sound made by the ladle on the pan as the frying was done).

The rest of my visit was just as wonderfully satisfying because Dina knew exactly the various places to take me to, after having described my interests as a watercolour artist, to view and take photos, many of which I will certainly turn into paintings later. Dina also took me to taste numerous varieties of local delicacies at eating places ranging from roadside stalls to full-fledged restaurants. She even treated me to some "Tek Wan" (a local fishball soup) at her favourite stall, as it was her birthday month.

On my second day, Dina took me to her village, about 30 km south of Palembang. The scenery along the way was breathtakingly picturesque and rustic, and I asked the driver to stop many times for me to take photos. Dina, as usual, easily struck up a conversation with any local who happened to be there and conveyed to me additional information that I would not have known otherwise. Among the sights I saw up close were people building timber houses (which they would later dismantle, transport to the buyer's site, and re-assemble), a couple of old guys building their own sampan (small boat), a girl inside her house weaving a straw mat, another girl outside dyeing straw for the mats, and a man under his stilted house manually hammering away at sheets of aluminium to shape into a kitchen utensils.

Dina is a chatty person and has many stories to tell. She adequately advised me about things to be wary of as a tourist in Palembang. Despite being young, she has had, and continues to have, colourful life experiences that make her the ideal person to accompany a visitor to her home city or surrounding province.

My departure from Palembang was a heartfelt farewell as Dina, despite her service as guide having ended the previous evening, voluntarily turned up at my hotel on the next morning to accompany me to the airport and gave me a send-off like dear friends parting and unsure of whether we would ever meet again. She has given me a lasting impression of not only how wonderful Palembang is as a place to visit, but also how very friendly and hospitable the people are.