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Published: November 11th 2007
Day Trippin
Taking a drive through the countryside...and what a countryside it was....wow.The journey to Bukit Tinggi was not quite as bad as we had anticipated....the 16 hour bus ride seemed to just fly by...no joke. At this stage in the game, we don't even blink an eye went we are about to get onto another night bus. The ride was fine, quite bumpy, slippery and slidey for the most part since the road pretty much disappeared during the night and we found ourselves driving through deep, slippery mud. No sleep for us that night.
We arrived in Bukittinggi at 9am, check into a hotel and went to sleep.
The next day we joined a Dutch couple, that we had met on the bus, on a day tour of the countryside around Bukittinggi.
We visited a coffee roasting house, historic Minangkabau houses, woodcarvers, weavers and a dirty lake that our guide thought that we would like to swim in.
He also taught us alot about the ways of the Minangkabau people and how they use a matrilineal system in their families (which means that the woman owns EVERYTHING and she passes it down to her daughters and the men own NOTHING). Very interesting stuff indeed.
The day after that we were supposed to
More beautiful scenary
Sumatra is just full of amazing sights. leave for the Harau Valley, but Guillaume and I, being completely BLESSED with time, woke up and he looked at his bag...and then looked at me and said
"oh man, i DO NOT want to pack my bag right now".
Enough said, we stayed in town for another day.
That afternoon, after eating another delicious tempeh sandwich, we walked to a village, just outside of Bukittinggi, called Koto Gadang. It is well known for its silversmiths and unique silver jewellery.
Just getting there was a real adventure. We thought that we just had to follow the road going out of town. But before long we found ourselves wading through a river, with an instant "friend" (who obviously wanted to tag along just to get a bit of money from us for "pointing us in the right direction"...which I'm not sure he did), hiking through the jungle and finally crossing a hanging bridge that you wouldn't send your worst enemy across.
We arrived in Koto Gadang, finally, and were promptly greeted by a kid who told us, in his broken english, that he would like to show us around town so that he could practice his english with us and that
Yum
The smell of freshly roasted coffee....lets just say that my nose was having a little party. he didn't want any money from us. We had been warned about people who would latch onto us and expect money eventually even if we didn't ask for a guide.
So we said OK to this kid, since we were just going to be his english teachers for a little while.
We visited many silver workshops and also the canyon (where if you scream loud enough you scare the crap out of the flying foxes and they fly out of the trees so that you can get a good look at them, this is what our "friend" told us to do).
Finally when it was time to leave the village, our "friend" found a car that was going the same way as us and would let us catch a ride, just as we were getting in the car he turned to us and screamed in our faces
"GIVE ME MONEY!!!"
WHAT? I don't think so.
Now that just made us completely mad at him since he assured us that he didnt want money when we first met him. We pretty much had a big screaming match with him in the street, hopped in the car and drove away from there.
Roaster Man
Doing his thang. When we got back to Bukittinggi we were so worked up that we thought we would take out all of our frustrations on creating a blog entry.
We had been there for quite a while when all of a sudden I felt really nauseous and dizzy. I couldn't figure out why I was feeling like that....and that's when it occured to me, but before I could blurt it out the employee of the internet cafe said
"Earthquake! Everyone out of the building now!"
Guillaume and I just looked at eachother and our jaws dropped.
So we all filed out of the building and tried not to panic. The streets were filled with all the people who had evacuated the surrounding buildings.
It was really quite strong and had lasted a long time. Our friend said that a good way to know if it is over (because you cant always feel it) is to look at a glass of water and see if the water is moving. Just as he said that we looked over into the next shop over and saw their fish aquarium and the water was just splooshing and splashing all over the place.
It took a long
Maninkabau Houses
With the remarkable multiple "horned" roof time for me to calm down from the adrenaline and the scare of a possible tsunami.
(which was when Guillaume reminded me that 1.We were about 100km's away from the coast and 2.We were also situated almost 1000 meters above sea level....oh ya.)
I slept well that night but was quite rudely woken up early the next morning.
I was sure that Guillaume was jumping on the bed and I turned over to ask him why he was doing that when I realized that he was still laying down and that it was another earthquake that had shaken me awake like that. This one was much bigger than the one from the previous night.
So we tried not to panic, though it was difficult, and ran outside to the street.
After all the commotion we ate breakfast and the left town for the Harau Valley.
It was quite a pleasant ride there. Two hours on the bus and then 30 minutes on an OJEK (essentially a motorcyle taxi that is extremely cheap, $2 each for 1/2 hour ride).
The setting could not have been more beautiful. Huge rock faces surrounding us and the greenest, most lush rice paddies lying below.
The Old Queens House
Um...where the queen lived?
Oh..im so bad at paying attention to guided tours.... The only problem with the place was the accomodation. We had heard so much good talk about the only guesthouse in the valley and were excited to get there. And it was a beautiful place, really. Alot of effort was put into the design of the property, it was really lovely. Though the only room we could afford was the cheapest they offered ($5 per night) which was a basic bungalow/hut, which we are usually quite fine and happy with, but there were holes through the entire places and it was just swarming with bugs and creepy crawlies. I think that we had just had enough of that during the last three weeks in Sumatra and were ready for a change.
That night was a sleepless one. With the bugs wandering around our room and the nearby mosque shouting out prayers until the wee hours of the morning (celebrating the first day of Ramadan), it was not so easy to fall asleep.
So at some point during the night Guillaume and I got up and went outside to watch the spectacular lightning that was surrounding the valley. When the rain started to come down on us we went back inside
Stopping for a look
Because Guillaume screamed "STOP!!!" at the driver and broke out the camera for a "midnight silly photo taking session". It went well.
The next morning we explored the area by foot, checking out the many waterfalls nearby.
After lunch we decided that we couldn't handle another sleepless night. And since we were the only guests at the guesthouse we just cound't bear to hear another "tidak ada" ("we don't have that") from the restaurant chef.
So back to Bukittinggi we went.
Next destination, Lake Maninjau.
After the amazing bus ride there, holding onto the seat as we plowed around the 44 hairpin bends (and knocking a couple of motorcyclists into the ditch) we arrived at Lake Maninjau.
It was like so many other places we've been to, incredibly beautiful.
The whole lake was surrounded by a mountain range and rice fields and all sides.
We found a nice little room for $3 per night. The owner, Bumbu, was great and there was a nice place to chill out. Which was precisely what we were planning on doing.
We stayed for 8 days and just relaxed for the most part. It was so easy to do that. It was quiet and rainy most of the time so, again,
Proving Myself
To who exactly? Dunno. we didnt even have to make up an excuse for not doing anything.
On one sunny morning we rented bicycles and rode around the lake. It was just so picturesque, the whole way around. Beautiful, peaceful and a really easy ride.
We loved our time at Maninjau, met some nice people and ate some great tempeh satay.
But alas we had to make our way back to Bukittinggi, once again, so that we could catch a plane from Padang to Jakarta, experiencing a scary earthquake in the airport.
And on to begin our three week adventure on Java.
Its going to be much different.
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pPamela
Pamela Joy Fuge
Hi, Just loved your report, made me feel like I was there again. Loved the photo of the small hut in Harau Valley- never got back to stay- after your report-glad I did not. Wow!! so many earthquakes. I travelled Indonesia for 5.5 months in 2006, staying 3.5 months in Sumatra and never felt one. Your another Indonesian wildflower is actually the beginnings of a pineapple. My guide showed me one of those on my 2 day trek from Bukittinggi to Lake Maninjau, down through the jungle- what a fantastic experience. Thanks again. Pamela whose heart lives in West Sumatra, whilst my body lives in Sydney Australia.