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Life on Singgalang volcanoe
Small villages cover the slopes of the volcanoe. They are all linked by narrow winding and very potholed roads.For my last day in the area Aaron and I rented motorbikes again to explore a route that a french anthropologist, who is living here, reccomended to us. It basically took us around Singgalang volcanoe which is one of the two large volcanoes that looms menacingly over Bukittinggi.
This time Aaron tried to get a quieter motorbike as the last one was so incredibly loud. Seriously I never imagined it possible for a motorbike to make so much noise. I think removing the exhaust completely would have actually made it quieter. It did make me laugh constantly though as even the locals (who are used to loud bikes) would turn to stare as they heard the bike approaching. If we were going up a steep hill and he dropped it down a gear I would have to drop back about 30m as it felt like my eardrums would pop otherwise. God knows how he managed to put up with it for a day. As he said I suppose - "at least all the locals know I'm coming" - so he was far less likely to get run over.
Oh yes that reminds me of his lights too. Or rather
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A small mosque in the middle of nowhere provides a place for prayer for the small population of farmers in the surrounding area lack of. The only way you could get any light out of it at all - and this would only be the tinniest splodge of light on the floor about 2m infront of the bike - was to keep the revs up really high. This had the knock on effect of course of raising the noise levels well above what could be considered safe for your ears. Somehow though he managed to navigate the last part of the way home along narrow, winding and pot hole riddled roads in almost complete darkness. Of course it would have made sense for me to drive infront as mine was working (well compared to his anyway) but tis only hindsight that lets me think of that.
The locals around here love, and I mean love, loud motorbikes. They modify bikes to make them as loud as possible. This completely ruins the peace and quite in some places but thats just how it is. Kids go absolutely nuts on them too and I've seen loads of them covered in scabs where they've come off their motorbike and had their body dragged along the tarmac for a fair distance. As with youngsters universally though
Dusk on Singgalang
Our route took us up over the left side of the volcanoe where it got pretty cold when we were up high and I prayed that my dwindling petrol supply was enough to get me home. It was thankfully. they don't learn from their friends mistakes and carry on as if they were invinvible against an oncoming 30tonne truck with a relative speed of around 90km/hr.
Anyway we left fairly early this time (i.e. the second trip now) and made sure the bikes were a bit quieter with better lights (only marginaly). It was good job we left early too because we got lost plenty of times throughout the day and the trip took us 2.5times as long as it should have. Also, while riding down a busy highway in the pissing rain with large lorries tearing past Aaron got another puncture about 3km's from the nearest puncture wallah. All the delays are half the fun though and we ended up seeing some really great places because of this so it's not all bad.
I'll let the pictures do most of the work from here but basically we rode right around the volcanoe in varying weather conditions (I had to stop and buy some glasses so I could drive in the rain at one point) and passed all the usual rice paddies and small villages. The scenery was lush and stunning with everyone we passed waving at
Friends
Keen to practice her English the school girl in the orange shirt told us proudly how she was top of her class and wanted to be an English teacher when she is older. She invited us to stay with her too but I was leaving the next morning sadly. us as we went by.
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