Blogs from Bukittinggi, Sumatra, Indonesia, Asia

Having travelled from Rantapau in Sulawesi to Padang in Sumatra, by way of Makkassar and Kuala Lumpur, and enjoying not a jot of sleep in the 56 hours that the journey took to complete, I began to have serious doubts as regarded my choice of location for our much needed rest and recuperation as we approached Bukittinggi in the cramped rear seats of a battered opelet. The road had become entirely blocked by smoke spewing vehicles, and the view of battered concrete mobile phone shops and dilapidated bike repair joints was far too ubiquitously Asian to have me believe that Bukkitingi would prove to be the cool highland retreat I had imagined and desired. We were unceremoniously ejected from our opelet in the middle of a noisy, confused and confusing out of town bus-come-opelet station, from ... read more

So, after Berastagi and its volcano, we went down to Lake Toba, a few public buses later, squeezed into the back of minivans with various little Indonesian children climbing over us, and then a short ferry ride we made it to the island in the middle of the lake. All was ok, though it rained a lot and so took away some of the splendor of the lake, but a night was enough and we decided to get ourselves down to Bukittinggi. Just south of the Equator. We found out that all the buses were full for three days and so eventually settled on a taxi company that does the trip for 220,000 per person. 8pm the guy told us. Be half an hour early. So we wandered around the mess of Parapat for a few ... read more

Checked out and went on net to waste a few hours then had an early tea, picked up our big bags and grabbed a taxi to bus station. After waiting about half an hour at the bus ticket office we were asked by the office bloke (on behalf of a giggling couple in their late teens) if he could video us saying a special birthday message to their friend.....we did though we felt like complete prats. It went something like 'Happy Birthday Dendy, wishing you all the best on your special day', but that apparently didn't cause us enough embarrassment so they asked for a retake with an additional sentence in Indonesian that they'd wrote out for us, god only (and the group giggling) knows what we said but I hope their friend is easy pleased ... read more

Checked out, we've spent about 45GBP each during our 4 days here which isn't bad considering that inc. accommodation, all our food and laundry. Ali was going to Bukittinggi today too so we walked with him up to the main road and waited till a car stopped that had free seats. The 3 of us were squashed into the back seat with our huge bags! To make matters worse Ali got travel sick so he spent much of the journey looking sick or being sick into a carrier bag whilst I rubbed his back hahah. Thankfully travelling with a local definitely makes things cheaper. We paid 40,000 to get to Lake Maninjau and just 15,000 to get back :) and we were dropped off right at the door to hotel Asia where we said bye to ... read more

Last night me and Suse got a ridiculous amount of sleep, broken up by many different sources of noise during the night. At 4am about 4 mosques began their prayers awaking anyone within a 20 mile radius, this continued for what seemed like an age. At 7.30 a man with a microphone (we think selling stuff) decided to blast out some repetitive message into the streets (which he did every few hours). This of course got all the local dogs barking and made it impossible to sleep. Despite all this early morning commotion we did manage a great sleep. Once finally up and ready we left our bags at reception (changing rooms) and headed off for breakfast. After a yummy serving of banana porridge we headed back to Bukitinggi canyon where we scaled the steep steps ... read more

I woke early, a glance out the porthole window showed the advancing arc of Bungus Bay. The morning mist evaporating to reveal volcanic mountains, and a scattering of tiny fishing boats returning to port with their catch. Leaving these sights and our aquatic transport behind we turned inland and caught a predictably overfilled minibus north to Bukittinggi. Surrounded by coffee plantations, volcanoes, richly diverse forest, crater lakes and waterfalls the town of Bukittinggi is certainly well located for exploring. The thriving market town itself also impressed us, it turned out to have something for everyone. But before any of that we had to find some accommodation. Hotel Rajawali was a quirky ramshackle hostel, and Ulrich the German owner was as scatty as Basil Fawlty. When we arrived he animatedly flitted about the foyer imparting his wisdom ... read more

Why would anyone, just for the sake of seeing a flower, come off a nine hour bus trip and get straight onto another bus for a further 21 hours? That’s what I did. I don’t know if it can be considered intrepid, inspired, or just insane. The flower in question, of course, is the Amorphophallus titanus by Bukittinggi. When I last saw it on the 21st of October it was still a bud and it wouldn’t be in proper flower for about ten days, by which time I’d have left the country. But the more I thought about it the more I realised that to leave Indonesia without having seen such a profound rarity would be madness. MADNESS!!! You can plan a trip around orangutans or tapirs or Komodo dragons, but not around a flower that ... read more