Blogs from Padang, Sumatra, Indonesia, Asia
April 19th 2012
Mum was lying on a sun lounger reading when the 8.6 quake occurred, apparently a significant enough quakes to make worldwide headlines and generate mass panic..except for mum, who chose to just keep reading. She felt her lounge start shaking and thought..hmm..what's going on here. So she stood up, lifted the lounger to see if there were 'animals' under there moving around. Now think about this. Statistically, what are the chances that a couple of pangolins wandered out of the jungle and thought, yes, just what we need for our romantic interlude, an australian on a sun lounge, right at that moment. Like that would happen! Now statistically, the chances of an earthquake on the Sandra arc is pretty high, up there in the top places likely to make your lounge move. So mum stood up, ... read more
Journeys and Destinations Cubadak Island
Published: April 18th 2012Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Padang
April 18th 2012
On how many levels does a journey exist? Is the journey sometimes a destination unknown or unexpected? Ive spent my adult life watching for the Oh Not Again! Disapproving face my mother would pull every time I would casually mention I was going diving..in a couple of days..in papua new guinea. I wanted to show my mum the side of me that comes alive when I am travelling and diving, a new world to explore, where I feel my best. I wanted her to understand why I travelled alone to parts far flung and on the Smart Traveller website as reconsider need to travel. So, I took her to Cubadak. A tiny island off the west coast of Padang in Sumatra. On that ohh so sexy Sundra Arc (You will have to excuse the geomorphologist im ... read more
November 27th 2011
I've managed to break down tired into 2 rough categories. The first is the biproduct of sleep deprivation and is what we felt following 36 hours of non-stop travel and transit stops enroute to a wee little surf camp deep in the Mentawai Islands off Sumatra's west coast. Travelling is not an exact science and to paraphrase Steinbeck: "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry". Such was the case initially with our 12 day package to Pitstop Hill. The entire process looked watertight on paper until Steinbeck's line began ringing in my ears as our flight out of Sydney was delayed 5 hours, which in turn negated connecting flights and reservations that evening. Frantic phone calls, emails, the cool runnings of Pitstop Hill management and liberal dobs of smiling co-operation from Garuda ... read more
May 20th 2010
Got train and bus to airport this morning. Once at airport we waited to check in in the slowest moving queue EVER. Think this was partially due to some of the passengers fault (one family had too much luggage and had to start moving it about) and partly the woman servings fault (she sent the bloke in front of us's luggage to the wrong island). They went a little crazy with the air cooler when we first got on (as you can see from the pic) and we couldn't even see the end of the aisle. The journey went really quick as it was only just over an hour. Padang airport is teeny tiny. Visa on arrival costs $25 . Got through immigration OK and I even had a chat with the guy about where we ... read more
February 20th 2010
As may of you are aware, last October 23, 2009, I found myself arriving in the small village of Sungai Gerringing to volunteer my time for Hands On Disaster Response (www.hodr.org). The area of Padang and subsequent villages around the big city had been hit by two earthquakes, which flattened many homes in that area of West Sumatra. I had written a time or two about my time spent there (one can always visit www.HODR.org for more updates and well-written commentary about what we did in and how we helped out the community), so this is just the final synopsis of my final month at the project. In January, we started building transitional houses (t-shelters) for a few select families in the SG area. Breaking up the work into different areas, volunteers were able to ... read more
February 13th 2010
Lying 135km west of Sumatra are the little known Mentawai Islands. This was to be our next destination having flown on a whim, and another cheap Air Asia flight, from Kuala Lumpur to Padang. Getting to, and finding any information about, these far away islands was to prove seriously tricky and testing but ultimately worth it. Due to the contrasting nature of our time I have split the account into two parts. Good and bad maybe but both an experience that will live long in the memory. Part One - Moody Mas to Masalot We arrived in Padang, a city that is still licking it's wounds from yet another earthquake in September 2009. Many buildings we passed were reduced to rubble and the city felt damaged. It didn't have a welcoming aura but who could blame ... read more
January 25th 2010
I hope this finds everyone doing well and staying safe. The last blast I sent a few days ago (Paradise Found....) took me through near the end of my 5 1/2 months I spent in Eastern Indonesia. I realize I have so much more to write about but since it is now January 2010 and I left Indo in August of 2009, I had better catch up by just cutting to what I have been doing the past few months. Many of you -- if not most -- I have met and kept in touch with from past Hands On projects around the world. I realize you understand HODR and what it is the organization strives to do but I thought I'd send a recap of what we are up to these days for all ... read more
October 3rd 2009
Hi folks, Just a quick update as it's been a while since we have been able to update our blog with Melaka, Penang and Sumatra. As you may be aware there has been a series of devastating earthquakes in Sumatra with the worst hit being Padang. We are glad to say that we are not affected by this, but we were in Padang about a week before the earthquakes struck. We are now in Jakarta and hopefully the blog will be back to date!! Amy and Dan!... read more
September 30th 2009
After Pacific Partnership 2009, the BYRD returned to Guam, our home away from home, to offload the riders and materials used throughout the mission. Arriving on September 23rd, we knew we'd only be around for a few days, but were ALL so glad to be back for a little R & R. The ship was supposed to get underway and steer towards Japan for the next few months to provide some logistical support to the ships in and around that region. I'm not super excited about going to that area again, but I enjoyed it last time, it's going to be back to normal operations again. I'm satisfied, that's probably the best way to describe it, with what we'll be doing for the near future. I get on the internet, buy some toiletries and essentials, ... read more
September 23rd 2009
September 22, 2009 - September 24, 2009 Exchange Rate as of Sep 23, 2009: 1GBP = Rp15,928 HOTEL Padang: Immanuel Hotel Double, fan, TV, shared bathroom--Rp125,000 inc. breakfast. Small homely place within walking distance from Padang Beach. Price is slightly high for the quality, but it's still a spotless place. TRANSPORT Tuk Tuk to Parapat by ferry--Rp7,000 (1 hour) Parapat to Padang by bus--Rp450,000 (16 hours) Super-Executive Bus Travelling around Indonesia is never going to be easy, so why on earth did we think that it would be?? We had a 6:30pm bus to catch from the mainland town of Parapat on Lake Toba which meant we had to catch the last ferry from Tuk Tuk at 3:30pm. We waited at the pier at Samosir Cottages from 3pm and as 3:30 approached, three ferry's had already ... read more
