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Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Lake Maninjau
May 23rd 2010
Published: May 27th 2010
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7 seater 4WD picked us up at about 10.30am. We then spent the next neigh on hour picking up locals and carrier bags and boxes. By the end of the hour Rob was squished behind a woman with a kid that had reclined her seat into him and I had boxes balanced precariously behind my head though the girl next to me was worst off as the boxes kept burying her whenever we took a tight turn!

The guy was a rubbish driver who seemingly wanted us dead and didn't understand the meaning of gears however after about 1hr 30 we got there alive (after 44 hairpin turns, a stop while one girl was sick and driving past lots of cheeky moneys that were not at all perturbed by cars) and it was well worth it! The lake is gorgeous, so still and so clear and the reflection of the mountains and sky in the water is spectacular. We've never seen anything like it. It's so big too, 17km by 8km and 480m deep in places!

We were dropped off at the sign for our guesthouse and we had to walk 300m through rice paddy fields to get to the reception and to our bungalows. The place is beautiful, manicured gardens and right on the lake front. We were shown to our bungalow which lucky for us was the one nearest the lake (as we are the only guests here)- it is literally about 5 steps from our veranda to the lake. Bungalow is one of the best we've stayed in.

Owner brought us free ice teas which were lovely, probably due to all the sugar in them :p We had brekkie/lunch- I had the best porridge EVER, it was a huge bowl and had cinnamon in and Rob had the smelliest potato salad with lots of onion and garlic. Just as we were finishing 2 guys from NZ that we'd met in a cafe in Bukittinggi walked in- they were on a day trip. So we spent an hour or so talking to them and to a French woman then we lay on the grass by the lake for a while. You can swim in the lake and it's quite warm but in the afternoons it gets a little choppy so we decided to wait till tomorrow. Throughout the day only 3 more guests turned up (Malaysian).

Had veg curry and rice for tea, it was just like a Thai green curry. Tried some lemon tea too which was really tasty. We watched the bats fly about the restaurant, the tons of lizards eating mozzies and moths and the guy out fishing by torchlight. When we got in Rob had to kill a huuuge spider urgh.

Was well looking forward to falling to sleep to the sound of waves and not being disturbed by traffic and loudspeaker mosques 😊


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27th September 2010

very nice blog
do you recall the name of this guesthouse ... thanks!

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