indonesia

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It's been a while, in fact it's been a month.
But here are finally my indonesia blogs. Left Melaka, malaysia, on the 5th of december
by ferry. I was waved of by literally hundreds of those fish with legs, sunbathing on the mudbanks. After about 5 hours, i arrived in Dumai, wich basically is a very ugly industrial city. Got hold of a minibus that left 2 hours later then announced, and shared it with 2 english guys and a couple of very grumpy local lady's.
At about 1:30 am we reached bukittinggi, and although the town seemed to be sleeping, managed to get a room in an old dutch colonial builiding.
A huge room including mandi for less then 5 euro's.
Visited the local zoo, wich made me close to tears (example, an orang oetan playing with a crisps bag), and got to know "rainy season".
Together with the english fella's, i rented a scooter and we toured down a very scenic road to danau maninjau, danau meaning lake. In this case a crater lake in an extinct volcano.
Halfway around the lake though, "rainy season" started playing up, so we got absolutely soaked and very cold. After almost having circumnavigated the lake, we found a good place for a warm meal and felt much better afterwards.
Back in Bukittinggi i was absolutely freezing although i had dried up, but some nice warm blankets got me feeling confortable again after a nice afternoon nap.

The next day, we decided on a one day trek with the 3 of us. And this was amazing.
We managed to spot wild yellow monkeys, far away, but still.
Checked out the canyon, top to bottom, surrounding bukittinggi. It was sad to see all the pollution, but apart from that, the scenery was absolutely stunning.
Again, we got soaked because of afternoon rain, but the temperature made it still comfortable.
In short, definitely worthwhile.

Got ripped off taking a local bus to a place called Bonjol, wich is situated right on the equator.
Made some photo's, but was back in a bus half an hour later.
Very scenic though, the bus from B'inggi to bonjol alone was worth the trip.

Next day, it was the bus to Padang. Here i met my indonesian friend, Mardi.
I knew very little indonesian and he very little english, but we still managed a good conversation. That evening i decided to forget about any buget that was there, and take my friend with me to wherever the road led.

See you on pulau pagang.

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Photos

minangkabau
buildingstyle of the minangkabau culture, bukittinggi zoo.

bukittinggi zoo
sad......

schoolchildren, bukittinggi
everybody wants to speak to you, really great

rice terrace
danau maninjau

danau maninjau
life at a crater lake

after the rain...
steam rising from the hills

nasi rendang
from a banana leaf by the riverside

PEACE
yeah boys, i agree

monkey
overlooking b'inggi canyon

equator monument
Bonjol, sumatra