Blogs from Lake Maninjau, Sumatra, Indonesia, Asia

It wasn't exactly in my original plans but I decided to do it anyway. After the 2h bus ride from Padang northwards to the highland of Bukittingi, I decided to continue 2h westwards to Danau Minanjau, a 16x8 km volcanic crater lake. LP mentioned that the ride there would be memorable, and that was certainly true! The steep final descent to the lake area featured 44 (yes, forty-four) twisting hairpins ala Initial D or Monaco GP, complete with signboards counting you down through each and every one of them! And as you make your winding way down, the calm sky-blue lake and volcanic crater walls beckon in the distance. Certainly not your everyday welcome! It's a bit of a mystery to me why this unforgettable entrance to a spectacular volcanic crater lake isn't more well-known among ... read more

Went straight for a swim again first thing (well 11:30ish :p) this morning in the lovely warm lake then dried off whilst waiting for brekkie, pancakes mm mmm. Sitting on the grass we noticed that we had the tiniest of leeches on our feet that were a right bugger to get off! Sat in the restaurant to eat and played a game of chess. 2 guys from Switzerland came this morning (the Malaysian have left can't have it getting too crowded) and we talked at length about our travelling and theirs (1 of the guys had been like everywhere so it was very interesting to listen to his stories and opinions). They mentioned the infamous horrendous bus trip to Lake Toba that we're doing in a couple of days (they took the same bus as the ... read more

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! ... read more

hello all, as another week bites the dust it is time for another installment from the past week and its adventures. 4th Aug We decided we'd have a lie in for once, unfortunately we were woken once again at 4.30 for another prayer session so that was that out the window. We headed to the local markets for a couple of hours to see if we could see anything worth purchasing, there wasn't - unless we wanted a giant bag of dried fish with eyes. Later on we headed to a local park called Panorama Park, so called because of it's view over a huge canyon and the surrounding volcanoes to watch the sun set and see the aerial show put on by the bats. Here we bumped into lots of monkeys which was fairly unexpected ... read more

Friday June 20, 2008 - I originally decided to come to Lake Maninjou because yesterday when I left Malaysia I felt a cold coming on, and I thought it would be a good place to recooperate. I thought it was a terrible sign that I had a cold coming on, as i was still taking antibiotics for the tonsilitis I developed just before my trip started. But the whole bus journey to Bukittinggi I was sick and really needed some time to rest and sleep. I had had no quality sleep since leaving the states. So Lake Maninjou it was. It was an ok ride to the lake, except for all the smoking. Every man in Sumatra has a lit cigarette with him at all times, especially on buses with no aircon it seems. Air con ... read more