Blogs from Sumatra, Indonesia, Asia - page 6

I had an aunt and an uncle who went to South West Rocks 36 years in a row for their January holidays. Why? “South West Rocks has everything you could possibly need. A beach and a bowling club with a top Chinese Restaurant” they said. Uncle Sid and Aunty Jean living on the edge. What is it that draws people back to the same holiday distination on a regular basis? Perhaps that particular locale ticked all the boxes required for their hit and run vacation time and there’s a sense of comfort in the familiarity. I suppose that’s pragmatism defined but, “Where’s the adventure”? Having said that, there are quite a few dots on this earth we’ve retraced and would do so again given the chance. Offer me a ticket to Paris tomorrow and I’ll go ... read more

And the story continues... De volgende dag schijnt t zonnetje gelukkig weer. Yeah! We kunnen vertrekken! In twee verschillende speedboten splitten we ons zelf op. En we varen richting de eilanden. Het is prachtig om onderweg te zien, dat we van een grijzig oord naar een kleurrijk paradijs varen. Zelfs het water kleurt van donker rivierwater naar helder blauw zeewater. Na ongeveer 1,5 uur varen komen de groep eilanden in zicht! Talana is een van de laatste, dus we mogen nog een uur genieten van het uitzicht van de tientallen bounty eilanden die voorbij schieten. Het is letterlijk een paradijs om te zien! Blauwe heldere zee, witte stranden, palmbomen, het is echt genieten geblazen! Zoals je nu denkt dat t is en dan nog 10x mooier! Ik hoop dat ons eiland er ook zo uitziet. Maar ... read more

We arrived back in Medan on Wednesday night to visit the hospital which was spectacular, and looked just like a fancy American hospital you see in films. We were seen straight away and Susie was given a course of antibiotics and would feel better in five days- yay! Instead of a taxi queue outside of the hospital, there is a hospital official organising tuk tuk rides for cheap prices. We arrived back at the hotel and hung up all of our wet clothes, as the climate in Berastagi made it impossible for them to dry. We enjoyed a long lie the next morning and treated ourselves to a KFC for breakfast. We headed back to Medan airport to catch our flight to the region of Lombok. We had had a fantastic time in Sumatra, but we ... read more

We flew from Colombo to Kuala Lumpur to Medan, which is the capital city on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. We expected a pretty small and shabby airport, forgetting that the airports in Indonesia are very new. So it was a pleasant surprise when we landed and arrived at a fresh and clean airport. Straight away we were met by smiling Indonesians who taught us how to say 'thank you' which is 'terima kasih'. We jumped in a taxi with a man who had very little English but a lot of knowledge of football players. English teams such as Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea have in recent seasons come to places like Indonesia during pre season to play tournaments and train, with the end goal of increasing their global fan base and potential revenue streams. Medan ... read more

In the late afternoon, after two days of travelling (please check my previous blogpost, if interested), we arrived in Bukittinggi. Bukittinggi means in Indonesian “High Hill”, and it does lay almost 1000 meter above sea level. Having a human population of almost 120.000 people, Bukittinggi is the second biggest city of Western Sumatra. Padang, is the capital of West Sumatra and the biggest city of this area. During the Dutch establishment, the Dutch East Indian Company, Bukittinggi was known as the “Paris of Sumatra”, and currently in the Netherlands, Bukittinggi is still know for. The Dutch also had an impact on the city, by building a fort called “Fort de Kock”, which I will further discuss down below. The City has some great sightseeing’s you can do, but the nature around the city is also great ... read more