I've been back at work now for three days, so it's time to try and get this all written down for you. My most recent holiday off work was because of the Eid-ul-Fitri holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan and we had ten days to play with. Me and my housemate/colleage/friend Paddy decided to go on holiday togevaaaaa like.
Paddy set off a couple of days earlier than me to the West Sumatra city of Padang; he wanted to climb the island's highest peak, Gunung Kerici. This wasn't my cup of tea so I headed to the city to do my own thing and we would meet up a few days later. The first part of my trip I managed to keep a diary so here's what I wrote:
Wow, a lot has happened today. Mainly involves meeting a number of different men, with some discovering of new places th rown in. But mostly meeting different men.
Mbak Mel had booked a taxi fore me the night before, for 4.30am! Whooooaaahh. Cue boy number one. The taxi man called me at 4.10 in the morning and I, in my basic Indo-skillz was able to get him to wait at Grand Zuri where Mel had told him to pick me up. Luckily he was waiting there and I hopped in. He started playing some English songs but I was half asleep still and wasn't able to really communicate. He dropped me off at the airport and obvioulsy I assumed that that was that. About 20 minutes later my phone buzzed and it was a text message from him in not bad English for an Indonesian taxi driver. So that was nice. I replied saying I will call him if I ever need a taxi.
The first stage of the journey was a flight to Jakarta. This was nice and easy, no problems. Hmmm that's making out like there were problems in the next stage. There weren't really, just that I had to rejoin the back of a really long queue after having reached the front all because I didnt' have a particular sticker attached to my boarding pass. And then a man was in my seat on the plane, but that was easily sorted out too. Wow, bet you're glad I got sidetracked into telling that story.
When I arrived in Padang I was bombarded by taxi men all trying, I would imagine, to rip me off. Not knowing what a good price should be, this was a tad on the stressful side. In the end I agreed on an ojek (motorbike taxi) to take me to the bus stop 5km outside the airport. He was a nice guy, we had a good little chat on the way. Proably still ripped me off though. Some advice he gave me was that not everyone is a nice person so if I am lost in Padang I should only ask the police or a security guard.Thanks. Then the bus came. It was like the modern Trans-Musi buses in palembang, but called Trans-Padang. Nice. The driver and his assistant guy were both really friendly and we chatted for most of the way, teaching each other new words in our languages, cool eh. On the journy I saw some of the traditional Padang architecture. The tops of the rooves are concave, like a crescent moon has been taken out of the top, and the walls are usually decorated with intricate carvings. I got the bus to drop me off outside the main market, Pasar Raya.
...... That's where I stopped writing. But basically I had a wander round Padang, found the beach which is not really sittable or sunbathable on or swimmable in. There I met two boys who bought me a coffee. I think I was lucky to get that as it was still Ramadan and Padang was a lot stricter than Palembang. Nothing was open. Anyway I spoke to them for a while before trying to make my way to Bungus Bay where I had booked myself into a guesthouse. I got another ojek. Managed to haggle down from 50,000 to 20,000 rupiah, nice one. At first the guy seemed quite normal but when we arrived at Losmen Tintin he didn't seem to want to leave. I asked him when he was going home and he said "tomorrow." This was my alarm bell ringing to confirm: whoooaahhh he's crazy and I told him that he had to go home right at that moment. He left then.
That evening I took some nice photos and met the family also staying there, a dad, mum and daughter from Denmark. The next day I went on a boat trip with one of the owners, Al and we explored some of the secret beaches and islands of Padang, along with a Canadian couple, and went snorkelling too. Saw lots of amazing fish but my snorkel kept on leaking.
The night before I had received news from Paddy that he had finished his little mountain adventure and would be in Padang the next morning. So on Sunday I got an angkot into Padang. Soon after arriving within the city centre I saw another westerner walking along the road. He was tall and thin and Paddy-like. I got the angkot to stop and walked after the Paddy-like figure. Luckily he had turned to walk in my direction. We went to the hotel he had checked into and caught up on travel stories. Later that day we went out for some Padang food. Famous throughout Sumatra for its spice and delicious flavours. Lovely.
Our next destination was Medan in North Sumatra. From here we would make our way to Danau Toba, the biggest volcanic lake in the world. In the middle of the lake is a big island called Pulau Samosir and we decided to stay here. It was basically a few days of relaxing, meeting other travellers, drinking beer and a little bit of activity by the way of bicycling or wandering around. Stunning views and beautiful things to see. Very nice indeed.
Now I'm back at work and there are only seven weeks left before I'll have completed my full year here in Palembang. It's pretty crazy to think about how much has gone on in the past year. Definitely unforgettable and educational about life. So I'll be off now, back again in a while with something I think is Megs-Meanders worthy and hopefully you will too. Byee.
