I've decided to switch up the style of the blog as it needed a little tweaking and I am way behind where we actually are on this trip. If I like it I'll keep the style. I'm going to comment in general on places and what we did there.
Bukittinggi: What a great little town. I'd say its the highlight of Indonesian cities for us and possibly one of the top 5 cities on this trip (Not that South East Asia has a lot of great cities). Its much prettier than most of the other cities and the distinctive cow horn shaped roofs on the house are impressive. We were also back in a place where people were just happy to see us. The first night we stayed in an overpriced hotel so that I could watch the end of the Premiership season. We won, but so did Arsenal and we finished 5th (Cue speculation on Bale's future, but he seems to be staying with us for at least one more season). I also dropped the computer and broke the edges, but there's nothing you can't fix with a little bit of celotape. The rest of the days we stayed in Hello Hostel which is a really nice place and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone in the city as its cheap and there seems to be a cool collection of travellers there. The first day we wandered around the city and then set off for Lake Maninjau or more precisely to Puncak Lawang which is the viewpoint over the lake. You only really need to come here. It was 6000 Rp by local bus and then you have to walk the last 4km or you can take an ojek. The walk is fairly easy, though there were some kids asking us for money. At the top you have a breathtaking view over the lake, which in my opinion is far more stunning than Lake Toba and Cannelle thinks it is the prettiest lake she has ever seen. Bring a picnic. Its really nice. Some locals offered to guide us on a walk to the lake, but I didn't see the point. We were not going to get a better view than from up here and we just decided to chill out and enjoy it. Well worth the trip.
Inside the city itself they have a little canyon marked on the LP map. We thought why not check it out. Might be nice. Little did we expect an enormous canyon cleaving through the South of the city. Really impressive and beautiful. Sumatra was constantly exceeding out expectations and was becoming a firm favourite of the trip. We got ambushed by a lot of locals looking for photos but it was another highlight in this city of highlights.
That night we met an English couple (who had retired and decided to travel all over despite being nearly 60. Very cool. We also met a German girl and a French guy). They told us that a rafflesia flower was in bloom up at the coffee luwak plantation. At fucking last. A fucking rafflesia. Cannelle would get one of her two wishes. We all set off together and ended up paying 10,000Rp each to some random guy who said he knew where it was. He wasn't an official guide but the price was cheap. We told us it was black as we were discussing in Bahasa, but I insisted it was red and new. In the end he got lost as he only knew the one that was dying. So he had to call his friend while we waited in the the jungle, until he came along and showed us where the flower was. His friend was a real guide and a little disappointed that we were a group of six seeing the flower for such a small fee. Oh well we promised not to tell the others. We were then invited to try the famous Luwak coffee. We were not the best group for this as I don't like coffee that much, Cannelle hates it, the German girl hates it and Camille is French so he likes strong coffee. We all try this super expensive world famous coffee (though we bought only 4 between 6) and you can tell noone likes it. Romaine tried to be diplomatic by saying how nice it was. The rest of us thought it was really silty as they don't filter their coffee, but it did have no aftertaste. I certainly wouldn't pay the ridiculous price for what is effectively overrated coffee. Never mind. We met some locals in a restaurant that evening and they took us to try durian at last and some local puddings. They invited us to join them in Jakarta when we got there eventually.
The following day we set off for the Harau Valley. We wanted to do it by public transport as we were worried about corruption in the police force. A guy wanted to rent us a motorbike for 60,000 a day in the main square but with no international driving license I didn't fancy paying fines. We got a bus out to the nearest big town for 7000 and there the problems started. We arrived and an angkot said 2000 to Harau Valley. I thought cheap, but ok. Instead he took us to an angkot terminal where they wanted us to charter an angkot for 60,000. Fuck that. We refused to pay either angkot driver as we had asked for Harau Valley and not vans to go there. I have just decided not to pay people if they fuck with us. Some locals also thought they were being stupid and we went back to the main road and got an angkot for 3000 to the entrance to the valley. Its only a 4km walk to the valley, but Cannelle was not sure of the distance and wanted to take a sidecar ojek. We negotiated 10,000 for the 4km and rode in. Its a really picturesque place. Towering canyon walls, carved with striations. We spent the afternoon walking around and Cannelle got scared by a macaque who was bearing his teeth at us. We were surrounded at one point, but they were as scared of us as we were of them. Its a nice day trip and if you have to stay at one of the two, I'd choose Harau Valley to stay in for one night. The way back was a little easier, but involved a few changes of bus and some bullshit expenses. Still it worked out cheap enough. We even walked out of the valley to the entrance on the way back and its a nice walk. Lots of dogs on bikes though. Not sure where they were taking them and what for.
The next day we moved on to Padang. Its an ok city. Not much to see there. We just bummed around and finally tried the famous Padang food. Its awesome. Chicken, fish and meat (including the famous rendang). Vegetables, eggs and rice. Many different types of sauce. They just put all the plates down in front of you and you take whatever you want. You pay for what you take. Its perfect as you always eat what you feel like and the perfect amount to feel satisfied. Never too much and never too little. Its by far my favourite food in South East Asia and probably the only one I would look for in Australia (along with biryani and bicol food). The others left in the morning and we set off for the Kerinci Valley.
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