The cries of ‘buleh, buleh’ followed us wherever we went in both Padang and Bukittinggi in West Sumatra. Literally it means blue eyes but it's a term the Indonesians use for all foreigners. The kids all seemed to look carefully at your eyes to see if they really were blue, though. The people of West Sumatra were very friendly and very happy we were visiting their area. They don’t really get a lot of tourists other than aging, rich surf bums (all males from what we could see) passing through to catch the monster waves of Menawati Islands.
We were visiting during Hari Raya, which signals the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. This was probably not the best time to pick to travel in the most populous of all Muslim countries. Everyone, it seemed, was on the road heading off to visit friends and family or heading off on some vacation. The highways were very crowded and trips that should have taken us 2 hours took 4 and many restaurants and shops were closed up for the holiday. The flip side of this was that we got to see how the holiday was celebrated. On Sunday morning, the first day of Hari Raya Puasa, we watched throngs of people streaming out of the mosques as we headed from Padang to Bukittinggi. Everyone was beaming because the fast was finally over and proudly wearing the new clothes that everyone buys for the celebration. The women were all wearing the traditional headwear with long flowing dresses and the men were in their sarongs, batik shirts, fez type hats.
We arrived in Padang early on Saturday and planned a snorkeling trip with Losman Carlos. This turned out to be a bust as the boat were heading off on broke down after we barely got out of the bay. We did manage to watch the village fishermen haul in their nets and saw some beautiful scenery on the way to the beach. The island of Sumatra has a string of volcanoes(most of them active) running down it’s spine with rice field and rainforests spilling out into the ocean. All in all it is very stunning. After our misadventure on the ocean we headed back to Padang. Padang is the capital of West Sumatra and has a bit of an edge to it. Things are rather dilapidated and garbage abounds. It is right on the Indian Ocean but our walk to the beach was rather disappointing as the ocean is treated by the locals rather like a landfill site. Being the day before Hari Raya it was very busy. The holiday is much like Christmas is for us and everyone was shopping for new clothes to wear or for gifts for the children. It was a feast for the senses and we walked through crowds taking in the sights, sounds, and smells. They have these most amazing ’pimped’ up Suzuki vans called oplets which work as private buses. You can stop one at any point on the street and ask to go to your destination for very cheap. This is great but they usually pick up a dozen or more people on the way and they were all jam packed. Everyone honks their horns in Indonesia and so the streets are full of the sound of blaring horns.
Padang is known for its spicy food. We found a great seafood restaurant to eat at. When they take your order they bring out a tray full of fish, live crabs, prawns, and octopus. You pick the one you want and the style you would like to have it cooked. We grabbed a red snapper and had it grilled with coconut sauce. Delicious!! Everything has a kick to it in Padang and so we had to cool things off with a couple bottles of Bintang.
We hired a car and driver to take us to Bukittinggi the following morning. Self-drive is not really recommended in Indonesia and it is easy to see why once you are on the road. Everything is optional; using lanes, stopping at red lights, and other rules of the road we follow at home are considered only suggestions here. It would be rather nerve-racking to try this on your own. Attempting to navigate the road system and find your way from point A to point B would drive most folks to suicide. Hiring a really nice car and driver for the day comes to a grand total of about $40 and so is a much more sane option.
The drive to Bukittinggi was beautiful. Being in the mountains it was much cooler here. We spent the day exploring the town with a little side trip to a small village of silversmiths. The main square in Bukittinggi was packed with the holiday crowd. The Dutch were the colonial masters of Indonesia and many of the building around the town reflected a Dutch style with shuttered windows and bright colored paint. The square boasts a Dutch clock. We walked to the zoo for a quick visit but it was a rather sad affair with animals caged in very confined areas. We found that we became an attraction as popular as the animals as people kept asking us to have their picture taken with their families. (Buleh, buleh) We also had a tour through the Japanese caves. The Japanese built an elaborate system of caves here (I should say made the Indonesians build). No one is really sure of the purpose but they did this all over lands they occupied in South-East Asia during the Second World War. The Japanese still are not too popular with the Indonesians as a result. When we asked directions to the caves they would draw their fingers across their throats in bayonet fashion and then spit on the ground. The Japanese killed all the labourers who built the caves after they were completed so the ‘secret of the caves’ would not get out.
The architecture in West Sumatra is quite incredible. The traditional homes were built with roofs that were to represent the horns of the water buffalo. Many of the government buildings in Padang were built in that style but in Bukittinggi many homes and other buildings also used this design. The people of the area are Minangkabau and have a strong cultural heritage. The clans are matriarchic which seems to go against what most Muslims practice but they have blended the two heritages quite well.
On Monday we hired another driver and went to Lake Minanjau. The lake is a crater lake. Descending to it was spectacular. There are 44 hairpin curves to navigate and the roads are really narrow. According to our driver there usually are no
other cars on the road but during Hari Raya it was packed. At the lake we hired bikes and pedaled off on a very quiet road. Winding through small villages and rice fields was very peaceful. We only wished that we were able to spend more time there. We did have a nice lunch on the shore of the lake. The owner of the restaurant is also a guide. He heads up wild boar hunts in the jungle. I just added that to my ‘bucket list’. Hunting wild boar in the jungles of West Sumatra seems like an adventure that can’t be passed by. We went back to Padang that evening in order to catch our flight back to KL the next morning.We have a three day work week this week and we both wish they were all like this. We’re off to a Black-Eyed Peas concert on Friday(who the heck are they anyway?), we have a dodge ball tournament on Saturday, and a tennis match with folks from the Canadian Association of Malaysia on Sunday. Next week Maureen is off to Terrangannu with the Grade 9 students for their Malaysian Studies trip. On Friday of next week she will also head to Hong Kong to meet Shirley Neil. Shirley is coming to join us for October and on our 10 day trip to Vietnam over the fall break. Never a dull moment.
