Novotel Coralia Bukittinggi

... rice terracing made it a very enjoyable day. <br><br>Another reason to like Lake Maninjau is the fact that we had our cheapest hostel of the trip so far, at £3 a night and our cheapest overall day, £11 (which included a 2 hour bus journey), bargain<br style="font-family: yui-tmp;"><br style="font-family: yui-tmp;">Here are the photos.<br><br>Next stop another crater lake, this time Danau Toba.

After a quick 2 hour domestic flight on Lion Air that also included a connection in Jakarta, we arrived in the city of Padang which we used as a one night base to set up travel to Bukittinggi.<br><br>We should note that the domestic flight services in Indonesia are pretty efficient and a great alternative to long, bumpy bus rides. They are a great value as well. In Sumatra, to see the various places we ...

... left us with very mixed feelings, I&#8217;m not sure it&#8217;s good if you leave a zoo feeling sadder than when you went in. They had a very fine collection of animals including Orang-utans, Bears, Elephants &amp; Sumatran tigers but they were held in some horrible enclosures &#8211; many no more than big concrete pits. It would be much nicer to see these animals in the wild but unfortunately not everyone is lucky enough to get the ...

... the whole trip. (Not that I really need help...but she was so funny, kept wanting to buy me local snacks and whatnot, and it was really nice to talk to a girl for a change instead of always guys!) I can't explain it, it was just such a friendly bus ride...even though it took twice as long as I would have expected! <br><br>and then finally we arrived in Bukittinggi, where I had the most amazing welcome I could have imagined! No one knew I was ...

... saw sugar can being turned into molasses, saw traditional weaving, went for a walk in the rice paddies, had a traditional lunch and saw some Minangkabau houses. We also got a little bit of a (vague) history lesson on the area.<br><br>That evening we had a few beers with Luke and Sarah, the Australian couple who were on the tour and at one point were even considering going on a 2/3 day trip into to the jungle to see Lala's village. By the time morning came round though ...

... person I have ever met. He turned out to<br>be a good person to have around when some of the other members of the<br>Orchid crew turned out to be more of the typical Indonesian type who<br>wear their heart on their sleeve...lol. But ANYWAY, the tour was not<br>that fascinating, but we had such a good group of people and good<br>conversation all day that it was great. I think my favorite part was<br>actually our lunch stop for Padang food, which is wonderful. It ...

... de si haut, les singes qui se balladent par dizaines sur le bord des routes sont également quelque chose à voir.<br><br>Nous sommes restés pendant quelques nuits dans une auberge de jeunesse qui s'appele Arlen Guesthouse, un endroit très sympa avec sa propre plage et de grands bungalows individuels (tout ça pour une bouchée de pain). Pour y accéder, il faut traverser des champs de rizières pendant plusieurs centaines de mètres vu qu'il n'y a pas de route ...

... br><br>Bukittingi a été l'une des destinations les plus prisées de l'ile de Sumatra il y a de nombreuses années, cela peut se comprendre, c'est une petite ville plutôt sympa au milieu de montagnes volcaniques et entourée de rizières. Le tourisme aujourd'hui est casiment inexistant et on pourrait se prendre pour une célébrité lorsqu'on sort dans la rue, les locaux nous regardent avec de grands yeux ébaillés, prennent des photos (malgré la pauvreté, tout ...

... next town. Bukittinggi is the starting point for treks up the surrounding volcanoes. As I had a chest infection from my cold unfortunately trekking throughout the night in the cold to reach the summit for ...