Crater lakes and Bemos!

Trip Start Nov 25, 2004

169

Trip End Jan 26, 2005

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Indonesia Bukittinggi, Indonesia
Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Bukittinggi was our first real stop on the Sumatran tourist trail and it proved to be a great little town (with a clock tower that may even beat Lindley!!! Sorry folks!) with bits to see and its major selling point being the crater lake at Meningau but more on that later! The morning started of bright and early as usual with me surrounded by 6 men trying to sell bus tickets - felt very popular!!! Finally got sorted and chose the earliest bus thinking we'd get there the quickest! Hmmmm! Think again! It took us an hour to go 6km and then we stopped for food! Soon found this is the way in Indonesia - maybe it's a deal they've got with the buskers!!!! Anyway we finally arrived and jumped into a Bemo to take us into the centre of town! Found a nifty little hotel (well it was Mr Smedley's coming of age!) and set about exploring our first Indonesian town! Bukittinggi is very quaint and set next to the most beautiful gorge - neither of us really had any expectations of what to find in any of the places we went to in Indonesia which led to excellent surprises round every corner

Crimson sunset over town

! We ended up paying to go into this zoo (which had 3 birds and 2 deers!) to reach a footbridge to cross the town with stunning views of the surrounding countryside and the great roofs which you find on so many of the Indonesian temples and houses catching the rays of the setting sun! It really was beautiful and we watched the sunset over the gorge! FAB!

The next morning we set off to make our way to Danau Meninjau - a beautiful mountain crater lake! We made our way to the bus staion through the liveliest market we've seen yet with old women trying to sell us everything imaginable through the open door of the Bemo! Reckon this would be one of our lasting memories of Sumatra! The bus finally set off and then stopped 10 minutes later while the driver watched a spot of TV, finally asked him if we would be leaving anytime soon and he seemed to wake up and get everyone back on the bus only to stop 2 minutes later for air?????? The descent down to the lake was unforgettable twisting and turning around 44 hairpin bends trying to take photos! Because its one of the smaller lakes you really feel as if you're in a crater and the water is so clear and runs to 480m deep in places! Unfortunately we only had time for a quick lunch but chose a great restaurant right on the waters edge soaking up the views before heading back up to the top where we stopped at an amazing panaroma to take easier photos and then caught the bus back to Bukittinggi - standing room only bezzing along at what seemed like 100km km/p/h! Aaaaaaaaaaah!