A thousand miles an hour...
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2008
1
24
38
Trip End
Feb 28, 2009
Bukittinggi,
Sumatra,
Indonesia
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Batam is nothing special, and if anything, its a bizarre attraction for Singapore with malls and road signs covered in English names and phrases, yet no one on the island speaks the language. I only stayed one night, and hung out in a karaoke bar drinking dollar beers. Next morning, I caught another boat, this time headed for main land Sumatra (biggest island of the archipelago). The ride was quite beautiful, gliding through small, barely inhabited green islands doting the south asian sea. I was appalled, though, when in moment of wonderment, one of the crew members dumped all of the lunch trash overboard to float up to the mangroves. The eco-movement hasn't quite reached here yet. From the port, I took a short bus to the town of Pekanbaru. The road there is mostly through dense green vegetation, characteristic of most tropical visions, which is slowly being eroded by the logging industry and increasingly, American oil interests. Slowly but surely, paradise will be lost.
In Pekanbaru, the bus stop was mostly empty, and as the only tourist I was stuck with the one taxi available. Udin, the driver, promised to take me to a nice guesthouse, but then on second thought, invited me to his home for an impromptu homestay. Before I could retort, he had called his wife to have some dinner upon arrival. I learned later that Udin and his family run the grounds and cafeteria of a private nursing school. And the price for the homestay was taking pictures with the shy male and female nurses the next day before school started. Needless to say, Im getting tired of being a celebrity out here. Still, they were nice hosts, and the free stay was appreciated.
Next day, was off to where I am now, Bukittinggi. I took a minivan there with like five other Indonesians. Im really blending in here. One man in the car spoke a bit of English, so he insisted on speaking with me. As a Muslim (most of this part of Indo is Muslim), he asked me to tell everyone in America that not all Muslims are terrorists. I assured him that we were well aware of this, esp after voting a man to the oval office with Muslim roots. This happens often, Muslims make a case for their religion to foreign tourists as if they are being judged by us. Still, the Muslim community is very peaceful here... and in many ways Im enjoying Indonesia much more than anyplace I've been so far. The people here treat me with respect and are polite/friendly. Also, they are generally honest, esp with money, unlike another subcontinent I just visited.
Bukittinggi is a bit of a resort town, with many outdoor excursions. The first night I got here, I joined a tour group that was taking an all-night climb up to the highest volcano in Sumatra, Marapi. The climb was 8 hours, and gruelling, but right up my alley. At 4am, we caught a few hours of sleep under a damp tree, while our guide prepared a small fire, coffee, and biscuits. We got to the top by 6am (the vertical is about 2200m) but alas, the rain had come in hard (its the rainy season here) and so the sunrise was not visible. But the volcano is active and an awesome sight. you can literally look over the edge and watch the sulfur billow up into your face. And though you can't see any lava, you can definitely here the rumbling below.
Today, I will head out to Padang, and spend two days there before I fly out to Jakarta and start touring Java a bit. My aim is to reach the islands by Christmas and fly out to Australia around New Years, before the 30 days are up, of course.
