Part VI

Salamut Datang,

I am back in my current home away from home in Bukit tinggi, where people know me even. Got some waves and hellos on my return. And no, I didn't get annihilated by the volcano in Java, although there was an impressive earthquake last night. Went for about a minute with a couple of after shocks. I have 1.3 million rupiah in my pocket!

The mish to Maninjau was a bit of an adventure, I caught public transport! This involved jumping on a "bemo" which is a little red share taxi van to the bus station. The entire street on the way to the station was a traffic jam so we hooned up the wrong side of the road, nearly crashing into the bemo in front. I'm sure the driver is used to this manouver as he'd do the run several times a day. At the head of the jam was a Polisi in the the middle of the street directing traffic, I'm not sure if he was helping or causing the jam. The bus station is total madness! About 5 acres crammed with buses with markets around the side. I just stated walking into the thick of it and a fulla said "Mr, where you go" and pointed me in the right direction and then another fulla pointed me straight to the bus. Theres not really any time table for the buses, just jump on and wait untill theres enough people on there for it to leave. The buses are pimped up half sized buses with mirror windows and a thumping sound system which cranked out some form of local rock. There's barely enough room to fit your legs in between the seat and the seat in front. We stopped at a servo and the obligatory busker jumped on. A fulla on the bus told me it was a Minankabau folk song. Maninjau is about 40k from Bukit tinggi but its not your Eketahuna to Masterton style 40k. The road is little more than one lane with obstacles all over the place. There are obnoxious european tourists in the internet cafe.. grr... anyway. The road zig zags it way 43 times down into the huge crater which formed lake Maninjau. BTW, I didn't count, each corner has a signpost. This is obviously important to them, they dont signpost much else! The roads seem pretty crazy but I'm yet to see an accident. Different rules apply by, pass where you can, but its within reason, buses will give way to motorbikes on occasion, if it involves them crashing into something, otherwise its get out of the way. An annoying man has just walked in and is standing beside me playing the harmonica and clapping despite my ignoring him and slow head shake... sweet, he's harassing someone else now. ah.. they've kicked him out.

I got dropped off right outside Lilis Homestay, which is run by this local guy Herman and his wife Lili who is a kiwi, but she's back in NZ at the moment. The place is usually really quiet but they only had one room available as there were a whole lot of students staying from Padang. They sat around having a sing song for a while before digging out this huge hi-fi system they'd somehow managed to transport there. The cranked up some dance music, a refreshing change from Indo pop/rock but after they played the same old Gatecrasher track several times it was time for me to leave so I went for a stroll.

On the sunday I went in search of makan (food) ended up walking for quite a way before finding an ok restaurant It was sunday after all. The next day I walked the other way and found a tasty penang restaurant within 5 mins walk. I found a lonely planet guide but it was in french. Still managed to decipher a lot of it, thanks to familiarity with the book, similarity of language and a bit of 3rd form french, cheers Mr Zohrab! The students left that day and peace was restored. It was restored so much in fact that the place became rather boring and empty. I can see it being a really lonely place there for Herman. He'd come and hang out for a yarn and the odd game of chess in the evenings. He's pretty good on guitar, be nice if he'd replace his strings though...

I've been annihilating the locals at chess. I don't profess to be any form of chess expert and most of these guys are technically better, they just lose heart when they make mistakes so I battle on when all looks lost and wait for them to slip up and capitalise on it. Played some really gung ho young fullas and they all slip up, too rash.

A french couple, followed by a dutch couple stayed while I was there. Couple's aren't of much use to the solitary traveller, they're too busy doing couple things. Did some incredible qigong the first night. Could feel the qi coming up off the lake like something solid and tangeable, was a wall of it in front of me... despite the loud stereo! Left me in a better state to deal with young people so I went and hung out. They gave me some barbequed corn.

Lilis place is really nice. A little beach, nice clear waters with cool little bungalows set amongst the trees. Locals cruise past in dugout canoes laying nets and fishing. Most say hello. Very few tourists come though, Herman was saying before lots come, now maybe 1 or 2 per week. I saw virtually no wildlife in my 3 visits to Thailand and that included a hill tribe trek. Here, monkeys hangout on the roads and in parks.

A monkey would come hang out in the trees sometimes and one day I saw an Iguana. They can swim too aparantly cos I saw one swimming in the lake the next day. After a beer one day I was starving, Herman wasn't about and I couldn't be bothered walking for miles, so I crashed about in the surrounding jungle in search of a coconut. Found one too but it was rotten... Herman got back before long though and cooked me a tasty "taco" which was pretty much a pie. Perfect food after a beer! There's a dog at Lilis with 6 young pups and two cat's with a kitten. There is so much life in Sumatra. The cycle of life is everywhere, loads of insects. Cats and dogs roaming about everywhere, I think they're pets but they're left to roam free. Then again, who wants to cuddle an old mangy dog. Theres fish every where, in the rice paddies, in the creeks, in the lake. I saw a dog swim out into the lake and come back with a fish. Seemed a bit sus that the dog just rocked on in and caught a fish. Then another one did it. On investigation, I found a few dead fish floating about, probably chucked out from the fish farm around the corner, so I waded and and gave one to the cat which was hanging out at the waters edge, trying to get a drink without getting wet. She took it up to the dutch couples deck and tore it to bits. The next morning the cat family was sleeping on the chair on my deck. The night before the pups stayed under my cabin. This was nice, except that they woke me up early as, scratching about. Very hard to not wake up at 5 here. Its either the early morning call to prayer from the mosque, or a dog barking or some other disruption. Not a biggie though, just sleep during the afternoon.

Catching the bus back involved standing outside on the road and waving out when a bus went past. Was a bit of a mish finding a bemo to get back to town as I had no idea what direction was what at the bus station, but after navigating my way through a rather large market, I found a bemo and was back in familiar territory in no time. As you've probably guessed, I didn't get up to much at maninjau. Just hung out, swam a bit, played chess and did a bit of drawing. Which is what i'm here for anyway, not to pack as much tourist activities into 4 months as possible.

The locals are friendly as, theres no great reason not to come here. It can seem really daunting but I always get where I want to go. Not paying rip off prices either, just ask the locals, eg guest house staff, people in cafes, what the price is for transport etc and pay it without asking. So far I've found most places are honest. Get the odd food joint that over charges (still cheap) and think they're really smart then realise they aren't as they watch me walk past them to their neightbour the next 3 days in a row.

Yuck, the sounds of Mariah Carey and the prick next to mes cigarette are making me nausious, must be time to leave the refuge of the internet cafe. All the men here chain smoke, I imagine their average life expectancy in Indonesia isn't great. I'm probably getting a pack a day at times and am thus beginning to hate smoking with the passion of a zealot!

Heres some photos... I'd embed them with blurbs, but I haven't figured how to do it with Gmail. From memory there are pictures of, in no particular order.... a singaporean skyline, the minankabau kings old palace, me getting botanical with a rafflesia, sunset at maninjau, Herman attempting to play the flute, me with a whole lot of kids and a silly smile, a cave somewhere, view from a hill near the cave, a mosque at koto baru with traditional minankabau building, mosque at night from deck at d'enam, hotel orchid with active volcano at night from deck at d'enam (might have to turn brightness up on monitor :), a pup at Lilis, a sign at the reservoir in singapore and a saturated me with accursed bike getting puncture repaired.

Hope that made sense, been inserting and rearranging it over the last 2 - 3 hours as I remember things whilst attempting (being the operative word) to do other internet activities... probably on a shared 56k connection!