Hi!! We are still in Sumatra and we know its been just under a month since our last update.. truth is internet is just not that easy to come by and when it is, it often doesnt have a wireless connection or cable to hook our computer up to, or its simply too slow to upload anything and we spend an hour trying to log on to facebook!
Anyway, last time we wrote we had just left Malaysia and re-entered Sumatra again. This time we decided to fly into Padang in West Sumatra and work our way up, overland back to Banda Aceh. The flight to Padang was pretty uneventful, (except for the 4.30am bus to get the flight!) and we arrived early enough to get straight out of Padang. We decided to head straight to Bukittinggi which we had heard a lot about and because we had a friend who lived and worked there, Joel, (more about him later.) Outside the airport, about 15 super eager taxi drivers were waiting to charge us ridiculous amounts of money to go to the bus stop to Bukittinggi, as usual, so naturally we went with the guy charging the least. As it turned out, he wasnt a taxi driver. No he was offering us lifts on the back of his and a mates motorbikes!! by the time we figured this out it was too late to say no so off we go with backpacks on on the back of motorbikes down the highway. About 15mins later they stopped on the side of the road and gestured for us to get off. um.. we asked for the bus stop?! 5Mins of re-awakening robyns rusty bahasa and we deciphered that the bus came past here and it was cheaper to get on there then to go to the bus station. Sure enough it did and we were on our way to Bukittinggi for the first time.
The bus left us about 3kms outside of central Bukittinggi and having no idea where we were, it took us about 2 hours to find where we were looking for! Only to discover that all the hotels were totally overpriced! Finally found a hotel, orchid hotel for those of you interested, who offered us a cheaper room, on the roof!! in our opinion, we had the best room in the whole city!! stunning rooftop views, massive windows overlooking our own private roof, and lots of privacy! Yay!
We spent about 5 days in Bukittinggi, relaxing, shopping at the markets, going for walks through the stunning canyon valley, watching bats fly at dusk, doing yoga on the rooftop etc. We had originally planned to try and do the canyon valley walk on our own, without one of the “difficult to avoid” tourguides as the lonely planet put it. Under the premise of, your going the wrong way (which we were
), ill just show you the trail, we found ourselves a guide. Turned out to be the best thing though as there is NO way we would have found it on our own!! he even took us to a little water fall and asked if we wanted a shower. We said no (we werent wearing our togs) but this didnt deter him and he proceeded to strip down to his nakedness, telling us it was no problem! um.. definitely no, creepy man.. but it was still a very beautiful walk.
Next on the list was Lake Maninjau. We had already visited Lake Toba and were keen to compare the two. Our final opinion, 8-2 in favour of maninjau. Its just beautiful! A little scary coming down the 42 hairpin turns on a bus that constantly feels like its going to go over the edge, but sooo sooo worth it! Just beautiful. Gorgeous dense jungle and forest all around, clean, warm water to swim in, no tourists, hardly any cars, just peaceful rice fields, fish farms and random little warung (restaurants). We stayed at Lilis, (again, highly recommended! Thanks chilli!!- miss you!) spent ages in the hammock, rob did lots of yoga, roh hiked up into the mountains to find a secluded hostel and waterfall (and a couple of hundred leeches..), and on our last day we hired a motorbike and did a breathtaking lap of the entire lake. Its just so hard to imagine how beautiful a volcano it would have been before it erupted and left a pristine lake in its centre.
So after all of this strenuous hammock activity, we headed back to bukittinggi (take 2) this time to stay with our mate Joel (who we met in Bukit lawang). We knew Joel worked at a hotel called Hotel Campago, but we had no idea it was a castle!! like, literally! It sits perched on top of a hill and has castle tower lookouts and everything! Luckily for us, we were the only guests there, and even though we were of the non-paying variety, joel was able to hook us up with the executive suite! The best room in the castle! Well, to be more accurate, the best 2bedroom, 2 bathroom, living room and kitchen – private bungalow overlooking the tennis court and the city of bukittinggi!! we were excited at the possibility of hot water.. we didnt expect the lap of luxury that we got although it was more then warmly welcomed! So what do you think the first thing that 2 tired, dirty, poor, backpackers do when they enter a bungalow fit for a king is?
a) take a hot water bath and let the dirt wash away
b) turn the tv on and catch up with world news
c) jump on every bed like little children
d) strip off naked and run around the bungalow
e) handwash everything they own with an intricate system of – washing in hot water in the kitchen sink and rinsing in cold water in the bathroom sink.
The answer ..... E! Yes, we spent our first 2 hours of luxury, handwashing everything we owned, just because we could. And because we were excited to experience hot water. Of course, over the next 3 days we did everything else on the list too! Roh also hijacked the Restaurant kitchen and cooked up a storm whilst I taught Joel some Yoga. (how are those sun salutations going Joel?!?!?!)
After 2 days in luxury, Joel left us to go on a business trip to ozland (and a list of must-dos from us), and we decided to head back into the real world. The plan was to go to the Mentawai Islands, a group of islands off Padang that are inhabited by several villages of Indigenous People, and do a 7-10 day trek through the jungle to see them. A lot of tours run out of Bukittinggi but we decided to just go and find a guide ourselves to try to save a bit of money, and to try to put the money directly into the local pocket. In horribly stinky, crowded, noisy and polluted Padang, we discovered that the boats to Siberut (the main island) were all cancelled cause of bad stormy weather and not likely to go again for another 2-3 days. Hmm.. what to do.. We could stay in horribly polluted Padang where turtle eggs are sold at every vendor by the beach (pronounced rubbish tip), and where the beach is covered metres thick by rubbish (the worst case of pollution we have ever seen or could ever imagine). we thought about it for a while, then decided that the cancelling of boats was a sign that we werent meant to go to mentawai, (we had been umming and aaring about it for a while) so instead, after only 1 night in Padang, we got back on another bus (with 2 new friends Leen – from Belgium, and Erk – from San Marino) and headed back to Bukittinggi (take 3!).
Back in familiar bukittinggi we immediately felt better and happy with our Mentawai decision (theres always next time!) and fell straight back into our: yoga/exercise – breakfast – internet – lunch – yoga/exercise – dinner, routine... for another 4 days! We decided with Erk and Leen to again rent motorbikes and drive out to the remote Harau Valley for a night. And it was one of our best decisions! It was just stunning out there! Photos dont go even close to doing it justice. Huge rock faces all throughout a beautiful valley of forest with cascading waterfalls and rivers everywhere! Just beautiful! Poor roh was desperate to climb the rock faces but noone had any equipment. We stayed in a fantastic little eco-resort there in cute little thatched octagonal shaped bungalows with trees in the bathroom and frogs in the little lake at the front door. Beautiful.
After only 1 night in Harau Valley, we headed back to Bukittinggi (take 4) to try to arrange a bus up to Lake Toba again. On the way, the bike roh and I were on got a flat tyre and we took it to one of the 3 million tyre shops stationed every 10m or so on every road in indonesia. 15 mins later, the flat was repaired, the nail removed and roh and I tentatively asked the price, expecting atleast 50,000 Rupiah ($6). You could have knocked us over with a leaf when he asked for 5,000 Rupiah ($0.60!!!) and even that was probably at an inflated foreigners price!! We laughed the whole way back to Bukittinggi about how ridiculously expensive things are in Australia.
Next available bus to Lake Toba was the next night so once again, we went back to our rooftop room with the view, and back to our familiar routine.
By this stage roh and I were starting to feel like bukittinggi was some strange type of vortex and that no matter how hard we tried, we just kept being sucked back again.
We were relieved when 8 hours later, on a cigarette smoke filled, baby screaming, night bus, and after several fights with the couple behind us, we arrived back in Parapat (lake toba)– again familiar but not bukittinggi (which we loved but were oh so glad to leave aswell).
Again Dejavu led us back to Liberta guesthouse with Leen & Erk in toe. Mr moon welcomed us with orange flavoured sugar water (orange juice), we unpacked in our same room, and my sleeping bag decided it wanted to run away (never to be seen since.)
The next day, after a whirlwind motorbike trek to try to conquer Lake Toba, lots of getting bogged and with only 5 mins left until the last boat, Erk and Leen left us to head north to Bukit Lawang. (hope to run into you in Burma Leen!! Keep us up to date on your future travel plans Erk!)
The next morning we too left familiarity and embarked on a mammoth mission that deserves a story of its own.
DAY 1
12 hours
4 busses
1 flat tyre (the spare was balder then the flat, with giant holes and atleast 4 retreads...)
1 avalanche
- later and we arrived (thanks to the best drivers we have seen in asia so far!!) in Tapaktuan, the supposed capital of South Aceh.
1 hour
12 losmen
- later and we finally found accomodation at the grungy Hotel Kanada. (12 other losmen had been strangely full?!)
After a quick daylight hour tour of town, we decided to head off again.
DAY 2
9.5 hours
2 busses (from a beautiful luxury van to a shitty bomb)
1 flat tyre (irrepairable)
1 coffee break and a 1 hr tyre fixing break (by the ocean! yay!)
1 vomitting child
1 crazy woman asking for money and food
1 time robyns bag went flying out the door into the bushes at about 50kms! (it now has 4 holes in it)
- later and we arrived in singkil, after 2 full days of travel through some of the most beautiful countryside we have ever seen (except for the heavily logged parts, oh and the palm plantation parts..). Only to discover that it was a tiny tiny town with nothing at all. Not even an ATM! Which saw Roh having to do a half-day back track the next day to the closest village with an ATM, only to find it didnt work....
Singkil does have beautiful sunsets though, and a funky untouched by tourism feel.
So why were we here? To catch a ferry over to the island of Simeuleu to visit our friend Jacqui!
Anyway, last time we wrote we had just left Malaysia and re-entered Sumatra again. This time we decided to fly into Padang in West Sumatra and work our way up, overland back to Banda Aceh. The flight to Padang was pretty uneventful, (except for the 4.30am bus to get the flight!) and we arrived early enough to get straight out of Padang. We decided to head straight to Bukittinggi which we had heard a lot about and because we had a friend who lived and worked there, Joel, (more about him later.) Outside the airport, about 15 super eager taxi drivers were waiting to charge us ridiculous amounts of money to go to the bus stop to Bukittinggi, as usual, so naturally we went with the guy charging the least. As it turned out, he wasnt a taxi driver. No he was offering us lifts on the back of his and a mates motorbikes!! by the time we figured this out it was too late to say no so off we go with backpacks on on the back of motorbikes down the highway. About 15mins later they stopped on the side of the road and gestured for us to get off. um.. we asked for the bus stop?! 5Mins of re-awakening robyns rusty bahasa and we deciphered that the bus came past here and it was cheaper to get on there then to go to the bus station. Sure enough it did and we were on our way to Bukittinggi for the first time.
The bus left us about 3kms outside of central Bukittinggi and having no idea where we were, it took us about 2 hours to find where we were looking for! Only to discover that all the hotels were totally overpriced! Finally found a hotel, orchid hotel for those of you interested, who offered us a cheaper room, on the roof!! in our opinion, we had the best room in the whole city!! stunning rooftop views, massive windows overlooking our own private roof, and lots of privacy! Yay!
We spent about 5 days in Bukittinggi, relaxing, shopping at the markets, going for walks through the stunning canyon valley, watching bats fly at dusk, doing yoga on the rooftop etc. We had originally planned to try and do the canyon valley walk on our own, without one of the “difficult to avoid” tourguides as the lonely planet put it. Under the premise of, your going the wrong way (which we were
), ill just show you the trail, we found ourselves a guide. Turned out to be the best thing though as there is NO way we would have found it on our own!! he even took us to a little water fall and asked if we wanted a shower. We said no (we werent wearing our togs) but this didnt deter him and he proceeded to strip down to his nakedness, telling us it was no problem! um.. definitely no, creepy man.. but it was still a very beautiful walk.
Next on the list was Lake Maninjau. We had already visited Lake Toba and were keen to compare the two. Our final opinion, 8-2 in favour of maninjau. Its just beautiful! A little scary coming down the 42 hairpin turns on a bus that constantly feels like its going to go over the edge, but sooo sooo worth it! Just beautiful. Gorgeous dense jungle and forest all around, clean, warm water to swim in, no tourists, hardly any cars, just peaceful rice fields, fish farms and random little warung (restaurants). We stayed at Lilis, (again, highly recommended! Thanks chilli!!- miss you!) spent ages in the hammock, rob did lots of yoga, roh hiked up into the mountains to find a secluded hostel and waterfall (and a couple of hundred leeches..), and on our last day we hired a motorbike and did a breathtaking lap of the entire lake. Its just so hard to imagine how beautiful a volcano it would have been before it erupted and left a pristine lake in its centre.
So after all of this strenuous hammock activity, we headed back to bukittinggi (take 2) this time to stay with our mate Joel (who we met in Bukit lawang). We knew Joel worked at a hotel called Hotel Campago, but we had no idea it was a castle!! like, literally! It sits perched on top of a hill and has castle tower lookouts and everything! Luckily for us, we were the only guests there, and even though we were of the non-paying variety, joel was able to hook us up with the executive suite! The best room in the castle! Well, to be more accurate, the best 2bedroom, 2 bathroom, living room and kitchen – private bungalow overlooking the tennis court and the city of bukittinggi!! we were excited at the possibility of hot water.. we didnt expect the lap of luxury that we got although it was more then warmly welcomed! So what do you think the first thing that 2 tired, dirty, poor, backpackers do when they enter a bungalow fit for a king is?
a) take a hot water bath and let the dirt wash away
b) turn the tv on and catch up with world news
c) jump on every bed like little children
d) strip off naked and run around the bungalow
e) handwash everything they own with an intricate system of – washing in hot water in the kitchen sink and rinsing in cold water in the bathroom sink.
The answer ..... E! Yes, we spent our first 2 hours of luxury, handwashing everything we owned, just because we could. And because we were excited to experience hot water. Of course, over the next 3 days we did everything else on the list too! Roh also hijacked the Restaurant kitchen and cooked up a storm whilst I taught Joel some Yoga. (how are those sun salutations going Joel?!?!?!)
After 2 days in luxury, Joel left us to go on a business trip to ozland (and a list of must-dos from us), and we decided to head back into the real world. The plan was to go to the Mentawai Islands, a group of islands off Padang that are inhabited by several villages of Indigenous People, and do a 7-10 day trek through the jungle to see them. A lot of tours run out of Bukittinggi but we decided to just go and find a guide ourselves to try to save a bit of money, and to try to put the money directly into the local pocket. In horribly stinky, crowded, noisy and polluted Padang, we discovered that the boats to Siberut (the main island) were all cancelled cause of bad stormy weather and not likely to go again for another 2-3 days. Hmm.. what to do.. We could stay in horribly polluted Padang where turtle eggs are sold at every vendor by the beach (pronounced rubbish tip), and where the beach is covered metres thick by rubbish (the worst case of pollution we have ever seen or could ever imagine). we thought about it for a while, then decided that the cancelling of boats was a sign that we werent meant to go to mentawai, (we had been umming and aaring about it for a while) so instead, after only 1 night in Padang, we got back on another bus (with 2 new friends Leen – from Belgium, and Erk – from San Marino) and headed back to Bukittinggi (take 3!).
Back in familiar bukittinggi we immediately felt better and happy with our Mentawai decision (theres always next time!) and fell straight back into our: yoga/exercise – breakfast – internet – lunch – yoga/exercise – dinner, routine... for another 4 days! We decided with Erk and Leen to again rent motorbikes and drive out to the remote Harau Valley for a night. And it was one of our best decisions! It was just stunning out there! Photos dont go even close to doing it justice. Huge rock faces all throughout a beautiful valley of forest with cascading waterfalls and rivers everywhere! Just beautiful! Poor roh was desperate to climb the rock faces but noone had any equipment. We stayed in a fantastic little eco-resort there in cute little thatched octagonal shaped bungalows with trees in the bathroom and frogs in the little lake at the front door. Beautiful.
After only 1 night in Harau Valley, we headed back to Bukittinggi (take 4) to try to arrange a bus up to Lake Toba again. On the way, the bike roh and I were on got a flat tyre and we took it to one of the 3 million tyre shops stationed every 10m or so on every road in indonesia. 15 mins later, the flat was repaired, the nail removed and roh and I tentatively asked the price, expecting atleast 50,000 Rupiah ($6). You could have knocked us over with a leaf when he asked for 5,000 Rupiah ($0.60!!!) and even that was probably at an inflated foreigners price!! We laughed the whole way back to Bukittinggi about how ridiculously expensive things are in Australia.
Next available bus to Lake Toba was the next night so once again, we went back to our rooftop room with the view, and back to our familiar routine.
By this stage roh and I were starting to feel like bukittinggi was some strange type of vortex and that no matter how hard we tried, we just kept being sucked back again.
We were relieved when 8 hours later, on a cigarette smoke filled, baby screaming, night bus, and after several fights with the couple behind us, we arrived back in Parapat (lake toba)– again familiar but not bukittinggi (which we loved but were oh so glad to leave aswell).
Again Dejavu led us back to Liberta guesthouse with Leen & Erk in toe. Mr moon welcomed us with orange flavoured sugar water (orange juice), we unpacked in our same room, and my sleeping bag decided it wanted to run away (never to be seen since.)
The next day, after a whirlwind motorbike trek to try to conquer Lake Toba, lots of getting bogged and with only 5 mins left until the last boat, Erk and Leen left us to head north to Bukit Lawang. (hope to run into you in Burma Leen!! Keep us up to date on your future travel plans Erk!)
The next morning we too left familiarity and embarked on a mammoth mission that deserves a story of its own.
DAY 1
12 hours
4 busses
1 flat tyre (the spare was balder then the flat, with giant holes and atleast 4 retreads...)
1 avalanche
- later and we arrived (thanks to the best drivers we have seen in asia so far!!) in Tapaktuan, the supposed capital of South Aceh.
1 hour
12 losmen
- later and we finally found accomodation at the grungy Hotel Kanada. (12 other losmen had been strangely full?!)
After a quick daylight hour tour of town, we decided to head off again.
DAY 2
9.5 hours
2 busses (from a beautiful luxury van to a shitty bomb)
1 flat tyre (irrepairable)
1 coffee break and a 1 hr tyre fixing break (by the ocean! yay!)
1 vomitting child
1 crazy woman asking for money and food
1 time robyns bag went flying out the door into the bushes at about 50kms! (it now has 4 holes in it)
- later and we arrived in singkil, after 2 full days of travel through some of the most beautiful countryside we have ever seen (except for the heavily logged parts, oh and the palm plantation parts..). Only to discover that it was a tiny tiny town with nothing at all. Not even an ATM! Which saw Roh having to do a half-day back track the next day to the closest village with an ATM, only to find it didnt work....
Singkil does have beautiful sunsets though, and a funky untouched by tourism feel.
So why were we here? To catch a ferry over to the island of Simeuleu to visit our friend Jacqui!