1,000 metres up and very close to the equatorial line
On Bukittinggi's physical setting:
“This cool, easy-going mountain town is one of the most popular travellers' centres in Sumatra. Many travellers heading north from Java make Bukittinggi their first stop. It's easy to spend a week here checking out the town and surrounding attractions. Lying 930m above sea level, it can get quite cold at night. Surrounding the town are three majestic mountains- Merapi, Singgalang and the more distant Sago”.On the history: “Bukittinggi was a Dutch stronghold during the Padri Wars (1821-37), and it was here that the Sumatran rebels declared their rival government in 1958. Today it is a centre of Minangkabau culture, as well as being a busy market town with a small university. The town is sometimes referred to as Kota Jam Gadang (Big Clock Town), after its best known landmark, the Minangkabau-style clock tower that over-looks the large market square”(Attribution: South-East Asia On A Shoestring 2001 Lonely Planet Publications).
Sat. March 06. Up about 7am. Had a good sleep under a necessary blanket. There are only a few mozzies up here in the highlands too, in this room without a fan. The last time I can remember a fanless one must have been up in Sapa, northern Vietnam a couple of years ago...strange to be without one. As I say, they are good for keeping the mosquitos grounded...at bay, but not a problem right now...the mozzies. Good to get back to my 'normal' time zone. Other things are normal too....coffee on the verandah...cold as usual. I've got into the habit of drinking the 3-in-1 like this...shaken up in a 500ml plastic 'Gatorade' drinks container. Going out for walk they fit in the outside carry space on the small backpack. Also I carry everything of value to me in it...never leaving important stuff in the rooms. The only times I've been robbed have been from my room when I'm not there...out and about...or out cold with more than a hang-over to deal with next morning.
The outlook from the roof of the Rajawali Guest House right outside the rooms is worth the money...$US6 per night. There's a good "street scene" traffic corner but you're in Indonesia so there's the power lines to ignore. I sit out in the bright morning sun...hey what to expect...up over 900m above sea level and smog...and about 0.5 degrees from The (equatorial) Line. Feeling good and take some fotos...of the roof garden and road junction. On a bright sunny morning the red roofs of a nearby school catch the eye nicely. The kids are practicing a Minangkabau thingy...a play with music...the Minangkabau kids in traditional garb. 
Minangkabau is the name of the local people in these parts of Western Sumatra. So a bit later on I go to investigate. Looking down to the school with it's 'Merah Putih' fluttering against the blue, blue sky over the traditional Minangkabau-style roof-lines...was a great sight in the clear atmosphere after the rain of the previous evening and overnight. Some kids are looking on at the practice performance. So too are parents, who are up on the sidewalk of the road overlooking the scene. They seem chuffed that a tourist is taking some pfotos. The music the schoolchildren are making is a blend of traditional and modern. One of the kids...on the big 'kettle drums' is going hell for leather...jumping up and down with enthusiasm and energy, such is the strength of feeling for their local traditions up here.Then it's over for a bite of the same to eat, and wander uptown...take some photos. The view down to the local market just off the top of Bukittinggi town with it's stalls of fruit and vegetables, clothing and handcrafts is something to behold. On the other hand
I gave Bukittinggi's tourist market a pretty wide berth including the famed clock tower. I was probably on the rebound after Melaka. On my saunter that day I see a 'false teeth' repair shop. It's an opportunity to get the "missing~Jaya~restaurant~Penang" tooth glued back in it's prominent place before I lose it! It's been kinda funny to sport a missing tooth smile on occasion but better to have it back in place. How much? Tiga ratus...which I mistake to mean 3,000. It means 300, and although he didn't say thousand...ribu...that's what he wants after the 10 minute job is complete...that's over US$30. The smallest notes I have are two 1,000s, then a fifty thousand or about US$5. This is what I leave sitting in front of him, and walk out...even $5 is probably about 10 times what a local would pay. All the time his wife was hovering in the background, making sure that he did a good job of fleecing me. But hey, I can smile again with full plastic. Greedy people everywhere, I know but this kinda puts me off Bukittinggi, now Bullshittinggi. Maybe I'll head on to Lake Maninjau. Back at the rooftop Rajawali base, the couple leave for Padang and on to Jakarta by plane. I do some washing, not seeing the 'No washing clothes here' sign in the loo. Afternoon nap.
Earthquakes are not a big thing to Kiwis. I have a conversation with the German...owner of the Rajawali. The topic is earthquakes. There was another one in Bengkulu the other day...a 6.5 magnitude. People headed for the hills, fearing the worst...a tsunami. “Leave the light on, so you can more easily run outside, if one happens tonight” he says. “Mate" I say, "We're an earthquake prone zone in NZ...and running outside is not recommended either”. At least that's what I remember being told...stay put and shelter under a bed, a table or better still a doorway. And this old building's seen a few in it's days and is more or less intact. I'm the only guest...on the 4-room top floor tonight but I feel pretty safe.
I head on up town from the Rajawali, up on of the main streets up under the footbridge to the old Dutch fort. Trotting around town, there are 'bendis' or horse-driven rickshaws for locals as well as tourists transport around town and for carrying goods too. The main kind of public transport is the "opelet" or ultra mini-buses which cost Rp.2k. In the afternoons the weather breaks down into brief sun-showers with attendant rainbows. And the now not so cheap 'Kansas' cigarettes burn on down quickly thanks probably to amount of chemical additives in them...gone before you start. I try the 'Ardath' later on but they ain't much better. My thinking is that cheap cigarettes wouldn't have expensive chemicals in them...but maybe the chemicals are cheaper than I think. I ponder in the evening...where to from here? Don't eat another meal. I've blown my daily budget with the tooth faerie episode. I go for another wander down to the store opposite the nearest, noisiest mosque, on the road out of town, north to Lake Toba and Medan and buy snacks...costing way more than a meal would have!
So, indeed, where to from here? I remind myself not to forget that “this could be your big chance to get out of the South East Asian mainland”, while I have a bit of dosh...still about US$1,700...not much, but enough. Or at least this is what I'd been telling myself since months ago. “Dave, man, your next trip away is It. You have to go see other places, maybe find somewhere to settle down...”. Why?... because I feel just a bit jaded by the whole experience of living and working in S.E.Asia now. At 56, 57 in about 10 days time, shouldn't I be thinking of a place to hang up me boots and all that? But I don't usually listen that intently to good advice, from any directioin. I quickly forget about this base feeling. The lure of further travel takes over. I've only just arrived here in Indonesia anyway, and I've got some traveling to do! Given that I have one full page left in my passport, which an Indonesian extension would doubtless take up, I should be pre planning my itenary just a little. So, go north to Toba and chill-out, maybe even go up to Aceh or over to Nias too. This would see out the current visa...so then down to Kalimantan by Pelni, probably via Tanjung Priok, Jakarta's port. This way, also I could extend the visa in Pontianak would make a lot of sense...small price of outbound, necessary ticket for extension just a bus ticket to the Sarawak border. Then I could go over to Surabaya and look at possible jobs there. Oh yeah...the passport somewhere along the way too. Or take the dreaded bus trip down the 'highway' to Java, stopping off to see Krakatoa on the way. Even as I write, 24 hours later, I haven't decided! As it turns out, I do neither of these journeys...
Sun. March 07. Up at the usual time after a good sleep and over for a Lontong at the usual place. It's a kind of vegetable soup with an egg- and with a coffee it costs only Rp8k...because it's for the locals and not tourists, most of whom would probably suffer some ill effects...not to their pockets, but a bit further up. At the eatery I have a conversation with male customer...kind of similar to the one with the bus touts in Dumai. He also thinks that Indonesians are only good at fucking...well having babies is the way he puts it...and corruption, babies and corruption. He doesn't get specific, and being the good listener I am, I don't ask him to give examples. He has beliefs about what Indonesians are not good at too...like football, otherwise they'd be going to the world cup, like Australia and NZ.
Again I wander around to find the Merdeka guest house which has excellent rooms for Rp.70k. And there's an active street scene around it's area of town too. Then I head up the hill and take some more pfotos. But I don't go into the park that surrounds the the remains of the Dutch Fort de Kock. Or across the footbridge to it. Because, unlike appreciating one's history in Melaka, this costs entry money here...Rp.8k. Seventy five cents won't exactly break the camel's back...but it's more the principle that puts me off. So round in a circle and on the way back to base. This being Sunday, there are quite a few local tourists out and about too. Some appear to be groups of high-school kids, or university kids maybe...up from Padang no doubt...and all wanting to talk to a foreigner...to improve their English, and to...ow off to their friends in the process. I remember this from previous trips to Indonesia. It can become very, very tedious sometimes...so I refuse them...to their apparent, utter astonishment. Sorry guys, but I'm on holiday too.
Here's a question. “What's Your Opinion of Our Town? A question one of the university-student girls did ask me about Melaka. About Bukittinggi. The 'nice' things first. It's obvious that that the Minangkabau-style roofs, notably similar to those in Central Sulawesi and Borneo, are a kind of popular, touristy, hotel and government building motif. A symbol perhaps with the meaning that this is Minangkabau country. We're a distinctive people, one of many that make up the ethnic diversity of the 'country' of Indonesia. And it's a pleasure to see people walking again...unlike the Vietnamese, who go everywhere by motorbike. The locals here walk around town, using the opelets sure, but doing a fair bit of walking too in this hill town. In Vietnam bikes have completely taken over townspeople's lives. This makes it very difficult to walk anywhere in Saigon...bikes litter the sidewalks, parked...and at rush-hour, it's dangerous...they ride on the 'footpaths' at busy intersections. So that's nice about Bukittinggi. “But what are some other pros?”. I dunno...I can't put my finger on any right now. Oh, here's one, but it's just about the weather...it's nice to have a cooler clime...and the rain is a delight...not at all a hassle...given that it only happens late afternoons. The not so 'nice' things. Noisy mosques...nothing unusual. They're a general Indonesian hazard. There are 3 very close-by here to my digs at the Rajawali and it takes some getting used to! It reminds me of the saying that “religion is the opiate of the masses”. To the outsider it seems to intrude so much or at least so obviously, more into peoples' daily lives...certainly more so than in neighboring predominantly Muslem Malaysia. Another: Indonesia's more expensive than I thought it'd be for the "journeyman's" essentials of accommodation and land transport. Yet another: The smoke-filled atmosphere generally...except after rain. It's that time of year all around S.E.Asia...even up here. But I never made the effort to get out to the surrounding smaller towns and villages nestling in the mountains. About busy evenings on the streets, coffee shops and warung...maybe it's not such a habit up here anyway...but I seem to remember, that a lot more people hit the streets in the early evenings...that was 10 years ago, and especially in Papua and Manado. I thought at the time, it was a general Indonesian habit, which I think was right...but I suspect that in the interim, perhaps peoples' habits have changed...stay in to watch TV...play computer etc. just like in the developed West.
Mon. March 08. Up... check mail. My Mum is doing well according to my sister Irene. So, freedom for me for a bit longer. The usual Lontong shop is closed today and the new one further up nearer walk-bridge overhead is more expensive but has bigger servings but with less egg in. I head down to the snack shop...and what to do, where to go next? Because it's too expensive here. I hear that accommodation's really expensive in Padang now because it's scarce...due to the big earthquake 5 months ago now. A lazy day. But a decision is made. Why head south-west from here? Because I'm not going north out of the southern hemisphere, that's why. It's my first time down under the equator for a long time...it's just like superstition or some other kind of rubbish, but it seems like as good a reason as any right now! Lake Toba, the island of Nias and Aceh will have to wait. I guess that was already decided by going down to Melaka from Penang anyway. So I'm gonna move on to Lake Maninjau, then fly outta Padang, east to Surabaya. Well, Madura and maybe to Mt. Bromo. Whoa...what a decision! And I'm gonna find out about flights...yeah...on a plane! It'll be the first time I've flown in seven years! Gone through three passports but haven't been on a plane!
Afternoon...sleep, after which I walk to the bus terminal to find out the real prices to Lake Maninjau (Rp.13k). In the process I'm befriended by a local guy and have a coffee. It's that time of day again...rain...but it's a pleasant enough walk back to the Rajawali. Tomorrow I'll look book and pay for a flight to Surabaya after 2 or 3 days at Lake Maninjau. What a relief! Having that made that decision. “On Bukittinggi what do I think of it”? It's a rip-off...as dentist and German indicate...they've seen easy money is the past halcyon days of backpackers galore. They get their fair share of Indonesian tourists here to keep them going. I guess the Pizza Hut and KFC are more for them and the many 2 and 3 star hotels.
So my opinion of the 'high hill' town~Bukittinggi...it's "Bullshittinggi" to me ~ big bullshit [town]