'a melaka straits ferry and A freezing, overnight bus journey'
Thurs Mar.04
Up Thursday morning. Check out of the good, cheap room. Round to the ferry...change money at a bit of a rip-off rate...but no option. Up on deck for about half of the time enjoying the hazed-out sunshine...get slightly burnt forearms by the end of the day...thank goodness I put my hat on! Only remember I must pay for visa on arrival...US$25...half way across to Dumai.
Immigration no problem...customs...well this is the first time I've been body searched...as are all foreign passengers...males at least...apparently some heavy drugs were found on bodies a couple of weeks ago...coming in from Malaysia! At Dumai wharf...it's awful hot. I don't take the touts' advice...but a motorbike taxi...which gets a flat tire...pay him a dollar...walk...friendly, helpful micro-driver points out ANS bus office. The French gals I had met on the ferry had sensibly taken the touts' advice and got driven to the office! But where's the fun in that.
I sit for a good hour with a couple of the touts with whom I'd talked at the ferry. They talk about Indonesia these days. They talk at one stage about the illusion of democracy, about the fact that corruption is still rife...and that the gods are angry...and sending earthquakes and tsunamis...to punish them, I presume they mean. I have an expensive (for me) but welcome meal of rice and curried chicken for Rp30k and wander taking some fotos of people mainly that I come across for example friendly Indonesian schoolboys in the streets wanting to speak in English
Then it's an overnight bus trip up to Bukittinghi from Dumai. The 3 French gals and I pay the Rp.130k. It's out to the Dumai bus station. The long-distance bus station is quite a long ways out of Dumai town...maybe about 5km but having bought the ticket at the company's office in town means the usual hassle and expense is avoided. At over $US13 for the trip, somewhat more expensive than I usually pay, there's got to be compensations. The bus leaves 4pm. On the journey, I get little over-nite sleep... fuckin' cold with the air-con on full blast. We make many stops not too far inland. The ordinary "locals" in these parts are very poor people. A lot are transmigrasi...put down here on the hazy-aired, flat lands where the road's awash with trucks, buses, cars, motorbikes and potholes. It's very Third World, a disgrace really. There's apparently very little infrastructure or responsible development provided from the nearby oil companies, whose pipelines run alongside the road for many kilometres and whose trucks have fucked the road. Meanwhile, around here a lot of people just manage to survive the best they can
The transmigrasi are transmigrants...people the government has sponsored to populate areas of Indonesia outside of Java, Madura and Sulawesi [such as Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua]. They are lured into moving because population pressure on the environment is acute and there's some financial assistance. However, here inland from Dumai, I saw some pretty poor people...as poor as I've ever seen...anywhere. The environment they live in in Sumatra must surely be worse than where they originated from!
We arrive Bukittinggi at 5.30am. The air is 'fresh' up her at about 1000 metres above sealevel, but warmer than in that damned bus. It's going on down to the western coastal city of Padang. The driver drops us off somewhat irresponsibly on the way out of town...only me, the 3 girls and a Malaysian guy...who's come over on a photographing-the-volcanoes trip get off. The photographer and I walk in the wrong direction before a helpful lady helps us onto a market-bound microlet...Rp.2k each. It's still bloody early when we have a coffee as it gets light. Find my bearings I walk to check out cheap guest-houses and end up at the Rajawali, on the corners of Jn A.Yani and Jn.Kesehaten. For Rp.60k/$US6.50 per nite I have a basic room on the top floor where all foreigners go. The room has...mandi di dalam...en suite toilet with only a tub of very cool water to wash. There's no power points or wifi in the room. Indonesia's getting expensive for the cheapest accommodation...damn! The roof-top rooms were for the tourists...backpackers mainly who flew in from other parts to Padang on the western coast, visited Bukittinghi and maybe Lake Maninjau on the way up to Lake Toba.
Later in the morning I meet a couple of travelers, English guy/Dutch girlfriend, who lived and worked in Auckland for a couple of years recently. We have a good, old tongue wag. I hear that the 30 day visa is definitely extendable...not sure how much for though...don't check email...don't want to hear any bad news just wanna chill out for a few days before making the next travel decision... After washing myself partially in the very cool water and sleeping for a couple of hours I eat at a cheap place up the street, recommended by the German owner...who reckons I only gave him Rp.51, a 50 and a 1.... instead of a 10. I'm suspicious, but it was probably my mistake being tired and with the new money. I never usually make mistakes like this...but in this case...well, maybe, cause I'm pretty bushed alright. The "no-power-point in the room" means charging up camera and laptop on the ground floor. The German wants to copy all of my music as a swap. No way! He has a mega collection of music. I'm again a bit suspicious when he says to lock the laptop safely in his room for charging...but all works out fine. I tell him I'll think about it, after giving him a copy of the VTC player update...and supervising my charge-up...camera battery and 'puter myself in the 'lobby'.
It feels good and not at all strange, to be back in Indonesia again...in fact there's so much I recognize and feel familiar with...even understanding the language is happening easily. It rains heavily in the late arvo for an hour. This is normal weather here at the moment...first rain I've experienced in a long time, too...since Saigon, months ago now. I change money...my last US$s at Rp.9.2k to the dollar at BII bank...no real hassle...although my note gets stuck in the machine the lady puts it in to see if it's a real one...man comes over and extracts it OK. So I have over one million Indonesian Rp...but like the old, hackneyed expression would have it, I don't feel much like a millionaire....probably because I'm not!
I wander around [jalan-jalan] in the evening. I don't feel like a meal again but buy some snacks and cheaper cigarettes...Rp7.5k for the Kansas...and it's into bed early. Will just "chill-out" up here for a few days I think. Bukittinghi gets hot too daytime though, but showers of afternoon/evening rain cool things down nicely.
The architecture is eclectic, a mix of traditional and modern. All major local government buildings appear with traditional Manangkabau style roofs...and then there's the mosques...should be fun...