Manijau – Phil Joe Versus the Volcano
Manijau is the name of the small village that lies on the northern coast of a stunning volcanic lake that measures 17km by 7km. The crater dominates the skyline for almost the entire circumference of the volcano, only breaking once allowing a road to pass through to the western sumatran capital of padang. Let me say it again the place is stunning. The second night of my trekking adventure with coing we stayed at Annas losmen(guesthouse). In the morning after all the beers and cards I stumbled out to see the perfect mirror like lake from a height, it whetted the appetite no end.
We arrived at the Beach Inn in the afternoon, it was minutes before I was re-united with my bag, off with the filthy jungle clothes and into a pair of swimming trunks for a dip in the volcano. Its 500 metres deep in the middle its not the kinda place you wanna get stuck out of your depth. After a swim or a successful attempt at not drowning, I went for a much needed wash and took myself up to the main building in the resort to get some food. Twas here that I was acquainted with adam and rose a canadian/american couple who were traveling around south east asia after spending 2 years teaching english in korea. It wasn’t long before the backpacking staples of jenga and cards were broken out and pretty much a good night was had by all – especially when we were joined by 4 lads from medan. Before hitting the sack we agreed to take on the 60 km ring road by bicycle the next day.
The mooted 10 am start turned into a much later 12 pm start – for once I was not the reason for the tardiness. The north american contingent were very slow to surface!! Anyways before we knew it we were on our way into the main village to pilfer some bikes from some unsuspecting grannies and off laughing manically around the lake. Pilfer we didn’t but renting the bikes was easy as. The ride around was anything but, the first few kilometres were easy out, but soon the saddle sores kicked in – we persevered. Stopping occasionally to take in the scenery, waving, always waving at the small kids sprinting to the side of the road to bid you hello, I swear my right hand barely touched the handlebar the whole way around such was the amount of time I spent waving. We also took in some really nice food on the way around. All in all it took just over 4 hours to get around the 60 km which wasn’t too bad. The last 20 km of it were pretty flat, removed from the lake so was hard going. I was glad to depart from the bike, a coke was demolished in miliseconds flat before we returned back to the hostel for some much needed rest.
The next day was my designated hammock day, I figured I deserved it after 4 days of solid exercise. Dozing awayin the shade of a coconut tree I was abruptly taken out of my slumber by tywan, a friend of the owner Bam Bam. He shouts at me something like, what are you doing lazy man, come with me, come with me!! I vaguely remembered talking to this chap the night before and I really should’ve told him where to go, that I wanted to remain a lazy man in my hammock but he was having none of it. After a minute I found myself on the back of his motorbike whipping around the lake to the aforementioned road to padang that goes through the volcanic crater. You get a sense of how high you are when you travel for 40 km and all of it is downhill. Eventually we arrived in this tiny village, seriously these people see martians more often than irishmen. They all mustered what english they could before splitting themselves laughing. Tywan took me into his house where I met his family, the da was there happy out sitting on a couch watching tv, the mother had 5 daughters running around the place to get me a cup of tea – all this time tywan was nowhere to be seen. It was bizaare, though his lovely sisters kept me entertained while he was away. He eventually reared his head again this time in full soccer gear – ‘We go play!!’, indeed!!! But there is a problem, I have no shoes, just sandles. No problem, tallest guy in sumatra lives down the road – He will give you shoes!!! So down the road, off the road, through the jungle on the bike across crappy little bamboo bridges I held on for dear life.. We pulled up at a lively household where the tallest man (a slight exaggeration) turns out to be a young lad, about 6ft 6 was sitting with his mates playing dominos. Some words from tywan in bahasa and he was up and off to collect his boots. Size 10, I am a size 13. They’ll do, sure its only a kick around I figured…
Kick Around? 30 minutes later I found myself with a number 6 on my back playing centre half for tywans team. It was hot and running wasn’t too comfortable, when is it I suppose? We won the game 5-1. nothing I could do with the goal but managed two assists in the right end. We had a guy upfront who was lightening, lumping the ball over the top proved a very adept if not very attractive tactic. With 10 mins left I figured the game was over and took my leave, feet in absolute ribbons… That night on the way back to the hostel I mentioned to tywan that spain were playing that night in the euro champs and it would be pretty cool to watch some people who could actually play football. He took this as almost a command to go on a mission, from house to house we went, he went inside and asked if they had sattelite tv and if they were going to watch the game. We found one eventually and with about 12 soccer nuts I sat down and watched football all the time being served some wonderful coffee by this sweet old dear. The coffee here is excellent, its as good as the tea in india!!!
It was to be my last day in manijau, the next day I had to return to bukittingi to collect some money from the ATM before meeting up with Adam and Rose by the Sea in Padang…
Over and Out,
Phil
Tags: Indonesia, maninjau, sumatra
Phil Gill
Sounding more like an episode of Asian IRON MAN every week, Phillo.
Keep it up.
(I take it you were the Sami Hyypia of the side?)
What an experience to meet such nice people. How many goals did you score. //what language are you speaking now, you should have a good mixture by now. You miss all that when you move on to Aus. talk soon
Phil you ALWAYS deserve a hammock day…..I’m sure Dad would agree :0)
A 500 metre deep lake and you didn’t drown – unbelievable !!!
Reckon you showed those lads a couple of quality Cavan man and ball tackles – for once you could probably plead ignorance to the ref !!!