Padang to Bukitt Lawang
I left uncle jacks early in the morning, the girl that worked there had booked me onto the 11.30 am bus leaving padang city (which is 20km from jacks place) bus station. It was 11.01 when she informed me of this fact, so down the hatch with the lovely omlette her mother had prepared for me and off down the road like the clappers to catch this bus to the city of Medan.
I arrived into the bus station in a bit of a panic as the clock in the taxi read 11.45, a quick cross check of my own watch confirmed that the clock was 18 minutes fast, a different problem did present itself though. The Bus station, which was vast, was completely empty. It looked abandoned, like it hadn’t seen a passenger in years. There were two cobbled benches lying against a tattered fence which had a few people sitting on it chowing on nasi goreng (fried rice), I asked them where the bus to medan was and they just pointed at the big old building behind them. So with my backpack on my back I crossed the overgrown lawn which was drained my some massive unprotected ditches which I had to bound in order to enter the building. The building was big and continuing the theme of the station as a whole was empty, office after office was threadbare. It was like the start of 28 days later when cillian murphy walks through the streets of london and there isn’t a sinner to be seen anywhere. There was one office which had a poster on the window advertising the bus to medan, I knocked on the door which to my relief was opened by a tiny little man which glasses so thick they magnified his eyes so that they appeared the size of the rims. He informed me that the bus was not due to leave until 3 pm and that the only seat left was the one at the back next to the toilet. I took it, though with a bit more planning I would have been far better off to fly the trip at a similar cost.
So back out to the bench where I ordered some noodle soup and sat with the locals showing them how to play jenga. The bus came and we took off. The roads were windy.You get used to the twists and the turns after a while, some people suffer greatly from them but I reckon after my time in the himalayas I could handle any road this country could throw at me. They do make it incredibly hard to pee though, as there is a toilet on board the driver is less inclined to stop often to let passengers relieve themselves so you have to option but to use the onboard facility. As you can imagine there is more than a little stray liquid on the floor so you really have to be careful of your footing.
So 24 hours on this bus – every seat on the bus reclined allowing passengers to get into an almost horizontal position, a bit like those beds you see advertised on the shopping channel, they look proper cosy. Of course the only bloody seat on the bus that doesn’t recline is mine as it is at the very back, what space is behind it is dedicated to the second driver. So I was mr vertical for the duration. It was hellish, Its impossible to sleep sitting vertical! You start to go a little crazy after a while, I began to contemplate places where I could lie down. First I thought of the luggage rack but then dismissed this idea as lunacy, I mean how the hell could I get up there let alone fit into that squished space what wouldn’t even take my backpack. The aisle was also off limits due to the constant flow of people to the toilet. There was some floor space behind the second last seat and infront of the toilet, hardly the most hygienic spot in the world but with some bedding provided I ducked to take the space before some other person claimed it. It was tight but definitely better than the seat. I have mentioned the roads before but they deserve mention again as they played a vital role in my falling asleep, I’m sure what I am about to describe is pretty dangerous – when you are lying flat on your back on a bus that is taking corners of such magnitude at such speeds, it does funny things to the bloodflow to your head. Now I dunno whether it was the blood rushing too or from my head but no sooner had I lay down on the floor than I conked out.
I woke some time later, it was still dark so I figure it wasn’t that much later, to find my self sickly wet. The space between my shoulder blades was saturated, my first thought was that the bloody toilet had leaked, it was enough to make me wretch. But I soon noticed that I was parched, it was soo bloody hot. The sweat was flowing off me, the bastards had knocked off the AC in order to save on a bit of petrol. I had to get up to change my t-shirt and get some fluids into me, typically as soon as I got to my back – the conductor who must have marveled at my ingenuity or desperation ducked into my sleeping spot and snoozed away. I figured I had enough kip to get me to Bukitt Lawang so I took to my seat again.
I must have resembled terry waite getting off that bus in medan, I was wrecked, bad hair day (not many good ones I admit) and worst of all bad mood. I found myself snapping at people which is not like me at all, I really had to sit down for 5 minutes with a coffee to gather myself together. The trouble here is that people are so desperate for money that they will pester you, especially when they see that you are a foreigner they are relentless. It is so hard to be nice to everyone even more so when you are in a massive town (3 million people live in medan) and you have no map, just a very loose idea of how to get to your next port of call. Its all part and parcel of travelling I guess, but it does wear you down. I’d hate to give the impression that its all beaches, beers, pancakes and hammocks. Just 95% of it is 😉
I made my way through medan slowly to the bus station that services the north. From there I took what is easily the most battered up wagon I have come across in 7 months on the road. This mini bus makes tommy morgans look like one of the premiership team buses. Somehow they crammed 20 people into, add on top of that a few chickens and you have yourself a minibus headed to Bukitt Lawang. Halfways up the road it started to rain, rain heavy. All the windows are down, I was getting soaked, everyone was. People started to mumble, some even groaned. The bus driver eventually pulled out a lever and passed it around, he had one handle for the entire bus to put their windows up. You have to laugh, this bus would barely pass a recognition test let alone a NCT. I got into Bukkit Lawang at about 4 pm, made a fault start with the accomodation but when I found it eventually I lay my head to rest and slept solid for 15 hours!!!
Ciao for Now,
Phil
Tags: bukitt lawang, Indonesia, padang, sumatra bus
Phil Gill
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