The Wobble

I met up with Coing at 8 the next morning. I deposited my bag with his friend so he could take it all the way to some guesthouse in lake maninjau, which one I didn’t have a clue. It was a friend of coings so I figured sure it will be worth at least a look. We took off down the canyon like before though this time we headed west when we reached the bottom.

The canyon is beautiful, it really is. Last year a 7.8 earthquake hit the region and caused alot of damage as you can imagine to the canyon. Lots of growth from along the sides crumbled into the canyon floor leaving the place a lot more barren than before. We weaved our way through rivers, some so deep I had to toss my bag across to the other side to stop it from getting wet. We climbed up the sides of it, I dunno how I managed to get up some of the embankments they were so slippy. There was the obligatory dazzling array of wildlife as we went, the scenery again I have to say was just something else. You really do feel like you are in a david attenborough documentary at times, you need to pinch yourself to make sure it is real. We turned out of the main canyon into a smaller one, it was really claustrophobic with the canyon walls rubbing both shoulders, after about 200 metres we get to a dead end, a waterfall. Not for coing though, he insisted that we climb up through the waterfall and persevere beyond. After another 500 metres or so, through which you had to weave your way through hanging vines we found the climbing route up to the canyons edge. It was pretty precarious up there, the path was barely the width of my sandles so the going was slow as I tried not to slip over the edge. Everything was so green, greener than green. It broke eventually when we arrived at a tiny rice farming village and stopped for a cup of coffee.

After the rice fields we came across a trio of guys searching for gold in the river bed, we sat down to watch them for a few minutes before bumming a lift on the back of a bike to the local peanut, coffee and suger cane plantations. Coing talked me through the various processes. I got to see first hand the farmer process the sugar cane from scratch to produce loafs of brown sugar. The used a buffalo with coconuts on his eyes to spin a thresher which grinds the juice from the cane. It is then cooked and cooked again then cooled to create the rank looking but lovely tasting loafs. Out on the street, sheets on the ground are covered in coffee beans, gardoman, cinnamon, cloves and peanuts drying in the warm sun. I asked coing how far we were from the sea here, but he didn’t answer. Instead he dragged me right up through the steep sugarcane field, we walked for the guts of a mile before finally emerging at the crest of the hill, the view was stupendous, beautiful. We had reached the volcanos crater edge. We could see the entire volcano, the lake, it was massive. The lake is 17 km long and 8km wide so that should give you some idea of the sheer scale. We rested there for an hour before making our way down to our lodgings for the night in the middle of the jungle.

I really dislike descending in a rain forest, the grips in my sandals are pretty shoddy. And please do note that it is sandals that I am wearing, as I got molested by several leeches on the way down, they are not painful nor dangerous at all but they do make your feet bleed alot and for a long time so are a pure nuisance more than anything else. Plucking them off is not a nice task either. As we approached our lodgings we could hear a bit of a roar, reckon it was 100+ yards away, curiously I asked coing what that was. He told me, matter of factly that its just the Sumatran Tiger!! TIGER??? Panic, fock, Panic some more. A bloody tiger, I didn’t sign up to be tiger meal!!! He reassured me that they keep to themselves, so much so one hasn’t been seen in years, they are only heard. Still I was glad to make it to the lodge house where there was a dutch dude called arnold supping on a beer with his own guide. We all joined up, ate our food and enjoyed a spectacular sunset before settling down to the real business of the night, cards jenga and beer 🙂

I got up the next morning to take in a wonderful view of the lake, it was completely settled so reflected the volcano edge and sky perfectly. Devoured a much needed banana pancake before setting off with coing again. We took a round about way to get down, more leeches and some really nasty nettle like plants which left my ankles still stinging 4 days later. We searched for a waterfall but the jungle was thick plus we heard reports of a group of locals getting attacked by bees in the area the previous day – figured it was best to leave it. So we turned down towards the village, eventually the jungle cleared – much to my relief!! into rice paddies and fish farms. We made it to the lake shore for around 3 in the afternoon in time to catch a ride out to the lodge house where my bag was stowed. It was perfection, hammock heaven along a beautiful volcanic lake perfect for swimming. The owner a guy called Bam Bam, welcomed me and got me settled in. Reckon this will do for a week or so 🙂

All the best,

Phil

I woke up the next day grabbed a much needed shower and made my way down to the lobby. The hotel is quite nice, very nice actually. Waaay too classy for the likes of myself but I figure if I keep it low key I might just get away with it. I made my way past reception and cool as you like I bade the girl behind the desk a good morning – she chuckled, pointed up to the clock on the wall and said – ‘Its not morning sir, already 4.30’, hmmmm. Oh well, so much for making an impression. I deposited my key and made my way out to explore the town of Bukittinggi. Originally 5 separate villages it was all joined together around a fort the conquering dutch (suppose its a change from the brittish) built back in the day to ward off attacks from the pesky irate natives. So it covers quite a big area, I figured I would start in the middle and work my way out.

Tourists are rare in these parts, its the first thing you notice, or don’t notice. The Tsunami, insurgency, earthquakes, volcanoes…. this country can probably cease your stint as a human in a thousand different ways, its enough to keep most sane folk away but not me. It also meant that a little walk down the street earns you a hundred ‘Hello, How are you?’ giggle giggle then run away before you can even answer.

The fort is nice, plenty of nice views over the surrounding countryside which is striking in the extreme. 3 major volcanoes dot the immediate horizon, I am assured by locals that there are many more small ones in between. The landscape is so lush, completely covered by trees it seems with the odd break allowing some rice to grow. The best thing is is that there seems to be little in the way of pollution so you can see off to a perfect horizon unlike india which has a similar landscape but your view is very often scuppered by dust and smog!! The fort is joined to a nearby zoo which I wandered over to look at. It had a fantastic array of animals though their confines were pretty meagre, I’d go so far as to say it was cruel. Zoos are bad places at the best of times, seeing the orang utang sit on his haunches with no life to him at all broke my heart. Such a beautiful creature…

On my way back to the hotel I stopped into the Bedudal cafe for some grub. I was given a hand to clean up my plate by the resident 3 year old girl who sat up on my knee and rattled her way through her book full of pictures of animals. For all the teaching I did the day before I reckon she did a much better job teaching me the bahasa for tiger, monkey, horse etc etc. Funny little girl. In the cafe at the same time was a dude from cork who i ended up having a few beers with, we watched a terrible soccer match between romania and france before retiring our seperate ways. He was off to java the next morning while I had another day or two left in Bukittinggi.

I got up the next day earlier than the previous one which wasn’t too much of an achievement it has to be said. I went looking for the local canyon that I had heard a bit about previously. Turns out its not that far from where I was staying, inside a park called panorama I found myself with my jaw on the floor looking out over a really beautiful canyon. At least 100 metres deep and 40 km long its a pretty substantial canyon. I walked along the side of it taking in the various view points, lingering at one of these a little longer than the others attracted the attention of a souvenier stall owner called coing. Pretty quietly spoken he talked alot about the canyon, its history, dimensions, its wildlife and the life of the people who live in it. He then offered me a trek through the canyon to see some of the wildlife for the rest of the day. I agreed a price with him and off we went.

Any thoughts of a brisk yet manageable walk were quickly scuppered as within 10 minutes of setting off I was sliding on my ass down the side of the canyon, breaking my fall every so often with a bamboo branch. He had me crossing rivers at waist height, climbing up trees to smell flowers or cutting up small trees to sample spices we even clambered on our belly to get under some branches that were deemed to slippy and high to climb or bound. At one stage covered from head to toe in mud and dirt, soaked from the waist down I asked him ‘What are you doing to me coing?, He smiled and replied ‘You want to see the real sumatra or not?’ – I shrugged my shoulders and hoped the way back might be easier… The we started to see wildlife. Rare monkeys, afraid of humans bounding through the trees. Wild Buffalo’s and animal held sacred by the locals, so much so the architecture of their cultural buildings are inspired by the heads of these pretty placid animals. There were snakes and rhino beetles along with a selection of beautiful flowers etc etc. He asked me if I would like to see the flying fox, I never even heard of one as an animal. Figured it was just some kind of aussie public transport for getting drunken fools home from the pub in one piece. I was intruiged so our 5 km hike was now a 15k marathon. We walked to the northern end of the canyon as far as we could, criscrossing the river getting wetter and wetter still. I held my bag well over my head for fear off my passport or camera succumbing to the currents. When we got to the end coing told me to point my camera up at the sky and take pictures on his signal, so I stood myself there with camera in hand pointing it up at the sky like a proper dope in the middle of a canyon in the deepest part of sumatra you could image when all of a sudden coing started shouting and banging a log against the canyon floor like a proper mad man, the sky immediately filled up with these massive bats, 1 metre across there were thousands of them flying around woken up from their slumber I really felt for them, I have been that soldier so many times. An amazing sight, I caught it all on video and looking back on it it looks pretty cool.

I was expecting a return route right back the way we came but coing had other plans, we called into a silversmiths village where I got to see some mono dental men skillfully create some lovely bracelets and chains etc etc from silver taken from the canyon. Out of the village we made it back on to something resembling solid road. No sooner were we back on safe solid ground that we were off it again. Coing either knows an unreal amount about everything that goes on in his environment or he is an amazing bullshitter. It doesn’t really matter which is true as he is a cracking guide. As he led me through a maze of rice paddi walkways which are slippery feckers we passed by a mosque where the call to prayer was going out. There were three kids up on the 1st floor balcony who upon seeing my pink skin let out a shout in that in their cute this is all we know in english accent,  ‘Hello Mister, How are you?’. I went to return their salutation with one of my own, my own wave threw me off balance and into the mudbath that is a rice paddi with me. The three cheeky feckers fell over laughing, they nearly fell out of the balcony such was their reaction. Coing just looked down at me as if to say, what a bloody spanner!! I got back up and sheepishly listened to his lecture on rice harvest before catching a lift in the back of a pick up van with 3 lads after a hard days work in the rice fields. They peppered me with questions, but I hadn’t a notion what they were saying. Lots of smiling and nodding on my part, they must have thought I was retarded. They left me alone quick enough..

As thanks for an amazing day in the canyon, jungle and rice fields I decided to treat coing to this dinner. So we went to this favourite place for food. The way they do food in alot of places is called padang style. Basically you get served a plate of plain rice, they then put out loads of different dishes infront of you in silver plates. You take from which ever you want, be it beef, chicken, fish or veg and they just charge you for what you eat. Its a nice way to eat though its hard not to want to sample everything though that said it wasn’t too hard to pass on the cows stomach or the fish head curry. Over dinner I mentioned to coing that I was off to a nearby lake volcano the next morning by bus, he countered with a proposal to walk to the nearby town. He would guide me and will take care of my bag being delivered safe and sound to the guesthouse of my choice in the town of maninjau. The walk is 60 km and would take 2 days. I was very excited by the prospect, lots of exercise but it will allow me a guilt free conscience to enjoy the lake at my lazy leisure from the comfort of my hammock…

Thats another story…

Phil

I promise pictures soon, the connections here are a bit pants so it might be the end of the month. It is the most beautiful place I have been so far so it should be worth the wait…..

The Ferry across to sumatra was about as exciting as an episode of live at 3, we were cooked up in a pretty ordinary ferry not allowed to step outside so had to peer out through dirty windows out at ... [Continue reading this entry]