Solok > Bukittinggi (76km, 5h30)

Keep it rough, this is how I enjoy life! I survived to 31 hours of Indonesian bus so I can certainly go a bit further now :-) Sumatra as started not really well like the rip off I experienced with the bus or the sad, polluted city of Solok. But quickly, everything came in place and as always Indonesian people are great! Contrary of what I’ve heard several times, Sumatra seems to be safe. I’m not going in big cities, that certainly explain one part and why I feel safe here. Nope, really it’s a bit rough here but I like it :-)

Map.

Yesterday night I arrived around 23pm. I nearly miss the stop because the driver did not mention where we were. He just said, or that’s the only this I’ve heard, “Blah blah blah to Padang”. I looked at my GPS to see where we were. I was not in Solok yet. Few minutes later, as the bus was still stopped and people agitating, I checked my GPS location again and this time, yes, I was in Solok! Rah, bloody phone :-) Quickly I came to the guy and as soon as he saw me he understood that I had to get out and he helped me with another passenger to take my bike out. A moment later I had all my stuff on the ground and the bus had left the terminal.

Quickly, I met some young guys who were curious to see what a stranger was doing at night here with a bike and some strange luggages. One of them speaks little english and as usual I repeated my story using all the Indonesian words I’ve learned until today. Kiral and his friends stayed around me, watching every single steps of the assembling. I tried to explain how the whole thing work but the best is “just wait and you will see”.

Maybe 30 minutes later, my bike was ready to get on the road again :-) Kiral proposed me to sleep at his place but before we could get something to eat. We walked out of the terminal and reach a warung across the road. Few people was there. We sat down and I ordered some food and a tea. We spent maybe 30 minutes there and finally came back to bus terminal. A guy at the entrance wanted me to leave my bike here as Kiral invited me to stay at his place. “Sorry but this is not going to happen”. Kiral talk to the guy and at the same time wave his hand to me which meant “come with your bike”. The guard or I don’t know who is he exactly kept talking. We just ignored him and kept walking towards where we were before.

Finally, I realised that when Kiral was mentioning his place, in fact he was talking about his work place, not his home. This is a tiny room, maybe 10m2. My bike just fitted in.

My bed was a bench and the luxury a pillow, mine. This morning when I woke up, Kiral was not here but two of his friends were sleeping on the ground behind the counter. What a life… I did not want to woke them up so I open the shop silently and went out to see how was the weather as it rained the last three hours maybe.

Then I looked for the public toilets. I asked to a guy who indicates them. This is the place and I won’t show you further. Sumatra seems to be more poor than java. The toilets were dirty, the door did not locked, the water is not really clear and there is no light. Wow!

That is the view of the bus terminal. I have slept on the shop on a background of this picture.

This morning, before I left, a guy sitting several metres from where I were shooted at me : “Hey mister, how are you? come here!”. Unfortunately he did not speak any english so the only exchange we had was my 31 Indonesian words which is not really enough to talk about life but enough to take “foto foto” :-)

After having some banana (pisang) and some cookies, I am now cycling for the first time in Sumatra! The rain has stop and I hope it won’t come back.

I’m now cycling towards a lake (Danau) called Singkarak which I should see soon.

The villages (desa) here are very different from what I’ve seen until now in Java. There is pointy roofs everywhere.

Look at this building. Its name is Rumar Gadang. The shape is taken from the bull. It represents the strength of the people who live in the Padang area. This design date from before the islam. Today those “temple” are used as normal house.

The detail and architecture is impressive.

Earlier I was talking about a lake, here it is :-)

Looks like there is a kind of tourism activity around here. Or maybe they are ferries which goes across the lake to connect with other villages.

The road is running close to the lake which is good but there is not any access to it. I did not see any king a space where you can just relax next to the water. On the other side, it’s maybe not the best idea to swim there. I stopped here for a short break and sat on one of those white pilone. I was enjoying a banana and the view until I saw, down to the water, 20 metres from me, a guy sitting between rock with bare ass. He was actually shitting in the water with a cigarette at his mouth. Most of the people here doesn’t have any idea of what is ecology I guess. Or maybe they can not afford to know. Rah! this is sad…

I don’t take enough pictures of rubbish to represent truly how looks Indonesia everyday. It looks like this. Rubbish, rubbish and rubbish. When I was travelling in New Zealand and Australia I have seen lots of rubbish along the road and I think, by spreading them along all the roads, it would be one rubbish every 5 metres. Here spreading the rubbish along the Indonesian roads would certainly be one every 5 centimetres!

A pictures like this looks good, that is for magazines.

Out of the blue, I came across this “golden house” over decorated. How come some people can afford this here? I mean in this place when all the rest seems basic.

That same road running along the lake shows shops specialized in puffed stuff like pillows, cuddy toys and more.

This road doesn’t look like very crowded but if your are looking for cheap cuddy toys it might be the price because there lots of competition here :-)

Back in the nature.

The road starts to climb gently. The landscape is wonderful.

Same in live.

Right in the center of this picture, there is a mosk. This is a simple commun one that I can see everywhere in Indonesia. Bigger is the city, bigger is the mosk, bigger is the dome onto its top and bigger is the number of minaret (here there is none, only a speaker at the top).

Wow, what’s that?

It looks like corn (I had the confirmation a week later by a Student). They let these corns dry under the sun but I don’t know how they use it later. Certainly in cooking.

That is a fancy town entrance. In France we only have a sign on the right hand side of the road with the name of the city on it. Sometimes it’s a bit more fancy but definitely not like here :-)

I keep going and there is still thousands metres square of rice fields around.

The weather is threatening. I’m going to have a free shower very soon.

Look at those clouds.

Brrrr, very dark.

In a middle of a long slope, I’ve stopped in a warung and order the local dish.

From left to right : Hot sweet tea (teh panas), bamboo cooked rice and tapai. The last one is a fermented sticky rice called Lamang Tapai. It’s sweet and we can feel a bit the alcohol. This is very good.

The rice is cooked in a bamboo wrapped in a bamboo leaf. A banana was added to it. Then it’s cooked above a live fire. Delicious!

Finally I came back on the road and did the last bit of my trip towards Bukittinggi. I arrived in the city and did not really feel that I could find a place where to stay for free tonight. So this only time, I decided to book two nights in a guesthouse (the cheapest I could find for 18USD per night). I will have a good rest to compensate the last 3 or 4 rough nights I had because I need to sleep. Tomorrow I will be writing my blog and have a short visit around. Good night!