No quick getaway for the Bukittinggi Express

It's a 3 hour drive from Padang to West Sumatra's second city, Bukittinggi, a congested 96 km away. You can do it in luxury by hiring a car and driver for $35, or you can take the public bus for about $2. If you take the bus you have to get to and from the respective bus stations though, and that adds time and expense. So Lonely Planet recommends the middle option: a seat in a public minibus ($5), which takes you right to your chosen destination address. Should be quicker too, I thought.

And there it was: a nice clean and comfortable 7-passenger vehicle, waiting patiently for  me. I was given the prized front seat, and happily sat down to await our departure. Of course, it doesn't work like that in Indonesia, as in many other less-prosperous countries. The thing won't go until it's full.

So I got out to stretch my legs, while other potential passengers came by. Most gave us a wide berth, knowing that the game is all about finding one that's nearly full and thus almost ready to depart. Two young men finally came and joined us, followed by a young woman and then an older man. Then someone else. Then another long wait. We just needed a seventh passenger. Please somebody, anybody, come and join our express minibus to Bukittinggi!

After a total of an hour and a half, along came a rather large grandmother with her small grandchild. They'll do! But she's hesitating. She's assigned the right side seat in the back row. "Di belakang?" ("In the back?") she asks, disapprovingly. There's a stand-off. No solution is being offered and she's not getting in. So I offer her my prestigious Seat 1A (I've heard it referred to as the 'Prime Minister's seat' on aeroplanes), expecting her to jump at it and get us underway. No, she doesn't want that one either. She wants a middle row seat.

So she and the kid get the left middle row seat. The young lady gets my Prime Ministerial spot, and I get the back corner (and a very sore backside by the end of the trip.)

What has Padang ever done for us? (Cuisine maybe?)

Apart, that is, for one of the world's finest cuisines. Masakan Padang, or Padang-style food, is a culinary tour-de-force. Padang in West Sumatra is the home of rendang, in particular rendang daging sapi (beef rendang). If you are a carnivore, there is no finer dish.

The deal with the traditional masakan Padang spread is that they spread out all the dishes on the table in front of you, but you just eat the handful that you want, and you only pay for what you eat. They put the rest away. You get to eat a magnificent banquet for the price of a coffee and muffin in an Australian shopping centre. It's all fiery hot though. You have to be OK with chilli. And you traditionally eat with your fingers.

I was less impressed by the durian cuisine. Whole cafes were devoted to iced durian desserts, with all kinds of variations. It was, as ever, interesting. It tasted overwhelmingly of ........ durian (unfortunately). Durian to me tastes overwhelmingly of onion. Which would be OK, except in a dessert. My theory is there's some sort of fundamental genetic difference in the taste buds of Asians and Europeans. Just about every Asian you meet loves durian. Just about every European thinks it's rather off. I'm particularly reminded of the onion-and-brown-sugar cough mixture I used to take as a kid. OK as a medicine, but why would you pay for it as a dessert?

Padang's shopaholic

Padang's colonial relics (and a run-down harbour)

West Sumatra's capital, Padang, is a big and thriving city of almost a million people, and by and large it's not particularly run-down, with lots of new buildings post the 2009 earthquake. But the old Dutch colonial quarter is as run-down as it gets. The old Dutch and Chinese warehouses are not looking too good. Not much rebuilding here since the earthquake. I suspect there's a heritage order or something on the area, and maybe the owners are waiting for it all to collapse so they can bulldoze the lot?

Lots of decaying old boats in the old harbour too.

Padang people

Schooners 2

In Jakarta a few days earlier, I'd been unable to get into the old schooner harbour, but no such problems in West Sumatra, in Padang's old port. I was waved in by a friendly watchman, and was free to wander and photograph the colourful scene around me.

The old schooners came and went. Trucks and boats were being loaded and unloaded.

The cargo on this one was bamboo poles.

What next for Padang's beach?

Since I was last in Sumatra they've been through a few natural trials and tribulations. A few more volcanoes have erupted, and they've had some massive earthquakes and a particularly devastating tsunami.

The city of Padang in West Sumatra is very much in the firing line for the next really big earthquake and tsunami, of the scale of the 2004 magnitude 9.0 event in Aceh to the north. Needless to say they're very conscious of it.














In 2009 Padang suffered a 7.6 magnitude earthquake, which killed over a thousand people, and destroyed a large number of buildings. When there recently I met someone who had lived through it, and was still traumatised by the memories. She said she was working in a ground floor office, and was able to get out before the building was destroyed. Some colleagues died. Fearful of a tsunami (which thankfully didn't come), the survivors ran several kilometres inland. The nearby high ground was avoided because it would have meant crossing a bridge, which they feared might collapse.