West Sumatra's Silver City

The village of Koto Gadang, just outside Bukittinggi, is a traditional centre for high quality silver lacework jewellery. Other touristy knicknacks too. Like rather big silver Minangkabau traditional houses.



















I bought a nice little silver lacework brooch, but passed on the houses.

Bukittinggi antiques

We have in our Sydney home some decorative little drinking glasses that were bought (by another member of the household) in an antique shop in Bukittinggi in West Sumatra nearly 30 years ago. Seems there were several funny little antique shops there at the time, stocking an eclectic mix of  things, including lots of stuff from Dutch colonial times. I hadn't noticed them on my own previous visit to Bukittinggi, but that just goes to show how we all see different things!













And what do you know, they're all still there, still selling all that same old stuff. Or at least, still stocking it - I never saw any customers in any of them.

A multitude of mosques

West Sumatra seems to be particularly well stocked with mosques. No shortage of places to pray. Some small villages seemed to have two or three.

They're building them everywhere, sometimes way out in the back blocks. The dome is always completed first. "Where's all the money coming from?" I asked tour guide Erik. "Is it from Saudi Arabia?" Not usually, was the reply. Often it's from the overseas Indonesians, who want to give something back to their home villages.

The Japanese tunnels of Bukittinggi

The Japanese Caves, or Japanese Tunnels, in Bukittinggi are one of the city's most interesting features. They were built during Indonesia's World War 2 occupation by Japan, by local slave labour.

Bukittinggi was a major centre of Government during the Japanese occupation, as it had been during Dutch colonial times. In 1948 and 1949 it was the capital of the new Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia.

It's an enormous complex, with a total tunnel length of 1.4km. There are ammunition rooms, dormitories, kitchens, meeting rooms, even a torture room.













Indonesians do not have fond memories of the Japanese occupation, and I was told that very few Japanese tourists come here even today.

Minangkabau houses: the Disney and the derelict

The Minang, or Minangkabau, people of West Sumatra are very proud of their traditional architecture. Lots of pointy spires, modelled on buffalo (kerbau) horns. Last time I was there they told me it was all incredibly important to them.

Tour guide Erik took me to the Sultan's royal palace, or rather, the latest rebuild of it - they keep on burning down.

It's open to the public, and it's quite a tourist attraction. Almost like being in Disneyland. There are comic book characters to meet and greet you, and many of the visitors get to play dress-ups, as royal family members or traditional brides and grooms. It's all fabulous fun during the big post-Ramadan holiday period.

Meanwhile, in nearby villages, you come across traditional houses that are in a slightly lesser condition. I was told that the families live in modern houses they've built next door, but they keep the old places for ceremonial purposes. Do they really hold weddings and funerals and things in these crumbling old buildings?  "Yes", said Erik.

Bukittinggi market scenes

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

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.