Having spent a lazy week or so in Bukkittinggi we travelled back via taxi to Padang. (apparently the lonely planet tells us that there is a tourist train that does this trip, on sundays only, we arrived sunday, left.... hmmm. friday I guess.....)
Padang is supposedly a largish centre on the ocean, so much hotter, but it rained almost every day.
Public travel is quite easy in small vans called Angcots. They like to 'pimp' them up a bit....(though why spend good money on spoilers, body kits, deafeningly loud stereos and large exhausts etc on a clapped out van that is prolly worth less than $1000 is beyond me...
the waterfront in padang had some stalls that you could eat lunch by the seaside (where is the whoopee-doo smilie?) they were not real nice. beach was dirty and rocky.
scenery was lovely, the town was a dump. and quite provincial, dozens of people stared at me, and called out Bule. I just called out Indo and pointed back at them.
I read in the lonely planet that you could get a boat across the river at the south part of town and then walk around past a chinese cemetery (whoopi-doo) to Air Manis ( a famous beach area 10km south )
10 km sounded a bit far for us to walk.... we found a taxi and began negotiating. ( I physically had to pull my partner away from the first one, who insulted her after she told him what she thought of his fare costs...)
agreed with the 2nd one for 120,000 rupiah ($12 return) who told us it would take over an hour each way ( 10kms? turns out LP was wrong) and indeed it did, over a winding mountain road and much traffic, including us driving over a 2 metre embankment after begin stuck on a railway line with train bearing down on us but nowhere else to go due to traffic jams!)
once there, we joined a million other Indonesian tourists to wander in between the cars and stalls selling mama noodles, coral :( or hermit crabs..... :(
Not relishing the prospect of the taxi ride home (no aircon either) we found a boat doing 10 minute joy rides and negotiated a price to take us back tp padang beach instead (200,000 Rupiah or $20) my partner had a fit when I told her the price, but i wasnt too concerned.
was ok but We hired the same boat guys again the next day and spent the day on Palua pisang besar - an almost deserted island (apart from 3 families who rent it for $300 per year) - i'd love to buy it.
one of the local kids climbed the tree and cut down some cocnuts for us to drink from ( 10,000 rupiah or $1)
Padang has a large, well all areas in Indonesia have a chinese influence or area. Kampung Cina Kota (Chinatown). This included a rather picturesque Chinese temple.
outside of Padang (about 10 minutes in a car) we stopped at a little roadside stall for a drink and a wee gander at the view....
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