Day 15 - Lake Maninjau

The day was a bit boring after all the volcano impressions. But probably we needed some time to do nothing, to plan nothing and to run for nothing. After some negotiations with local taxi we caught a public mini van and asked to give us a list to the lake. The guy couldn’t go himself, but happily dropped us to bus station, where he sold us to another mini van driver. At 60% of the taxi price we went to the Maninjau lake…

The lake itself looks a lot better from the top of the mountanous road with 44 crazy turns, which not every driver will be able to surf. Couple of turns were inhabited by monkeys – happy days for Zoli. At the actual lake we didn’t find anything impressive, so in two hours after a fresh juice in the local café we took a mini van back. The driver was actually very nice and attentive – he waited for us all these two hours, and on the way back he bought some peanuts for monkeys – Zoli was especially happy to feed monkeys and take pictures of their peanut jumps.

In Bukattinggi we had our last pineapple juice before leaving to Padang, and then to Singapore. This juice was actually the last positive note of the day, as Padang itself happened to be an ugly and dirty city with only one decoration – local public transport mini vans called opeletes.

Once again we could conclude that big cities should be avoided in Asia, while nature and small authentic villages are the best places to be.

Day 14 - Climbing Merapi

Merapi is an active volcano on Sumatra, 2891m high. To clibm this beauty within a day we got up at 5am. The rain joined us immediately, and we were a bit doubtful of our chances.

Taxi to the village close to Merapi for Rp.100K, and good sip of a coffee with toast in the total darkness in front of the mountain. Funny that liquid coffees were given to us in small plastic bags :)

The climb started at 6:10, when the light was already out. It tool us 30 minutes to get to the only check point at forestry station, and after that the 4 hour fun began.

We passed the bridge from bamboo, observed a wierd animal on the trees - something between a squirrel and a rat. And, of course, the route got steeper and steeper. Mud changed for tree roots, tree routs to clay, clay to green stones, and finally green stones - to volcano ash with grey minerals.

Last 300 meters were especially hard, as we chose the wrong way on top and climbed the steeper side without any pathway. After a quick chocolate and cookie lunch on the top we went to research the crater.

As the first-time climber of a volcano, I was amazed with the size and activity of the volcano's heart. The smoke was coming from a 200m deep hole of a 500m diameter. The walls of the hole were layered with different colors of rock - green, red, brown and even yellowish. We tried to come to the side to see the bottom of the hole, but it was covered under rock.

Another amazing thing that I observed on the top was a full circle rainbow around the sun. My humble understanding was that rainbow is a half circle on the ground - but this one was really symbolic for me - the sun in the center, and the rainbow around it in the very zenith of the sky!

Around 1pm we moved down using the pathway this time :) The whole route took us another 3 hours, and actually I found it harder to go down - maybe my muscles are just built like that...

Back in Bukittinggi we celebrated another great day with fresh fruits and juices. And the town gratefully added another tropical wall of rain to our nicest volcano memories...

Day 13 - Equator

Early in the morning we tried to rent motorbikes, as we did on Lombok, or a jeep. Both attempts failed, and as we found out later in the day - failed for good. Drivers on the road are crazy, roads are bad and swingy, plus the rests of rainy season add a bit of a head ache.

We took a bus to Bonjol for Rp.10K to see the equator. Distance to Bonjol was about 40km, but it took us 2.5 hours to get there. First, the driver was collecting stuff all over the town, then he was driving slowly not to catch the cops. Yet, we caught the cops and he spent some time bribing them for the illegal load. Finally, 3km before the equator we have got a flat tyre :) Zoli happened to be an excellent predictor of flat tyres :)

We reached ecuator around 2pm, took couple of pictures with local latitude marksn and then discovered an interesting phenomenon. Real equator is about 130 meters south of the latitude mark with 20m accuracy. How good that we have GPS - let"s take a picture on the real ecuator as well :)

In general, the trip to the equator was boring, but couple of thing have made it at least a bit more interesting. As Dima noticed, many girls we strangely looking at me, smiling, waving and discussing something between themselves. Still can't undertand what's going on and why they like me so much, but Dima concluded that I may well be the local sex symbol :)

Another funny thing was that we were the only white people around, and noone actually spoke any English. Yey! We finally escaped from the tourist track and went for some authentic stuff :)

The bus itself was one of the authentic experiences. It was so packed that I traveled for 15 minutes on the stairs with open door - really afraid to fall asleep :) After that I have got a quarter-seat, in which I traveled for another 2 hours. Heavy rain has added even more to this, but who cares? - Now we know, where the real equator is :)

Day 12 - Sumatra

This day started with 12 hour sleep in the hotel without any light, Zoli fighting mosquitoes and covering his face with a pillow case, and finally pastry breakfast in the airport that I desperately wanted for such a long time!

After 2 hour flight we arrived to Padang on Sumatra. No wonder that first thing to do was to negotiate something - this time the car. As usual, prices were too high and arguments were too weak, plus the guy was very strange.

In Padang city we tried amazing taxi mini buses called opeletes. These cars are painted in bright colors and tuned to the likes of the driver with nothing but stereo on board :) We enjoyed a good techno selection in ours :)

Bus to bukittinggi took us two hours with last hour in heavy rain. The driver happened to be a tricky one and tried to get more money from us for dropping directly to the hotel.