Padang, 3 August 2007

This is my second trip to Padang. In contrast to my first visit, I only had one day to explore West Sumatra. So I picked Maninjau Lake, the only lake I missed when I went to Padang last year. When I mentioned my plan to my friends, they also offered me to revisit Bukittinggi. Fine, I think. We then planned to go to Bukittinggi first, then to Maninjau and stay overnight there.

So we went to Bukittinggi at around 10am. Too late, in fact. We had Jumat prayer at Padangpanjang, where we also had the original sate Padang. I was surprised with the tenderness of the meat. It was so tender that I almost thought it was a chicken satay...

When I entered Bukittinggi, I felt the same calming atmosphere. The city has changed since last year when a big earthquake shook the area. Ngarai Sianok looked brighter due to the peeled topsoil during the quake. Some people said the quake has damaged the view of Sianok, but some others prefer its current appearance.

The road from Bukittinggi to Maninjau was narrow and winding. In fact, there is the famous "Kelok 44", the 44 bending curves along the route. The view when we approached the lake was breathtaking. Green paddy fields with a traditional Minang house standing, with the background of the lake itself. I was also astonished to find a beautiful mosque near the like. It turned out that the mosque was built with the donation of a prominent person in this country.

After enjoying the panorama, we evaluated our plan. The journey time was longer than we had expected, so we thought it would be too risky to stay in this place because my flight was early in the following morning. So we headed back to Padang, and got to the Bumiminang hotel at about 10pm.