After our previous bus experience, we decide that today – Day 64 – the first thing we will do is book an airplane ticket from Padang to Jakarta and skip another 20+ hour bus ride. We did what the locals do and now it’s time to do as tourists do… got to cover our bases.
We succeed and spend the rest of the day walking around Bukittinggi and visiting the Sianok Canyon, which runs along the perimeter of the city. During WWII, the Japanese military used Indonesian slave labour to construct a labyrinth of combat tunnels along the side of the canyon and Eric and I are really interested in visiting these caves.
Unfortunately a mini-avalanche closed the entry to the tunnels and we can’t get in.
While on one of our many walks around the city, we meet a group of guys playing takrau. “Takrau” is a combination of volleyball and soccer and is extremely popular in Southeast Asia. There is a net between 2 sides of 4 people, who hit a woven rattan ball back and forth with their heads and feet. Eric was invited to play and put in a good effort, though I don’t think he’ll be invited to try out for the Indonesian National Team any time soon. He does however buy a takrau ball and will be looking to start a league when we get back home.
On Day 65, after I call my Mom to wish her a “Happy Birthday”, Eric and I hike across the Sianok Canyon, to the nearby village of Koto Gadung. It’s a very small town famous for two things – its silversmiths and its Dutch-colonial houses. It’s a beautiful town and we really enjoy checking out all the silver workshops.
On our last day in Bukittinggi, we decide to take a local bus for a day trip to Danau Maninjau, a crater lake in the heart of Sumatra. It’s about 2 hours away and the mountain road to get there is quite spectacular, with all its hairpin turns overlooking lush valleys and rice paddies.
However on our way there, another bus coming in the opposite direction on one of the hairpin turns, gets a little too close and hits us with its side mirror, shattering one of our windows. The window explodes and covers all of us with pieces of glass.
Before I go any further, let me reassure you Eric & I are perfectly okay.
Maybe it’s from years of watching “ER” and “Grey’s Anatomy”, but immediately Eric grabs our first aid kit and he & I go into “triage mode”. Most of the people seem all right – a little shaken up and confused as they try to figure out what happened.
But the woman who was closest to the broken window has her face buried in her hands and is bent over in her husband’s lap, screaming. We have the gauze pads and our bottle of water ready, bracing ourselves for the worst as she lifts her head, but thankfully she’s all right – a small scratch above her eye and one on her hand. Her reaction is more out of fright than trauma, and we breathe a sigh of relief.
As Eric helps calm her down and cleans her up, I deal with the bus driver who’s trying to order everyone back on the bus – he seems to be more concerned about staying on schedule, than making sure his passengers are okay.
I inform him, politely of course, that we’re not going anywhere until I say so and he’s smart enough to listen.
After another 44 hairpin turns – each turn has a number at the side of the road – we are at the lake. We spend the day wandering around, have a nice quiet lunch on a dockside restaurant and then hesitantly hop on a bus back to Bukittinggi.
The ride back is uneventful, although I do find myself ducking every time we approach another oncoming vehicle.
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