Bukittinggi,

So the ferry was lovely and I loved the lack of pirates.

And we pick up our journey with our four foreign friends on the night bus to Bukittinggi. I was sitting next to my new Japanese friend, Hiro for short – what a name! We were both knackered so slept pretty soundly – despite Indonesia’s lacking road infrastructure.

At Bukittinggi the four of us had some brekkie at one of the local eateries. These places all had the same layout/system, in the window there would be maybe 10 bowls of different foods. You simply pop in, immediately get given a scoop of rice and just kinda point at what you fancy. I asked if they had any veggie food, and once translated, they laughed in my face. So I ate rice, noodles and an egg! But it was tasty and of course I had a tea – or in Bhasa Teh Susu (or milk tea).

The girls got themselves a bike and headed out into the sticks. Hiro and I ended up sharing a very very cheap twin room in town. And then explored the city and having a mini-adventure down by the river. Bukittinggi is 97% Muslim so there are endless mosques scattered throughout the city – lovely to look at but when they start blaring out prayers at the same time its a bit overwhelming. It was clear we were off the touristy track as everyone was saying hi and asking where we were from. Hiro was mistaken for Korean a lot – I was not. But we were having a blast in a very friendly city.

On our mini adventure we encounter a vibrant blue and orange poisonous snake (according to a local) which we very carefully stepped around/over. We then stopped for a coffee by the river. Having only had an okay nights’ sleep on the night bus, we both ended up having a little snooze too. I captured a lovely shot of Hiro sleeping along with a very cute friend.

Feeling more recovered the next day we decided to climb one of the nearby volcanoes. We rented a bike from the hotel and while waiting for it to turn up, Hiro spotted a man with a cart who was ringing a bell and went to investigate. He returned with a huge bag full of pastries! What a hero! Once the bike arrived and after Hiro dropped the rental guy back at his house lol, we drove that as far as we could up the mountain. Eventually the sometimes concrete and sometimes rocky road became too rough; we stashed the bike to the side and then we began what would be an 8ish hour hike taking us to nearly 3000m and back. Honestly, it was quite a bit of a climb, where I learnt what a pain in the arse volcanoes are to climb as once you’re passed the tree line it’s just loose rocks. You take one step up and slide down three. But good fun for the day and we got to know each other more.

As a quick debrief: Hiro (28) had just finished a tour around Japan on his motorbike, and then decided it was time to try backpacking. Back home he worked as a kimono maker. We really got on nicely. 

I was expecting the mountain to be deserted, however, we overtook a few people on the way up and then found loads of locals camping at the top! We got chatting to two guys, one of whom spoke English, as it happened he had just returned from the UK – Hartlepool of all places… I took the presence of the locals as a good sign as perhaps 500m from the crater we came across a sign that said do not come within 3km of this active volcano… But at this point it was too late. After a quick nap at the top, we circled the crater and found the absolute peak – submitted it and headed back down.

Near the bottom, we passed a huge group of youngish people who had all just come down. I assumed they were waiting for a bus or something. One of them asked if we reached the peak, we confirmed and asked the same. He also confirmed so I high fived him, the group erupted into laughter and applause. Needless to say, the vibes on the cano were on point.

By this time we were starving – despite eating about four pastries each. And my limited options continued here. Of my first 6 meals I think all 6 were egg and rice (with the odd exciting veggie side – one place had some aubergine and I almost lost my mind).

When asking for the bill, there is normally a long pause while they look you up and down and assess how much they can ask for. I’ve had all sorts of food in varying portions and it’s almost always 10,000 or 20,000 Indonesian currency. Equating to 50p or a £1. It seems we all walk away from this transaction happy.