Paddling in Padang and singing Indo style!

Posing in an Andong in Padang
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This journal entry brought to you by Marc

we went swimming or rather dog paddling in the knee deep water and tried (vainly) to avoid being scratched by the debris of dead coral littering the seafloor

Our first night in rainy Padang saw us arrive late from the airport and hungry. So after finding a lovely hotel (Hotel Imanuel), we ambled down the road in search for food and stumbled across a warmly lit warung (road side food stall). There was a woman running the stall and with my broken Bahasa we placed an order for 2 mie gorengs (fried noodles). Soon as we sat down I struck a conversation with her using rudimentary Bahasa. We found out more about her life and she introduced us to her husband (who worked nearby) and her son.  I felt incredibly lucky that they were kind enough to speak so openly with two veritable strangers and finally realised how useful it was to have learnt Bahasa!

Michael enjoying a 'kelapa muda' (fresh coconut juice)
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The following day, we made friends with two cool Indonesian guys, Roni and Opie. We met them when we visited a funky cafe next to our hotel. The next day- Sunday- Roni and Opie offered to take us to Air Manis located on the outskirts of Padang; it's a pretty beachside area with a string of little islands decorating the coast line. We took an opelet to get there- funny hotted up vans used as a cheap form of transport in Sumatra. They took us to a mini-island (islet?) and we went swimming or rather dog paddling in the knee deep water and tried (vainly) to avoid being scratched by the debris of dead coral littering the seafloor. Later in that very rainy evening we met up with them again and eventually Opie persuaded us to belt out some tunes on his well-loved guitar. So a few moments later, with rain steadily beating down in tandem with syncopated lightning strikes, there we were, a group of guys singing tunes from Maroon 5 and Coldplay to the latest Indonesian pop sensations. Just a bunch of guys ardently singing in the rain! Priceless.

School kids in Bukittinggi
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On the Monday we went up to a hillside town of Bukittinggi and on the way we met Linda- a young Indonesian mother living in Padang who was on her way to visit some relatives. I'm not sure whether it was our dashing manners (dare I flatter myself?), but she was taken enough by us to pose for a pic! Bukitinggi is palpably cooler than Padang where it is higher up, inland and under the shadows of another majestic volcano- Gunung Merapi. Michael continues to be an exotic delight to the locals and one young English language student accosted him for a taped interview to practice his language skills here in Bukittinggi. Of course, Michael is ever so obliging!

Motorcyclists in Bukittinggi
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Michael made the distinction between being a 'traveller' and being a 'tourist' where the former strove to immerse themselves in the culture while the latter went to 'sight see' but tended to refrain from getting 'into' the culture. Our trip has been a combination of both modes of travel. However, I felt our time in Padang was more like being a traveller because of the genuine connections we made with the kind individuals we've met here.