View of the volcanic mountain Singhalang from Hotel Orkid rooftop.

This is the typical Padang style restaurant where plates of different dishes are stacked behind the window.

Food is served in plates and half serving of meat cost 8,000 Ruppiah.

Bridge

in the middle of the town which links Fort de Kock, a fort built by the Dutch and Bundo Kanduang Park which also have a mini zoo in it.

Traditional house

Kids

The weather in Bukit Tinggi is quite unpredictable, even though it’s sunny in the morning but it poured heavily at noon. It has rained 3 times since yesterday afternoon until now. Met an Indonesian friend yesterday and he wanted to show me around. We went to see Sianok Canyon (Ngarai Sianok).

Just right below is Lubang Jepang, meaning Japanese hole.

During world war II, Bukit Tinggi was the headquarter for Japanese army in Sumatera. There is an underground bunker and a network of tunnels built by the Japanese.

Faddy who showed me around with his van.

Booked a bus ticket to Parapat from the front desk at the hostel (175,000 Ruppiah). Those guys at Hotel Orkid were pretty nice and sent me to A.L.S bus office for the 5.30pm bus to Parapat.

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The road is pretty windy and narrow going around the jungle in the mountains. Infrastructure in Indonesia is still under developed. When it rains, the road will be blocked by landslides.

Padang food (11,000 Ruppiah) again in the morning.

Indonesians are a bunch of friendly people,

after eating the shop owners invited me for a chat. My spoken Malay is not that great so it’s a good exercise for me.

The weather in Padang is warmer than Jakarta. Had coconut Padang style coconut water (7000 Ruppiah).
Coconut water seller

Typical local houses

Padang just lies beside the sea

and is an earthquake prone area. There are earthquake happening every few days. The September 2009 earthquake was a big one measuring around 8 ritcher scale.

Buildings destroyed during the 2009 earthquake

Padang Minangkabau architecture

More pictures about the Sumatra earthquake on Boston Globe

Pasar which means market in Indonesian/Malay language, it sounds similar to Bazaar used in the middle east and central asia.

Dried anchovies

Went to a meeting point for cars heading for Bukit Tinggi at 1pm. Waited for 1.5 hours for the mini van (17,000 Ruppiah) to be full before the driver started driving. The mini van managed to cramp 10 people in it plus a boy. Bukit Tinggi is just around 90km away but the trip took 2.5 hours because of traffics and rain.

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Since it’s raining, paid the driver another 15,000 Ruppiah to get me to Hotel Orkid. Got the cheapest room (40,000 Ruppiah).

Bukit Tinggi is a small town located 930m above sea levels and the weather is cooler here than Padang. Both Bukit Tinggi and Padang are very close to the equator.

Jam Gadang, clock tower is located at a square just arcross Ramayana shopping mall and Pasar atas. It’s a popular place for locals to gather around especially during new year. The Muslims around this area are more conservative, Valentine’s day and Christmas celebrations are banned here.