Do you remember this wonderful song of Edith Piaf? Well, the word was little different (padam) but… 🙂
The minibus drivers in Bukittinggi were calling potential passengers: -Padang. Padang, Padang! And that’s when I remembered the song…
Padang is second big city on Sumatra. Minibus from Bukittinggi cost 25000 rs (like 2.20 USD) but if you are rich enough to add another 2 USD you can have “door to door service” from your guesthouse to the hotel of your choice in Padang. It is worth to invest because bus terminanal in both cases are located out of the city…
I reached Padang in the afternoon. It is hot, hot again here because I went down from 900 m to the level of the sea. Padang is hot, noisy and polluted but walking around the city I discovered something worth to recommend: In the mouth of the river there is an old port with old commercial boats – it looks like a century ago – the porters still carry heavy loads aboard – like in Sunda Kelapa in Jakarta. Picturesque place! The junk motorboats take also passengers – local people from here to the smaller islands. Then the boy on the motorbike helped me to find the Chinese Temple – He just offered me a free ride (see the picture) – because the route was a bit complicated.
People here are nice and helpfull.
Chinese temple is closed – it needs a restauration but they allowed me to go inside anyway to see the paintings. Trees are in blossom here. But tomorrow I will already fly home via Malaysia… It is time to spend my last rupees: a big bottle of Anker beer cost just 19000 rs!
