Lake Maninjaou and Padang... aka more paradise

I left Lake Toba to head more south to a town called Bukitingi. It was a 17 hour bus ride but thankfully, I had company to share my misery. They let people smoke on these buses!!! It was terrible!

We got to Bukitingi in the morning, got a room and explored a little. We were pretty exhausted from our bus ride so we took it easy. The next morning we took another bus to Lake Maninjaou, which isn't that far but becuase you have to wait until the bus is full to leave, we waited for like an hour and a half in this small town, on a bus, blaring techno music in the heat... lovely. But we finally made it and it was worth the wait! We got a bungalow right on the lake for $5 a night (which we split). The water was perfect, the place was beautiful, the people were amazing... I really love Indonesia if you haven't picked up on that. haha.

We walked around, swam, drank, swam some more. It started pouring rain on one of our walks, so a guy on a motorbike asked if we wanted a ride. We said sure, hopped on the back (three people on a bike is not abnormal... 5 is the most people I have seen on one). We went to grab tea with this guy and he asked if we wanted a tour the next day. We said we were poor and he made a deal. He was a teacher, so he said that his students would take us to a waterfall if we helped them practice english... piece of cake. So the next morning, the students met us and we spoke english, which was easy for me, and hiked up to the waterfall. We got done, ate lunch and then decided to rent bikes. Its about a 7 hour ride around the entire lake, so we just rode for like an hour and half, but on our ride we passed a school where people were enjoying a Sunday afternoon volleyball game. They saw us and called us over to play, so we did, and man, I felt so cool. People cheered and screamed and laughed every time Dave or I touched the ball. Dave is 6'4" so he spiked the ball one time and people screamed like he had just won the olympics. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen.

landscape

Lake

Students at waterfall

Me resting after the walk

Our cabin

The next morning, we packed up and headed to Padang with the intention of going to the Mentawai Islands, which is a famous surf spot but also home to these indigenous jungle people. Its pretty hard to get to, which is why we had to forfit our plans. The boats only went like once a week, so we would be stuck there for a week and neither of us really had time. So I am coming back just for that! We hung out in Padang which is a really cute city right on the water.

While we were out one night, we stumbled into a bakery and met the owner who was pretty cool and spoke perfect english. He asked if we wanted to go out the next night, so we said sure, see you at 7:00. He picked us up and we went to a local place and had the BEST freaking meal ever. Chili crab, deer, grilled grouper (which is my new favorite fish), and veggies. It was so good, and then he paid!! He was happy to show us a good time, I am telling you, these people are freakishly nice! After dinner we we went to his friends bar that overlooked the city and had a beer.

When he dropped us off, he offered to take us out for breakfast and drive us to the airport... we were like, um, whats the catch here. No catch. Just being friendly. So I reluctantly got on a plane and left of the be best places I have ever been. Ugh, so sad. In Bali now to explore the island side of Indonesia.

This is Sumatra

This happened almost every day. People would come up to me and ask to take their pictures with me and Dave. No matter what we were doing, watching the sunset, eating, walking down the street, people wanted to take a picture. Even at the freaking airport, a guy who worked there asked if he could have a photo with me! What do they do with these photos??

Chili crab and our host Didi