Journal of Working trip to Indonesia 9 - 12 December 2005

Saturday, December 9, 2005
We head for KLIA after Solat Subuh, 5.30 am. Jazz was still sleeping. Azam will drive the Rexton home.

Arrived @ Bandar Udara Minangkabau (Padang's new airport) at 8.45 am local time (around 9.45 am Malaysian time). Itsa small airport, but enough to carter the state's tourism and local flight. Small or big, so many ulat taxi here, jest like back home in KLIA. Kebetulan we met Hj. Yushar before boarding in Malaysia (this guy bought mama's tanah in Gombak) and more coincidently, he's going to Bukittinggi too, where his relatives lives (apparently his Makcik is going for hajj). so we decided NOT to stay in Padang, but head straight to Bukittinggi and get our biznez done.

we chartered a LEGAL cab to Bukittinggi, it costs Rp 185,000 (about RM74). the cab was like a crazee ride. if before i commented papa's driving is like lipas kudung, so the ride was like 10 lipas kudungs combined. the cab driver (Robby) never switch of his signal to the right because he is EVER ready to overtake. and ppl here sooo fond of using their honk, but unlike in Malaysia, they use their honk to warn dat they're going fast, very rarely to curse on other people. they like, like they have a mutual understanding with each other dat they're gonna drive crazily.

We stopped at Warung Pak Datuk for an early lunch (11 am local time, but since we're still feeling like we're in Malaysia time, we're already hungry) . me, being d jakun 1st timer i am, was shocked to see sooo many lauk being served without anybody ordering nething. mom, dad and Hj Yushar rilek je. rupanya memang macam tu, we choose which one we're gonna eat, and they charge only dat. and makan was soo like SEDAP! prolly because i am a minang person myself, and they way ppl in Padang/Bukittinggi cook is a bit different from the minangs in Malaysia, less oily, less santan, but sambal mesti ada. or wat they call, balado (fried with chilli).

we arrived at Bukittinggi @ 12 pm. susah nak carik hotel because it's holiday season we had to go round round d small town to seek for a place to stay. we got one, Hotel Benteng. its more like a cheap motel room, but it's d only one available, we'll hafto make do. plus we're also on a budget, if hotel's cheap, we get to shop more!! hahaha

One fact about Bukittinggi, in case u guys are unfamiliar with this part of the continent, it's situated near the famous volcano, Gunung Merapi. it's an active volcano and d whole time we were there, we could smell the smoke and even taste the sulfur in the water from natural sources. i didn't realize until the last day, dat i shouldn't be drinking dat water cus i got terrible sore throat and even got a bit of asthma, not bad enuff to get me inhaling ventolin tho (not until i reached Malaysia again).

but... since i was younger, i'm kinda obsessed with volcanoes. when i was in Medan, (went there twice) dad got sooo angry wit me cus we had 3 rolls of film, (we didn't haf digitals back then in 1995/6) half of it were used to take pictures of all the volcanoes we passed by. not enuff wit dat, i bought postcards showing pictures of indonesian volcanoes. so here i am, once again, near that 'creature', which to me, the most beautiful creature God created in this world. and dad was like, thank God for digital technology' hahaha cus i took a lot of pix of Gunung Merapi. here are some marvelous pix of it.

Subuh, it's almost invisble, due to the fog.

there u go, see dat smoke? maybe not :p

One clear Morning... look at those clouds

She's showing off her beautiful body, the last morning we were there.

To be continued... (Tangan dah lenguh and mula kebas kebas! plus i need to sleep, another biznez trip tomorow - to Singapore. and yes, i'm going with my bandaged hand)