While finishing some Nasi Goreng (for breakfast) one of the hotel staff came over and told us that Rita was off today but we could meet her in the Mall across the road. This we did and from there we went over back to the place where we saw yesterday hundreds of these Mini Busses (some people call them Bemo over here).
These minibuses are based on compact Mitsubishi vans from the 80ties but it's nearly impossible to recognize their origin. The benches in the back are removed, the sliding side door is gone and on the outside and inside are plenty of plastic moldings attached to change the shape of the car. On top of this the whole thing is repainted in bright and contrasting colours and lots of LEDs are thrown into the mix.
Each of these buses seems to be shared by a couple of friends and run around town on more or less predefined routes.They switch drivers every once in a while and the music was blasting from the (also tuned) stereos.
The driving style was not what I would generally call cautious but it was a lot of fun to ride in one of these out of town and through the edges of the was Sumatran jungle.
After maybe 15 minutes we arrived at a little intersection where we got off. The ride for the 3 of us was a bit more than 1€.
Here we had to change to scooters that would take us up over the ridge of the mountain change that separated the inland from the beaches of the Indian Ocean.
Each of us got on the back of one of the scooter and we went deeper into the jungle and up the mountain. We were passing little sheds with chicken and goats on the road, kids playing on the street in the shade of banana and palm trees. Following the curvy road up the mountain we had a great view of the valley behind us and once we reached the top and started our decent on the other side an even more impressive view of the ocean with lots of little islands scattered around the bay.
At the bottom of the hill we had to pass through another village, with houses built on poles and a mosque and again, lots of chicken, goats and kids. And of course scooters all over the place. It really felt a world away from anything I have experienced before. I really felt "fucking hell - I'm in the Jungle". It was great.
One amazing (although logical) thing we saw were the satellite dishes that were in front of all the buildings. These were pointing straight up into the sky. Another small reminder, that we are right on the equator.
Finally arriving at the beach, we had to pay the scooter drivers and went to the shore.We walked a bit along the beach to find a little hut (there were many of them) with a few plastic chairs set out under a couple of palm trees looking out to the sea.
Our drink of choice was a coconut. To be honest, I didn't really enjoy the taste too much but it was mandatory to get the right exotic feeling.
The coconut was followed up by a swim in the Indian ocean. The water was probably warmer than I would have my shower set at home. Unfortunately the beach was scattered with loads of rubbish that came in with the tides. It does take away a bit of the remote feeling I was getting but, but I guess it is a hint of authenticity an a relatively poor country.
It was time to use the little waterproof camera that Neil gave me to try out. Of course I didn't go deep underwater and could not really confirm if it was waterproof to 30m but it certainly is waterproof to 1m, Neil.
As this beach (and the whole Padang area) is famous (apparently world famous) for surfing I thought I should give it a try. Not having any experience whatsoever on this topic I went over to another hut which seemed to have boards for rent and picked one.
I must have looked pretty cool walking along the beach, but this stopped immediately when I hit the water.It was even hard to stay lying on the board, so there was no thinking of ever kneeing or getting up on it.However I tried a couple of waves and two or three I hit at the right time and speed to be pushed (lying on my stomach) towards the beach for a couple of meters. When this worked out it was great fun.
I think next time I have a couple of days at a beach like this and there is a course for surfing I might sign up for proper lessons. I'm sure it's great fun. Some of the Indonesian lads who were surfing there, surely seem to enjoy it a lot.
As the tide went out we had a chance to explore one of the islands that was lying off the beach.I got quite excited about this Island as I expected to find secret pirate treasures on it. In fairness, it did really look like something from a Pirate film, with a small beach, some rocks around the coastal area, palm trees and a very steep hill in the middle.
It wasn't at all a very big island, so we decided to circumnavigate it but couldn't continue on the sea side as it was sheer walls there.
Every time we turned around a corner i felt like Robinson Crusoe when he was exploring his island.
When coming back to our chairs I went for another (not in any way more successful) attempt of surfing before coming back to the lovely plastic chairs totally exhausted.
Our next destination was a piece of concrete at the other end of the beach that Rita mentioned was, according to the legend a boy who didn't listen to his mom and was turned into a rock.
By now it was starting to get darker (more because of the approaching clouds than the sun setting) and the stalls along the beach started to pack up. One quick dip in the water and then we took the scooters back. We were all pretty tired at this time already.
On the way back to the intersection where we were going to change to the Bemo again it started raining while we passed all the people in the village heading to the mosque. The muezzin's voice made the experience even more exotic.Luckily the rain didn't pour down on us as I expected and we stayed relatively dry.
The ride back in the Minibus was even more exciting than the way out as the driver and his friends got really excited to have us on board. I think he tried to impress us a little bit extra with an even more aggressive driving style. We had our fun anyway and were high-fiving the guys. The driver was passing other Bemos and Cars on the left and right with a couple of cm distance and at the end of this exciting ride we had to take a picture with the whole crew.
On the way back we had to say good-bye to Rita. It was very nice of her to show us around here neck of the woods and we would have never found the beach without here.
Back at the hotel a shower and a couple of minutes on the bed really did wonders and we were freshened up to head out to find some food on the night market along the coast.
It was a bit of a walk but we did find a shed like food place right on the sea that looked like it was serving great food. And indeed it was very nice until we got the bill. Initially we were shocked at the price of 142 000 Rupees (about 9€) but when thinking about it we realized that is was probably ok, since we ordered probably four different dishes and some fresh juices. I still have some issues to get used to this currency in Indonesia and what value you get for it. I just take it, that we were not ripped off and if we were it was still much cheaper than at home.
We finished our day with the search for an ATM as we had nearly run out of money. Unfortunately none of the one's we found would give us any as it didn't except our cards and the one we used before was now locked.
Well, this would have to wait and we headed back to the hotel. It was an early start tomorrow with our Taxi leaving at 5 am to Padang Airport.
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