holiday and trip

We met again. Firstly, I want to apologize for not updating my blog for last weekend. It is because I have been out of town for last weekend. I think it is not too late to wish Happy Chinese New Year. I hope you have a nice holiday even though you didn’t come back to your hometown.
This week I’m going to write about my trip with my family during this holiday. Last Friday, I went to Padang, Indonesia for three days and two nights. Particularly, my family and I stayed in Bukit Tinggi which took two hours journey from Padang International Airport. When we arrived at Padang International Airport, a worker from the hotel that we were supposed to stay for the rest of the trip picked us up. The journey from the airport to Bukit Tinggi was so thrilling and exciting. The breathtaking views accompany by the isolated and undisturbed environment amazed me the most. Along the way, you could see the untouched waterfall and river as well as the splendid view of mountain surround the place. After half of the journey, we stopped at a famous traditional restaurant called Pak Datuk. The uniqueness of this restaurant was the way they served the dishes. They put all the dishes they have on the table that we were sitting and we had to choose what we want to eat. After that, the waiter will count the dishes that we have eaten only. I think, it was a very good way to persuade the customers to eat everything on the table because everything on the table looked tasty. Besides that, the price was very cheap and most of the food was hot and spicy. If you want to try the food, I suggest you to go to the branch of the restaurant in Melaka. After that, we continued our journey. As we all know, most of the people in Indonesia were dependant on agriculture, same goes to people in Padang. So, during the journey, you could see a lot of paddy fields and also ponds at almost every house there. Furthermore, the soil was suitable for agriculture activity because the land result from volcano eruption was very fertile. For your information, Bukit Tinggi is one of the places in the world that have an active volcano until today. It was the first time I saw a volcano with my own eyes and the feeling was indescribable.
On the first night, we stayed in Grand Malindo Hotel. The hotel was situated near the town and also near to a few interesting place. Right after we arrived at the hotel, we went to the nearest market in town called Pasar Atas which was popular with various type of kebaya. It was like a large boutique but with a very reasonable price. Can you imagined, you can get a new styled and fine cloth to make baju kurung for only RM 15. I even bought one for myself. Not just that, you could get a well hand-made kebaya for not more than RM 50! Believe it or not, believe it folks! After we took first sight of Bukit Tinggi town, we went back to our hotel to take same rest.
The next day, we woke up early and had our breakfast first before we visit other places. On that day, we decided to spend the whole day shopping at Pasar Atas and also Aur Kuning. Both of the markets are popular to tourist because of the reasonable price and the product that they offer. After we took our breakfast, we went to Pasar Atas again and we bought a lot of kebaya and Baju kurung. In fact, my aunt bought her wedding dress there and it was so beautiful yet a lot cheaper compared to Malaysia. Then, we went to Aur Kuning by angkut-angkut. Angkut-angkut is small red van that looks like a taxi. It takes us to the places around the town and the fee was Rp 2000 per person. At Aur Kuning, the product sold there was different from Pasar Atas. Pasar Atas sells various type of baju Kebaya and Baju Kurung while most of the items sell in Aur kuning were telekung and scarf. They are complement to each other. My aunt bought dozens of it because she wanted to sell it back in Malaysia. After one whole day shopping, we went to KFC, which was situated at the middle of the town, to have our dinner. What special about KFC in Bukit Tinggi was they have no nuggets in their menu but they replace it with Pekerdel. In Malaysia, Perkedel is usually eaten with soto and we found it mostly during festive season however, in Bukit Tinggi, perkerdel is a substitute food for nuggets. Moreover, the taste is delicious and everytime we want to buy it, there was only six pieces left.
The next day, no more shopping but we went to some historical and tourist spot around Bukit Tinggi. First, we visited Lobang Japang, which is situated 500 meter from our hotel. Lobang Japang was a historical place which was a hiding place for Japenese during world war two. It was a 5km tunnel and 500 meter under the ground. What amazed me the most was the structure of the tunnel which was so strong and even stronger than the concrete that the Indonesia government built to protect the tunnel. After several hours, we went to Danau Maninjau which took 2 hours to get there. Danau Maninjau was my favourite place throughout the whole journey because it was a lake that are formed at the mouth of an inactive volcano. The view was spectacular and the water was crystal clear. After that, we went to Ikan Sakti which was also took two hours journey from town. Ikan sakti is actually a pond and it has its own history behind it. People believe that long ago, there were two siblings drawn in the pond and they turn into two big fish. The fish was only seen appear to the surface during certain event. The whole journey was tiring but it was all worth it.
After three days we stayed there, it was time to return to Malaysia. It was a whole new experience to stay there. I met a lot of people and they taught me something about life. They are very poor and they work hard to make a living. They grab every opportunity to make their life a little bit better than before. They give me a different perspective about them. Now I know what Indonesian’s lifestyles are and I will never look down on them again.
That’s all from me and see you again next week.