Family holiday at Padang and Bukit Tinggi 25-28 Nov 2008

It has been a while that my family and I had taken a holiday abroad together. This year we had the opportunity to plan it very early. In May, one of my wife's colleagues had offered to organise a four-days and three-nights trip to Padang and Bukit Tinggi, Sumatera, Indonesia. It was to be some sort of family day, but with own expenses of course. My wife and I took this opportunity to plan us early for a family holiday. It was a bargain indeed. It was also an opportunity for me to renew the international passports of my family members that were about to expire in November.

I let my wife handle all the bookings and I did not get to know the programme until the end. And for the first time I let my wife and two teenage sons to pack the bags. My only contribution was to tell them to bring one medium and one small size bags and two bag packs. Somehow they were reluctant to pack knowing how picky I can be on what to bring and what to leave behind, but I hold true until the end that I would not interfere with their packing.

We had a very early start, waking up at 3 am and driving to my wife's school by 4 am. We parked our car at the school and took a chartered bus to LCCT for an 8.30 am Air Asia flight to Padang. We reached LCCT at about 5.30 am and finished our check in at 6 am. We performed our Fajr prayer thereafter and had our breakfast. By 7 am, we went through the immigration checkpoint and into the departure hall. We were called in to board at about 8 am.

We touched down at the International Minangkabau Airport, Padang after an hour flight i.e. 8.30 am local time. It took us only thirty minutes to pass through immigration and custom. Two mini buses and an MPV were already waiting for us in front of the airport. Without further delay, we headed towards Bukit Tinggi. Along the way we stopped at one of the lavish looking Minang restaurant for breakfast. My family had two plates of roti canai, two plates of nasi goreng, one plate of cucur kodok and hot drinks. The food were not as what we would taste in KL but the price is a hefty Rupiah85,000 (RM26.50), my good guess is about 15% to 25% of it went for the tour guides commission.

After breakfast we continued our journey to Lembah Anai, this is where the famous waterfall along the road to Bukit Tinggi for our first stop in the programme. We then visited the Pusat Dokumentasi Kebudayaan Minangkabau (The Minangkabau Centre of Cultural Documentation, family photo on the right), Padang Panjang a traditional Minang house with spacious garden which include a fountain and several small houses as surau and paddy stores. The interior of the house is more like a museum with a lot of documents and photographs of famous Minang warriors and freedom fighters. Then we had delicious Nasi Padang lunch at one of the Padang Panjang restaurants.

After lunch we stopped at two shops selling embroidered shirts, scarves and telekungs (long prayer scarves normally worn by Muslim women in South East Asia). The ladies in the tour group had their field days shopping. I enjoyed the atmosphere within and around the shops.

We checked into Campago Hotel, a hotel at the outskirt of Bukit Tinggi at about 4 pm and was told that we will go out again at 5.30 pm for some more shopping and dinner. The shopping is for more of the same things i.e. embroidered shirts, scarves and telekungs but somehow the ladies were never tired of spending their money. We went to the Kampung Pandai Sikek, the famous village known for it handicrafts. It was almost 9 pm that we had our dinner as the shopping took longer than expected as there were more than one shops that the ladies had spent their time.

By the time we reached the Campago Hotel, there were already more than ten makeshifts stalls at the hotel compound (see photo on the right). The stalls were selling again more of the same things i.e. embroidered shirts, scarves and telekungs. And again the ladies will still go over, bargain and spend their money.

We went out early the next morning at 8 am after breakfast at the hotel. But before that, the ladies were again at the makeshift stalls shopping. Our first program of the day was to Embun Pagi to look from about 1,000 ft level the famous Maninjau Lake (family photo on the right). We then went to the Panorama and Sianok Canyon. My family and I went into Lubang Jepang (the famous underground hideouts of the Japanese army during their occupation of Sumatera in the Second World War, family photo on the left). We again went shopping at Pasar Atas, Bukit Tinggi. We had an early dinner and went back to the hotel to pack for our journey downhill to Padang the next day. There were more shopping at the hotel as the make shift stalls were still there.

The next morning, I took time with my sons taking panoramic pictures around the hotel before our journey to Padang. Somehow we had to stop again at Pasar Atas, Bukit Tinggi as someone in the group had to shop for a last minute item. The trip downhill was via the seashore and we could see paddy fields as far as the eye can see. We passed through Pagar Ruyuang and saw the spot where the Istana Besar Pagar Ruyuang used to stand (see photo on the right), it was burned down in 2007 due to a faulty anti-lightning wiring.

We had lunch at a beautiful restaurant that is built on a fishpond (see photo on the left). As we had lunch we could watch the fishes swimming, the paddy fields, the buffaloes and the leaves of the coconut tree swaying blown by the wind. It was a breath taking experience, something I had missed from the time I was five years old while I was visiting my grandmother's paddy fields at Simpang Tiga, Gombak, Selangor.

We reached Padang at about 5 pm and checked into our rooms. We went out for dinner at 7 pm and adjourned early at 9 pm as we had to be up and early the next morning for the 8.30 am flight to KL.

My family and I enjoyed this trip as we had the first time four years ago as we were able to visit new places and minimise our shopping only to the essentials. Of course we got to know some interesting characters from the tour group that also add colour to the trip. Insyaallah we will make another trip again to the beautiful Minangkabau with its two famous mountains of Gunung Merapi and Gunung Singgalang, its twin cities of Padang and Bukit Tinggi the birthplace of my wife and my ancestors.