So after very few hours rest (a mosque is nearby) in the “Helllo Guesthouse”, a tip we got from a nice dutch girl Fike, that also had to endure the night bus ride to Bukittinggi, we already jumped right into the vivid life of this town… (Read more)
Trás un par de horas de descanso en el albergue y de haber medio recuperado las fuerzas, nos adentramos en la ciudad acompañados por Fike, una chica holandesa que también sufrió con nosotros el viaje nocturno en autobús… (Continuar leyendo)
Exploring Bukittinggi
So after very few hours rest (a mosque is nearby) in the “Helllo Guesthouse”, a tip we got from Fike a nice dutch girl that also had to endure the night bus ride to Bukit tinggi, we already jumped right into the vivid life of this town. First we went to the market area where we found a bite to eat, the classical Mie Goreng (Fried Noodles with egg – my favorite breakfast already) that always works, sadly was not available, but fried rice (nasi gorgeng) was and was enough to regain some strength.
Afterwards we went to some former defense building that is included apparantly into some zoo and the area seemed to be some kind of picnic place and was used as a romantic meeting point, since you have a nice view over the city. Since europeans still appear to be quite an attraction here, we were often asked to take pictures and to smile for the camera. This was getting hard later on, since the zoo was tough to manage. We saw a tiger with 3 legs limping away – a bear that had some serious conditions and was just shifting his weight from one side to another while swinging the head over the floor, possibly looking for food. Their enclosure was completely made out of concrete, just deep “holes” in the ground with water reservoirs filled with green, slimy water. After this, we passed by when a living duck was fed to a crocodile and was dying in its jaws. I guess we have a different relation to animals and possibly more compassion, or just more knowlegde about the severe damage that animals receive while being inprisoned under such conditions. Therefore we quickly fled from that place heading over to the Clock Tour, which is something like the central meeting point for tourists (but we did’t see any other not-asian tourists) and full of life and street dealers. Later we enjoyed the panorama view at the canyon sight, from where you can see hundreds of giant fruit bats (or flying foxes) with a wingspan of around 1 meter flying at sunset from one mountain where there were hunting back to their sleeping place on some other mountain. You will find some pictures in the gallery, although our camera-zoom is not the best. Quite an Bat-army. While waiting some monkeys shortened the time and were enjoying drinks that they stole from tourist. Fike also got her Coca Cola stolen, but at least we got some nice pictures out of it – they are quite handy those monkeys, the coke bottle was opened in no-time.
There we met Rio, an indonesian guide, which whom we spent the next day on a fun motorbike tour in the surroundings of Bukittinggi- really a beautiful place. Tomorrow more of that.
Ah, if you watch the Flickr gallery on fullscreen, make sure to click under options “always show description” to get some additional info about the picture. Cheers
Descubriendo Bukittingi
Trás un par de horas de descanso en el albergue y de haber medio recuperado las fuerzas, nos adentramos en la ciudad acompañados por Fike, una chica holandesa que también ha sufrido el viaje nocturno en autobús (aparte de nosotros, la única no indonesia en el viaje) Nuestros estomagos vacios dirigen nuestros pasos rumbo al mercado, donde nos lanzamos a la caza un buen “Nasi Goreng”, arroz frito con verduras y huevo, uno de los platos típicos del país (que junto a su variante con pasta frita “Mie Goreng” ya se ha convertido en el desayuno habitual de Erik.)
Bukittinggi (en Bahasa colina alta) se encuentra en el altiplano de Minangkabau, sobre la cordillera Bukitbarisan a 1000 metros sobre el niviel del mar y esto se nota… el clima es muuuucho más agradable. Queremos visitar el “fuerte de la roca”, un antiguo fuerte militar construido por los holandeses y sin saber muy bien cómo ni por qué acabamos en el zoo de Bukittinggi (al parecer las dos atracciones están conectadas). Yo no soy para nada fan de los zoos, pero cuestiones morales aparte, hay zoos y zoos. Este dá pena verlo…queda claro que los derechos de los animales en indonesia son otro mundo…pobres criaturillas! Intentamos cruzar el Zoo buscando la salida, pero no resulta tan sencillo. Al parecer somos una atración para los turistas locales y el mismo juegecito vuelve a repetirse una y otra vez: “Hello Mister! How are you? Can we take photo with you?” (Hello Mister! Que tal está? Podemos sacar Foto con usted?”) No nos molesta en absoluto, al contrario, todos son increiblemente amables y disfrutamos de las pequeñas conversacines en las que podemos practicar nuestras frases en Bahasa, aunque uno no deja de sentirse raro, (más aun estando en el zoo compitiendo en protagonismo con los animales…)
Dejandonos guiar por Fike (que ha hecho los deberes) llegamos a la torre del reloj (construido por los holandeses para colocar el reloj, regalo de la reina de holanda) La plaza está abarrotada de gente, tenderetes y puestos de comida. Dejamos atrás el centro de la ciudad y nos dirigimos al parque del mirador desde donde se tiene una impresionante panorámica del cañón de Sianok. También visitamos los túneles construidos por las fuerzas de ocupación japonesa durante la segunda guerra mundial (que no son nada espectaculares). Es ahí donde conocemos a Rio, un guia local. Nos habla de los zorros voladores, murciélagos gigantes que pueden llegar a medir hasta metro y medio y que cada día sobrevuelan el cañón al caer la noche. Nos dice que tengamos paciencia, que esperemos… y la espera merece la pena: cientos de estos super-murciélagos surcan el cielo mientras el horizonte se tiñe de rojos y morados. Todo un espectáculo!
volver a la galeria de fotos Flickr
