Bumi Minang

Just came back from Padang, Sumatera Barat, after a week long of routine visit to an oil palm estate located about 200 over km from the place infamous of Nasi Padang. That 200 over km took us about 8 hours by road from Padang. The flight by AirAsia from LCCT took merely an hour but the road journey was the one which was really killing us. The driver who drove us in was a young Indonesian in his mid twenties, driving like a daredevil on a narrow and winding road across the main range of Sumatera south ward to Solok Selatan. We stopped for a few time for coffee so as to keep the chauffeur alert, otherwise we might end up in the ravine somewhere if this driver felt asleep while driving. In one instance, this guy overtook 4 or 5 slow moving lorries climbing up a steep and narrow road at one go, that really make my balls shrunk.

But despite of the horrible driving style of the Indonesian drivers and also narrow road conditions, hardly I see any major occurrence of road accident when I was there. Perhaps these people are more considerate and let the faster vehicles to overtake them. Or perhaps the roads were too bad and always full of slow moving lorries that actually prevent passenger cars from going too fast. I remember an old planter told me a dirty joke many years ago. He said if you are in Indonesia, you see 'Jalan berlubang-lubang', literally means road filled with potholes. But if you are in Thailand, you will see 'Lubang berjalan-jalan', meaning holes are walking around. That old cheeky fellow sure frequenting those walking-holes when he was in Thailand.

When I was back in Padang town a night before flying back here, I went to Matahari departmental store to look see. It was a medium size shopping center but full of people. I managed to buy two pieces of blouse for my wife which kept her happy over the past weekend.