From Batam via Pekanbaru and Bukittingi to Bengkulu

Our trip back from the South-East-Asian Youth Red Cross meeting was a four day adventure in itself.

We went from Batam near Singapore with a Ferry to the ferry port for Pekanbaru, then took a bad road in an old bus to Pekanbaru itself, there we staid a night in the Ibis hotel, bought a laptop for a friend in Bengkulu, then continued our journey on to Bukittingi by „travel“ a Toyota Kijang we shared with 7 passengers.

The ferry ride was comfortable and the ferry port was not to bad. on the port the guys leaned out of the counter and cried for people to come an travel with them. Reminded a little of the Hamburg fish market except that they sold ferry tickets and not fish.

The bus trip then from Pekanbarus Ferry Port to Pekanbaru was an adventure. Often the road was just gravel and I sat on the last row with an open door next to me, sometimes fearing that I would fall out. From Padang to Bukittingi we enjoeyed some of the most

In Bukittingi we wanted to travel on the next afternoon by travel to Padang and take the bus or travel from there. But we were informed that a landslide was blocking the road and there was no option to go to Padang. Luckily we found a travel that would go the next morning to Bengkulu directly.

Butkittingi is a very beautiful little city in the hills of Sumatra, it has gorgeous scenery, a great hotel „the hills“ and is a little bit touristy in the sense that it offers the necessary facilities but not that you are constantly followed by people wanting to sell stuff. Foreigners are still a little attractions among the Indonesian tourists here. Tourist attractions include the bull shaped roofs of the many houses and the Mingkanbau culture.

More Information about Bukittingi is available at the Wikitravel

In Batam we got a huge model of one of these bridges the Batam People are very proud of, but its nearly one meter long and we have to carry it all along. Let us hope this souvenir will survive the trip back to Bengkulu and that we eventually find a good place to store it.

More Fotos vom Batam and more fotos from our Trip.