A Very Interesting Day.

Thursday, October 25. It's morning and Marty's out improvising. He's trying to fly to Padang, our next stop. Padang on the Indian Ocean puts us only two hours away from Bukittinggi, Goggle it, should be a highlight - a full stop to sightsee up close.

The problem is this - Padang is a ten-hour bus ride from here unless he can find for a way for us to fly there. A third choice is to scrounge up a driver. I'm in the hotel writing this while Marty's out doing the hard organizational work. It's not lost on us that this is not really hard, close-to-the-ground travel. If we don't want to endure hugely long rides, we can always resort to flights and drivers.

Marty's back. No flights. No busses. It's a national holiday tomorrow and everything is booked. But he found a driver. We're off on a 12 hour drive direct to Bukittinggi!

We are now in the car and this has to be the smoothest, safest driver Marty and I have ever experienced. In most emerging nations traffic is controlled chaos and insanity. Controlled in the sense that everyone understands how the game is played. But it's incomprehensible to us Westerners. Don't believe me? Look up traffic in India on You Tube. This guy's car is fueled by gas, not testosterone.

We just stopped at Muara Jambi, Sumatra's most important historical site for Hindu and Buddhist temples and temple remains, some dating back 1,000 years. Fast visit. Back on the road now. We shouldn't have gone there, as important as the place is. We were told it's right in the way. It wasn't. An hour and a half out of the the way. This means we get to Bukittinggi around midnight.

It's now 3pm here. Our car is stopped in line, but there's no clue how long the line is or why. Just found out why from a biker coming in the opposite direction - construction ahead. Bikes are cutting through. If I had to guess the ratio of motorcycles, scooters and motorbikes to cars and trucks in Indonesia, I'd guess four two wheelers for every car or truck. At every big city traffic light they weave and push to the front, then fly off like a swarm of bees. In moving traffic on the highways they dart in and out often faster than the vehicles, yet these are almost all low-powered, low-displacement bikes. The highways are crappy at best. Never more than two lanes, at least on Sumatra so far.

We're here! It's 1:30 am and we just checked in to The Hills Hotel. Tired and happy. It was a fascinating 13-hour ride.