Unbelievable fly all the way and then back
| Tue - We left at 3pm flew all the way in clear weather over Sumatra began to land and then suddenly 2 minutes before we hit a storm suddenly zero visibility . It was as if the pilot panicked Whoomph we went into a steep climb. I guess we didn't have instrument landing so the pilot wanted to get high enough to see. We circled again we could see the city of Padang and this time I could see the runway 2Km away before doing the same as before : hit the storm and climbed. This time the plane couldn't land. Again unbelievable I had never been expecting to be back in Singapore at 5pm | At 7pm we left again arriving OK. taxi driver chaos and trying to calculate money.. eventually hotel.
Met Paul an interesting story of how his family moved from Bukittingi to the US
|
Wed - Padang City | Hot, dirty, busy, noisey, untidy, unquaint typical of SE Asian cities.
| (we woke early cos the hotel is right next to market and load motorcycle parking) .. It's Cheap, but the owner is great. | I walked around Padang : to the Museum, market etc  Women Sorting Chilli at the Market |
Going to Bukittingi - bus is cheap 50p for 2 hours, but hassle |
Bus fart around cos the new terminal is too far out of town buses actually pickup at the shopping plaza, but today the police were out in force to stop buses picking up in the street ..to Bukittingi, bus breakdown.
| Hotel search, walked around. ..It must have grown since Lonely Planet wrote it's a quaint market town, now an unattractive bustling city until you see the Panaroma Gardens nice view internet café wiped my memory card
| 
Back up ! full article ..
| Thursday walking tour of town with Paul
|
Walked around - Crappy Military Museum, Panorama Gardens OK, Japanese tunnels OK , Fort - nothing to see except a bit of a view, pretty boring sad zoo | Bukittingi Panorama VIDEO  panorama in Bukittingi Since Bukittingi wasn't quaint I decided to push on to Volcano Lake Maninjau 30Km away in the afternoon. Normal bus fart around. |