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Thu -back to Bukitttingi - fixed my memory card | |||
| Chinese Massacre Story Another reason why no tourists
I met a local who now lives in America, they left behind a big house and factory in Bukitingi.. For a better life in US I suppose .
| Then a dark story I emerged : There was tension between Chinese and non Chinese, largely cos people jealous of the hardworking Chines wealth. Already the government had forbidden Chinese names and customs like speaking Chinese. So they had to change their religion to Christian and take Christian names. In 1994 the father sent the children to be educated in Singapore. In 1998 anti-Chinese protests broke out probably fueled by local politicians. Mobs roamed the streets looking for Chinese things to destroy. The boy gets a call telling him to come back cos robbers have killed his mother and the police have arrested his father. 9 years later people are friendly and sympathised with the boy , but he said they were part of the mob that provided the cover for the robbers so he hated the towns people. I knew hundreds of people had been killed in Jakarta, but didn't realise it was the same for small towns. No wonder now Indonesia gets so few tourists from it's rich neighbor Singapore where most people are ethnic Chinese. And no wonder foreigners are quite scarce; a country isn't safe if mobs can be stirred up like this.
Fri - One Person motor bike tour for $12 | Minang Kabau Tour with Andre
Some offices were offering local region tours for $12, but when I asked they said since they had no tourists it would be better tomorrow. I didn't want to wait a day so they came up with a deal: The guide would take me on his motorbike for the same price.
| Wow .. It wasn't a great great tour .. It was quite a long drive and Half the sights were boring but certainly OK for $12 First we stopped a viewpoint showing the wavy landscape. Then stopped at a village market Then to a waterwheel powered coffee crusher that the Dutch built 100 years ago - Some videos inside coffee crusher, coffeecrusher waterwheel , coffeewheel, Past a collection of stone pillars to Minang Meeting house (Central goververnment money does go to each village to maintain meeting houses)
- to the Kings rebuilt house |
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- to another village where they still have a number of traditional longhouses
- to a lake for tea - not so interesting, then a village where they make souvenirs weaving and wood carving.
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Sat - computer fix - nightmare bus to Lake Tauba|
- When I told the hotel owner about fixing the virus, he asked if I could fix his PC. A first look removed 300 viruses, but I wasn't completely happy as it still left a couple. I recommended a reinstall of windows to completely fix. But as ever this got more complicated, a pirate CD, not enough memory space, and it also needed a reinstall of MS office, so I was running for the bus . I needn't have worried : normal bus fart around.
| Reason for no tourists in Indonesia #5 Bad buses- |
OK I don't like long bus journies, but this will be only $12 for 14 hours on the Trans- Sumatran Highway . That has to be a big road doesn't it ? | Be there at 5.30pm the bus will leave at 6pm and arrive at 8am. Well the bus arrived at 6.15pm left at 7.15pm and arrived at 11am. ie 17 hours not 14, however I was lucky the day before it took 22 hours and the day before that 27 hours. Executive turned out not to be the same quality as Malaysia but a normal rough bus. Apparently it's only 2 +2 seats wide, wheras economy is 3+3. Well as soon as we started going someone passed the kid through so I only had 3/4 of a seat. Executive means aircon, which means continuous circulation of smoke since all men smoke inside the bus, the guy behind me continually held a lit cigarette in his palm so the smoke rose straight up my nose. take a face mask. It was the tobacco that made me feel sick, but a few miles out of town we hit some wavy corner and people started puking some onto the floor. After 2 hours we stopped for an hour for the driver to eat. After another 1hour now 11pm we stopped for another hour for everyone else to eat. I thought in the middle of the night we must have left the road and started driving on a jungle track; turns out we were driving around a landslip. Typically iin the morning 20Km before my destination we stopped for another hour for breakfast. Of course by the time I arrived I was absolutely knackered and had to spend a day and half recovering. So $1 an hour isn't cheap they should pay you to ride those buses. Reason for no tourists in Indonesia #6 Natural Disasters | Earthquake Postscript
2 weeks after I left the area, there was a reasonable size earthquake killing 70 people. Apparently this closed the airport for a day, and damaged the Japanese tunnels. It goes to show what can happen in these areas which are much more prone to disasters than Europe. The geography means theres occasional earthquakes, volcano eruptions, flooding, mudslides etc but cos Indonesia is broken there's also less abilty to deal with them
| Another nail in the coffin of tourism. |
