My First Solo Trip Ever: Padang, West Sumatra

 

I’d always wanted to try solo traveling. The farthest I’d solo traveled was probably to a nearby shopping mall :D

In late 2017, however, I finally got a chance to travel by myself to a foreign city, Padang. Padang is the capital city of West Sumatra, a province I’d never visited before. Was I nervous? Of course! But more than anything, I was excited!

I took the first GA flight to Padang and reached the Minangkabau International Airport at around 11 a.m. This airport is, if I’m not mistaken, the only airport in Indonesia named after a tribe, unlike other airports which are usually named after national heroes. The shape of the main airport building is also unique; it’s shaped as “Rumah Gadang”, the traditional house of the Minangkabau tribe which has horn-shaped roofs. I took an airport cab to go to the hotel, Grand Inna Padang. I chose the hotel because it was within the budget and located near the beach.

Since it was November, rains were to be expected. I spent the first day idling in the hotel room since it was raining cats and dogs.

My adventure began on the second day. I woke up early morning and hailed a Go-jek to take me to Air Manis beach.  This beach is known for a rock formation looking like a prostrating man. Yeah, that ‘man’ is the infamous Malin Kundang. I think everyone who goes to school in Indonesia has already heard of Malin Kundang folklore at least once in their life. But on the slightest chance that you haven’t, this is how the story goes:

Malin Kundang was a poor man living with his poor mother. To change his fate, he decided to go to another city in which he met a rich merchant. That merchant liked Malin and got him married to his daughter. Now, Malin was a rich man and he lived happily with his wife.

Years later, he and his wife sailed to his hometown. Hearing this news, Malin's mother was overjoyed. She ran to the beach to greet her beloved and much missed son. But you know what happened next? Instead of a touching reunion between a mother and a son, what happened was a catastrophe! Malin, who was now rich, felt ashamed to see his mother. He disowned her. He called her insane for saying that he was her son.

The mother, felt brokenhearted and furious, finally cursed Malin into a rock! Malin, slowly turning into a rock, prostrated and begged for his mother’s forgiveness. But it was too late, he became a rock on the Air Manis beach.

Moral of the story? Don't be an evil child and never ever hurt your parents, especially your mother! Another one? Never curse your children, or anyone, seriously!

After taking only two pictures, because the spot was crowded and there were too many tourists waiting in line, I left the Malin Kundang rock and walked along the beach. There were two small islands offshore, I heard that you could walk to the islands when the tide was low. Sadly, I couldn’t do it at that time.

My next stop was Padang Beach. It was drizzling, so I hailed a Go-car instead of Go-jek. When I got there, the drizzle turned into rain, so I decided to take a shelter. I went to a nearby café and ordered a cup of hot chocolate and a bowl of steaming fried Indomie. What’s better than Indomie on a rainy day? Team Mie Sedaap can go fly a kite.

The rain stopped like two hours later. I went back to the beach and saw an old man with a camera hanging on his neck. Since I had no one else to take my pictures, I hired him. He was such a nice old man. He even helped take pictures using my phone. He then introduced me to his wife, a friendly lady from Java. We chatted while waiting for them printing my pictures.

After paying and saying thank you, I continued my journey to Sitti Nurbaya bridge. Aside from Malin Kundang, Sitti Nurbaya is another well-known fictional character from West Sumatra, “What? You want me to have an arranged marriage? I’m not Siti Nurbaya!” You’ll hear this line a lot in Indonesian soap operas. But what if I told you Sitti Nurbaya’s parents, in this case father, didn’t arrange her marriage? It was in fact Siti Nurbaya who offered herself to marry Datuk Maringgih to help his father. Don’t believe me? Read the book yourself hehe.

 

Okay, back to the bridge! It is a beautiful long bridge stretching over Batang Arau river. Small boats can pass under it. This bridge was named after Sitti Nurbaya because it’s located not far from Mount Padang, one of the settings of the novel.  It was around sunset when I got there. The sky was astonishing. I actually took a lot of pictures, but my phone got broken, and I lost them. I only have a few pictures left, the ones I uploaded on Instagram. Feeling hungry, I bought roasted corn from a street vendor on the bridge. It was such a lovely evening!

 

The next day, before going back to Jakarta, I visited one more place: Adityawarman Museum. The museum was within walking distance from the hotel. It was almost empty when I got there, only a couple of other tourists. I entered the Rumah Gadang museum and observed the items on display. To be honest, I don’t really remember what all I saw there, but one that really stole my attention was a life-size stuffed Sumatran tiger. I read the text written on the box, “….critically endangered…” It reminded me of all the news talking about tigers being trapped, hunted, killed. Humans are the most dangerous animal, don’t you think?

 

I ended my solo trip in Padang by taking a selfie in front of the museum. Yeah, a selfie, I was too shy to ask a stranger to help me. It was my first solo trip ever, after all, haha.