west sumatra, baby!

oh, this silly young lady completely forgot to share her trip to padang!! what a shame..

i went to padang during christmas vacation. on that 3-day trip, i managed to visit some places in padang. actually i think i've explored almost 50% of the region on the second day. it could have been more actually but with the fact that i traveled with a 14-month old baby, it was quite satisfying to me. i was so happy since it's the first time i went to another island in indonesia.

• pantai muaro padang: it's just like a common beach. but the wave was pretty big and i love that it had lots of food stalls providing seats with big umbrella along the shore line. 
• lembah anai: there were many wild monkeys around there. the weather was really nice and there was a small waterfall. it's a good place to take a rest when you drive all over the region.
• istana pagaruyung: it's a big palace with the shape of rumah gadang (traditional house from west sumatra). it was really huge and breathtaking, especially because at that moment it was foggy. when i visited, it was under construction since last year it was burned down due to lightning strike. 
• lembah harau: this place is beyond my imagination. so you can see magnificent valley here with many many waterfalls on each side of the valley. i think, king king movie should have shot their scenes here. 
• payakumbuh: we just passed by this place but i told you, they've got the best sweet corn ever. we bought boiled sweet corn and perkedel jagung manis and the taste could really make me happy.
• ngarai sianok: this canyon was unbelievably pretty. between the canyon, there was a small river running through. i wish i could walk on the riverside.
• jam gadang bukittinggi: its a downtown which had a big clock as a symbol of the city. since it's a downtown, you'd see bunch of people selling stuff. this was the place i liked the least, just because i didn't really fancy the crowd. 

apart form those visitations, what we did were just buying boxes of crisps for friends, visiting relatives, and of course eat. i mentioned in a post that i will feel this unusual happiness when i can eat food in it's origin. finally it happened again after that bakso uleng temanggung time. i finally ate sate padang in padang!!!

ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh it was so delicious and cheap. the sauce was a bit darker than sate padang sold in jakarta. but one of my relatives said that the sauce color will be different in different region in west sumatra. and also they had different way of serving the sate compare to what we usually have in jakarta. so basically they put a full plate of sate and let us eat as many as possible and then they would count the leftover when it's about time to pay. and the unique thing was the way they count, they used local language with that unique accent. i could hardly hold my laughter.