Day 7: Exploring Padang

Since Sunday is pretty much the only day of the week teachers have off here in Indonesia, we went out to explore around Padang - mostly in towns about 2 hours away in the mountains.

We started by going to a traditional Padang building.  Immediately when we got out of the car, I noticed it was cooler outside - not cool, just cooler, which I was thankful for.

Inside they had clothes that are "traditional dress".  Our host and Adi (Yulia's friend), said we should get dressed up right away to beat the rush.  I didn't really know what they meant until we went inside.

Inside they have all these different outfits that typically people wear during Indonesian weddings.  Outfits were picked for us and then we got made up.  This was a bit crazy.  We proceeded to have a photoshoot outside.  Yuilia and Adi knew all the best spots for photos - they had clearly done this before.

You know how I said it was "cooler" here.  It's not so "cooler" once you put on pounds of velvet.  I was ROASTING.  It felt good to be able to breath afterwards.

Jem, my travel buddy, and I had a conversation afterwards about cultural appropriation.  It felt a little bit like that.  I have generally heard that if someone from that culture invites you to participate, then it is OK.  Jem believed it was more so how you acted while doing something from another's culture.  

She had a great analogy to food.  We never blame people for cultural appropriation for trying food from other cultures or even trying to make food from other cultures.  It seems like wearing things from other cultures is where people get in trouble, but I cannot really understand why.  Jem felt like people sometimes are too sensitive but I can see how it might be a blindspot for me or maybe it is like micro-aggressions that while it is "not that big of a deal" - it adds up over time.  I am open to changing my thinking about all of this.  I'd love to hear other's thoughts.

From there we went to another site.  Along the way we stopped for food.  This place had heat below the kettles and then put a kettle of wood on top too so heat was coming from all sides.  I pretty much just wished I had a marshmallow to stick in the fire... gotta love a good s'more anywhere on earth.

Here's the kettle set-up.

These were the result of the double firing.  These were the coconut ones which tasted a lot like macaroons.  They were sweet and had rice flour also in them.  There were also banana and rice flower bika (the name for the food).  Those tasted a lot like banana bread. They were both really good and really filling.

After that, we went to a large overlook of a large lake in the mountains.  Again, we took more pictures.

Pretty much the two words we hear the most here is "let's take a picture" and "are you hungry?"

We tried a bit more traditional food up on the overlook.  Since we had done a lot of mountain travel that involved switchbacks and narrow roads.  I was NOT hungry.  Also, those banana and coconut things were filling.

From there we went to a market to see a clock tower that was donated from the dutch and to, you guessed it, try more food.

Again, I was full and still not really settled from the mountain travel, so Jem and I "shared" a bowl.  It was honestly very similar to what we had yesterday, but the serving situation was a bit different.  There were all these different stands with different women at them with a similar setup.  They were in the middle (see below) and had all these large bowls in front of them.  They served people from there and seats were set-up around the edge.

Again, another "let's take a picture" moment.  Interestingly enough, people seem really excited to "invite the American" to take a picture - one guy at a location just randomly came up to me and said, I want to take a picture of you - and then we took a selfie.   Jem doesn't get asked that at all.  With the guy, I told him Jem was from California and he just kinda looked at her confused since she looks more Indonesian than "American"

In this same area we went to explore some caves and do a bit of shopping.  I bought some fabric to bring home.  Here they use more woven fabric rather than the batik we saw everywhere in Jakarta.  But even as you are looking around, there weren't very many people wearing batik in Padang.  What I did see today was a lot of people wearing jeans and MULTIPLE layers.  Adi even put on a hooded sweatshirt today.  It had to be 80 degrees and humid, so the idea of jeans or a sweatshirt were not of interest to me.  Before I left I just couldn't imagine that people wore "business professional" clothes in this heat without AC.  My roommate kinda told me I might be surprised.  Man, I am!  In my classroom I will go sleeveless when it gets hot, I think tomorrow at school will be rough with long pants and long sleeves.

You cannot really see it in this picture, but there is a huge valley here between the two sides.  Inside the valley is where we headed to next.

Next we traveled to a very off the beaten place for tea.  That's right, more food.

Here was the sign for the place.  It was down some VERY narrow roads.  I don't know how Adi drives there!  The roads looked barely big enough for one car, so when two cars were on the road, one essentially needed to pull off to the ditch.

It was SO beautiful in this place.  It was inside the valley and very very lush.  It was nice to get off the beaten path a bit.

I got a mango "smoothie".  I was a little nervous it would have ice in it or water, but it certainly did not.  It had ton of mango.  It was almost like pureed mango.  It was delish.

More photoshoots.

Today was also the first day I saw a dog in Indonesia.  Typically I expect stray dogs at least, but I didn't see any in Jakarta - neither as pets or as strays.  It was odd.   Out here, in the country, I have seen more strays and a few as pets.

Hungry puppy.

As we drank our tea, the sun started to set.  It was SO pretty!  These photos have no filter.

Since it had rained a bit, the sunset was just beautiful!  

More sunset photos.

From there, we headed back to the hotel which was about a 2-3 hour drive.  To be honest, while we are supposed to be a "citizen diplomat", this diplomat spent much of the driving time fighting to stay awake.  A fight I frequently lost.  Between my capacity/impulse to sleep in cars and the winding roads/full stomach combo, I feel asleep more than I probably should have.

Overall, it was a great day!  We started at 7:30 and got back at 9:30, 10 by the time we got the sim card for our cell phone... long story there.

Tomorrow we start school!