Bungus Beach at the end of a wonderful day.

The best thing about little places is the big surprises they have in store for you.

I had no idea about Bungus Beach, except that it was quiet. And I'd seen pictures and read stuff on the internet.  No tv, no fancy stuff. Which was what I was looking for. Quiet beach; hopefully no other holiday makers: just mingle with the locals.

And that was exactly what I found on this little bay facing the Andaman Sea.

Each evening, the fishermen in the area work together to bring in the catch. That evening, there were some five other fishermen pulling the net in.  So synchronised, so rhythmic. Such a lucky break for me. Yaayy!

 

a beautiful waterfall in Sumatra - people

Our trek up Lubuk Hitam, and generally our stay in Bungus Beach was all the more memorable through people, locals and fellow travellers, that we met there. :)

Hady and Taufik whom we met on our way up to Lubuk Hitam waterfalls - a three tiered waterfall just a few kilometers from Bungus Beach. The bay in the background opens to the Indian Ocean. A fantastic view on the way to the waterfalls.


Yanti, an ultra-cheerful, ultra friendly local girl, who offered us a ride back to our losmen. I had lost my sandals on the trek up the waterfalls, and was walking on the road in socks! This picture was taken by David, a French sailor/traveller, waiting for his boat from Thailand to pick him up en route to Madagascar!


David took this picture of us. C'est cool! The structure behind us is a restaurant that Raoul is building. He has big dreams for his little losmen!


One of the many many bathing pools along the river leading up to the waterfall..

.... teeming with nibbling fish!

a beautiful waterfall in Sumatra - Lubuk Hitam

Literally means Black Hole. Scary name eh. Maybe the locals just have a black sense of humor :) or it could reflect a darker past, in which case I prefer not to know...

We were in this part of Sumatra over the labour day weekend (30 April - 3 May 2009). It's a lovely place that I would like to come back to... after I'm done visiting a lot other places (on my places to visit before I die list) in South East Asia.

I'm putting this up because of the recent earthquake in Padang. :(

During our short stay there, we made friends with a few locals and a fellow traveller. When I heard about the earthquake, I sent text to Raoul, the guy who ran the losmen (Losmen Tintin) where we stayed. No reply. The next day I sent a message on his facebook. Still no reply. I was sorry that I might have lost a friend. Then 3 days later he sent me a message on facebook saying he and his family were ok!! Relief! :)

The trip :
I didn't want to do the tourist routine - going to Bukit Tinggi - as on the flight to Padang, I heard the others talking about going there. But even before I knew just exactly how many planned to go to Bukit Tinggi, I'd already decided I wanted to do something different. Something the locals would probably do - go to the waterfalls on a Saturday morning :)

I had checked online, and I checked again with Raoul. He confirmed that there was a waterfall nearby, but that we'd have to do it on our own. No matter. :) more fun that way :)

He did get a friend to give us a ride to the waterfall tho. And what a ride! Three on a motorbike, helmetless, zipping on a narrow meandering road through a picturesque village. Definitely no regrets there! :) I think it cost us Rupiah3000, but one can negotiate down :)

The early part of the trail was easy enough to get through.


Parts of the trail ran alongside the river. There were quite a number of locals bathing in the river. In their underwear or nothing at all. I was too polite to take pictures :)


It rained earlier in the morning, at dawn, so as we got closer to the waterfall, the climbing became a bit harder not because of anything else but the wet boulders. Some of them were huge and mossy and so slippery! Good thing we met some local boys who were on their way up - for their morning bath! - and they offered to help us :) pretty good huh? :)


The place where we stopped gave us a lovely view of the waterfall. The boys stripped down to their underwear. I think if we hadn't been around they'd probably have gone au naturel :)


The sound of the waterfall was lovely. I can still hear it in my head if I concentrate just so :)

a beautiful beach on Sumatra - Bungus and losmen tin tin

Bungus Beach on the west coast of Sumatra is a lovely place to spend a quiet quiet weekend. We were there labour day weekend (May 2009).

We stayed at Losmen Tin tin, a lesser known losmen about 500m down the road from the more popular Losmen Carlos. It turned out to be a good choice for us :)

The owner is a very friendly local, whose real name is Azrul, but he says it's easier to call him Raoul.


How about breakfast by the beach?

He made banana pancakes for breakfast for us :) So much much nicer than toast and coffee! I thought the pancake was really nice, but then again when you're on holiday, breakfast with a view of the sea, everything looks better, tastes better, sounds better... :)

In the evening, he got us to sing along with him on guitar, David on harmonica, Jalidah on (home-made) maracas and me with my point and click camera! He has quite a repertoire of music songs! Does requests too :) from the likes of Siti Nurhaliza to Pearl Jam!! Impressive!

Earlier in the evening, I had taken a walk down the beach and how! I wish there were beaches like this back home...

I had booked a room in advance via email to Raoul. I was surprised at how fast he replied my queries! When we got there, he showed us two rooms. One was bigger but we picked the one facing the bay (no brainer there right?)

Precious Raoul bought that yellow towel just before we arrived! It still had the supermarket price tag on it!

I had my eye on that blue sampan (kayak) and next day, Raoul said we could go for a quick paddle if we liked. We plead with David and reluctant he was at first, he finally relented!! Poor him. Jalidah and I were quite useless with the paddles and the poor thing had to struggle so hard paddling against the strong current so that we didn't get carried out to the open sea! It was bloody hot too!! What with the 3 0'clock sun beating down on our backs!!

I thought even the dead leaves look pretty on this charming beach fronting the Indian Ocean! Sigh. I would definitely go back again :)