Chasing Cool Forest Mists

Introduction:

Growing up in a college city on the East Coast meant that I was surrounded by many kinds of transportation. Whether it was taking one of the many school buses to get from one campus to another as a hurried college student or walking with my mom to the nearest bus station for a supermarket trip, I knew how to get around. In fact, I could name all the bus stations and their schedules in my city before I could name all fifty states. Now as an adult living in West Sumatra, It's hard for me to see friends when I don't know if the angkot, or bus, is taking me to a rice village or to the city square.

How do people get around?:

In Indonesia, there are so many different ways to get around! Man-powered? Horse-powered? You name it. In addition to the tuk-tuk that I mentioned in last week's logbook, there are bicycle powered carriages, mini buses and private taxis everywhere. But If I were to think of Bukkittinggi as a human body, the motorcycles would be the red blood cells-- filling the streets in between all the cars and traffic.

Motorcycles, or ojeks, far outnumber cars, houses, and maybe even cats in the city. This is very different from what transportation looks like back home, where I had access to trains and large buses. Here in Bukkittinggi, one will find short shuttle buses that are called ankots.

Pages