A couple of long (but pretty) days in the car through coffee, ginger, pineapple and corn plantations, rice paddies and gold mining country got us to Bukittingi. Along the way we picked up some ferocious knives made from truck springs from a forge on the side of the road plus some 18?? dutch coins that had been fished out of the river by a fellow who had been panning for gold for 30 years. (He had children so obviously hadn’t spent the whole 30 years in the river.) Once ensconced at the very flash Bukkitinggi Hills Novotel, we took a trip to see the tunnels that the Japanese soldiers had Indonesian slaves dig - 1470m of tunnel (possibly 5kms) where they lived and stored ammunition from 1942-45.

 

The next day we had a walk through the Bukittingi township and the zoo. Appalling conditions. Lots of very sad and crazy animals. Not to be recommended.