A letter from Sumatra: 1993-part I

My brother Chris suprised me this afternoon by pulling out a letter I had written him back in 1993. It was sent from Lake Meninjau on the coast of Sumatra. I was travelling through Indonesia with an American friend Mark and we were having the time of our lives. Here is what I wrote.

‘I’m in Meninjau Sumatra, on Lake Meninjau. Mark and I took the ferry from Java and got a bus up to Padang, Sumatra. We heard from other travelers that the best part of Sumatra wass the NW, so that’s where we headed. The bus took about 20 hours and was fairly comfortable, being air-conditioned.

Padang is a port and the home of ‘Padang food’, which is the traditional Sumatran food. It consists of a plate of white rice and many small plates of fish, meat, spinach and various curried items, that are set in front of you. The problem for me is that everything is loaded with chili and the plates you don’t take from are put back in the display cabinet, and given to the next person.

I like the tradtional Indonesian food which is cooked individually: gado gado, which is rice, salad in peanut sauce, or nasi goreng, which is fried rice with prawn crackers.

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