Jakarta Indonesia

Click on pictures to expand them

Impressive buildings in Jakarta city centre. Note the bus with the advert for BBC.

Allan and Margaret in the museum under the Independence Tower, admiring the Indonesia Declaration of Independence.

The old town of Batavia preserved in Jakarta. The Dutch colonial restaurant called the Batavia Cafe is still serving excellent meals.

A happy couple having their wedding photographs taken in the old town of Batavia

Bukittinggi Pictures: Indonesia

Click on pictures to expand them    

Margeret travelling through the Bukittinggi jungle to find the giant raffleasia flower.

Terraced rice fields in the mountains surrounding Bulittinggi.

Margaret in a traditional Buggittinggi village. The curved and pointed roofs are built to resemble the horns of the water buffalo. Outside some bigger houses there are separate rice storage barns. The more barns outside a house the wealthier the owner. 

The Royal Palace of the Sultan of Bukittinggi. The orginial palace was burned down and this new one was built in another location and expanded to allow more visitors.  Under the eaves millions of wild bees covered the honeycomb. 

The wonderfully friendly people of Bukittinggi. Students talked to practice their English and families chatted about where we came from and asked about Scotland.

Delighted boys show us their catch.

Journey from Lake Toba to the Equator in West Sumatra Indonesia.

Click on pictures to expand them

Beautiful Lake Toba surrounded by high mountains that are the remains of the volcano rim. Allan relaxing on the shore of the island of Samosir. The island is the result of much later volcanic erruptions. Samosir is the same size as Singapore.

Margaret on the balcony of the traditional Batak house we stayed in on Samosir. The basic but comfortable interior of our Liberta Homestay house. It was great to lay down our rucksacks for a few days in this very friendly place.   

Students we met on Samosir. They were friendly, polite and asked intelligent questions – lovely kids. Behind them is a satellite dish pointing at the equatorial orbiting satellites. The receiver is just a few degrees off the verticle. A modern house with a traditional style Batak roof.

Some of the wonderfully friendly people we met in Sidempuan, a provincial market town, in West Sumatra.

Margaret crashing through the equatorial jungle. TV receiver dish on the equator pointing vertically upwards. These mesh dishes are also excellent for drying fish!