To Tame A Volcano

Set off for the budget terminal after a night without sleep. The flight was pretty short, a little less than an hour.

Sometimes, the point that Singapore is minute, is really driven home.

Imagine: a couple of minutes after takeoff and we're out of singapore airspace. Rest of the time, we were over sumatra airspace. And considering Sumatra isn't that huge either, that's kinda how small our little red dot is.

Over the clouds over somewhere in sumatra.

Landing at Padang.

It's not too clear in the pic, but basically there were sporadic coconut and rice plantations all over the place. Padang is on the west coast of Sumatra, and with a nice surfing beach nearby, most of the people on our flight were Caucasians with surfboards.

Padang airport is REALLY small. think... something like the size of a standard-sized football field, plus a runway twice the length - which is really short for airplanes. After we landed, felt like the plane had to e-brake, then make a super funky u-turn. First time that I saw a plane u-turn.

And we boarded:

Our Chauffeur bus.

This was one of the main costs of the trip. For 80sgd per pax, the bus picked us up from airport and sent us wherever we wanted for four days. Which figures out to be very worth it as the trip to the foot of the volcano takes minimum 6 hours.


About half an hour of bus ride, and we reached our lunch destination. Food was cheap, we paid about 4 bucks per pax but you just had to turn your mind off from the flies all over the place. Suspension of hygiene analysis was necessary to truly enjoy the meal, which we did. ^_^

The food in the foreground, and Jon Lin + Yinhao (aka Jonlin's bf) in e background.

Kerinci Lake - about halfway to our destination.

And we arrived at Kersik Tuo, a village at the foot of the volcano. It was dark, so I didn't bother taking any photos as I hadn't brought a charger, and the battery had to last me four days. We checked into a homestay (for 5sgd per night o_O) and had IndoMee @ what seemed like a popular local hangout spot for 0.80sgd per bowl. Also saw some really nice motorbikes just outside the humble spot, all nicely customized and full of character.

After a comfy sleep at the homestay, where the temp was 20+ degrees, Cheuk Fong (I'll intro him later) and I were the only ones who had a good nights' sleep, while the rest didn't sleep well.

Good morning Kerinci!

Clouds blocking the peak from view.
Tea plantations all over the place.

Moo Moo.

Went to get some supplies, and this nice Encik agreed to a shot of his shop.

On the way to start our climb.

Cheuk Fong & I @ the foot.

Small world it is. I joined the expedition extremely randomly - I was randomly asked out of nowhere, and I agreed and bought an air ticket just as randomly out of nowhere. And it happened that one other member on the team was an old schoolmate @TCHS. We used to call him 铁奶 (or iron chest) which he claims to have become 豆腐奶. lol.

Anyway we've got a very diverse group, with an ex-commando, an ex-medic, a chinese instruments instructor, a translator, an adventurous princess, a just-out-of-hospital but insist-on-trying patient, and...... me. I don't know what I'm good for -___-|||

Landmark at entry.

Mr Tong, taking over the tent after I took it for a couple of hours and gave up. And adding insult to injury, I asked a couple of times if he could handle it and he hardly noticed any additional weight. *>_<

Terrain was very muddy and excessive vegetation as you can see. Considered not too difficult already, but a few of us must be crazy to try this the first time.

First major stop for lunch!

Combat Rations!

Something many of us sg guys r familiar with.

I started getting restless after lunch and started climbing around the trees to take photos.

Not a very clear view, but it's Kersik Tuo down there.

Or at least I think.

Treetop Frolicking.

I likes climbings trees!

Da view from the treetop.

And a nice view through a valley on the way further up.

As the sun sets.

And we stopped near Camp 2, as we couldn't exactly go much further. According to the guide, we're probably champions for the slowest group ever. But still good, as everyone put in their best effort.

Only sad thing is that Cheuk Fong and I who wanted to head to the peak couldn't as the guide didn't want us to separate with the group as he was responsible for the safety of everyone.

Tents up, one for guys, one for gals and the guide had his own.

Campfire, with flash.

And without. Well can't really see much eh.

Now.

Let's talk about the night.

That night was probably the harshest night ever in my life. I underestimated the difficulty of the night, as I used to savour in the sub-5 degrees air in tw with a normal buttoned shirt and nothing more. To summarise:

I sweat a lot, water consumption higher, or I will dehydrate. DID NOT PREPARE ENOUGH. I prepared 6 litres, which was enough for a normal person, but not me. In the thin air at the top (we reached 3km above sea level), you lose more water than under normal circumstances. As you dehydrate, your body functions start to fail one by one. And when that happens, no matter how well you cover your body, you will still feel cold.

That's what happened to me. Once again I felt close to death, wondering if I would make it. Went to bed from 9pm to 5am, waking up for 15 minutes 7-8 times. It was so tough that at some point I was thinking about how I've settled all my outstanding affairs, checking to make sure that nothing's been left out.

At 5am, while everyone was still sleeping, I sat down beside the guide and looked on as he started a fire - and that's when I started feeling better. However, I depleted all my water by then, and had to rely on "donations" from others who didn't drink as much.

What a night.

Breakfast around the campfire at around 7am.

Us all, setting off downhill from camp @9am.

Yes, that's me in the back in singlet. People think I'm crazy, but under normal circumstances I have an extreme tolerance for cold (temp was between 5-10 deg). I had recovered from the previous night's dehydration by then.

Kersik Tuo, another POV.

Rest at midway.

At this point, one of us, Lianne (aka lianneisthebest), had her chronic knee injuries, and we were slowed down quite significantly. So, our guide took the risk to let us move on ahead while he accompanied Lianne, after telling directions to Iwan, the Indonesian Chinese in our group (also our friendly translator).

However, the directions were not too easy to follow. When we almost took a wrong turn, I pointed out that the direction was wrong, and stepped up to lead the group. I have to say, back into a leading position was when I felt most comfortable. Like a fish in water. I eventually got everyone out of the forest just as I promised.

It wasn't photographic memory that helped us get out. I just casually looked at my compass on the way up, so I knew the general direction up (and thus down). When I led them out, it was simple - follow a general direction (south) and make sure we're going downhill. 2 simple rules and a compass was all I needed to get us out. Feeling was great when I saw the end of the forest - felt accomplishing to have led for the last leg.

Stepping out of the forest.

Our bus was waiting near the foot of the volcano, and gave us a comfy ride back to our homestay, where we had a good bath and had some IndoMee (again!) for lunch@4pm, which we did not take on the way down, as an additional incentive for us to move on.

X marks the spot!

And that's the highest point we reached, where we camped for the night.

Beautiful Volcano Sunset.

Sorry I screwed the colours trying to blend like 7 photos together.

And we drove into the night from 530pm, and reached Padang City, a suburban town, and spent the night in a 3-star hotel - which was a luxury after the climb. Watched Goodfellas on HBO till 2am, before turning in for the night.

Leaving Padang City
for the airport.