The long and winding road to spectacular Lake Maninjau

By Simon Marcus Gower

MANINJAU, West Sumatra (JP): Local people will tell you it's better to visit on a sunny day. Guidebooks warn against traveling there when skies are gray and clouds are low.

But local people and guidebooks do not always consider the possibility that inclement weather might be appealing. True, on a clear day spectacular views may be enjoyed of Lake Maninjau sitting in a deep and wide crater, but if peace and quiet is sought then breathtakingly spectacular views are not necessarily a priority.

Lake Maninjau lies 50 kilometers north of Padang in West Sumatra. Less famed than Sumatra's largest lake, Lake Toba, and more remote than Singkarak, Sumatra's second largest lake that lies only 20 kilometers away, Maninjau boasts a quite different appeal. Both of those vast inland expanses of water have a scale and mountainous landscape that inevitably impress. Maninjau, Sumatra's third largest lake, has a more enclosed and secluded appearance, the effect of which is added to by a misty and cloud- covered day.

Traveling to Maninjau, rice fields intermingle with thickly forested hillsides. Volcanic outcrops of rock silhouette the skyline and farmers work the fertile land with their buffaloes heavily plodding through the muddy, shimmering soil as they pull aged ploughs. The hilly and volcanic terrain has forced road builders to cut their roads into hillsides and weave them around beautiful but uncompromisingly difficult terrain.

One soon becomes used to the pitching and rolling from side to side as these often-precarious roads are negotiated. Short crash barriers line many of the sharper twists and turns but often there is no barrier between the asphalt road edge and a sharp and long fall to the rice-fields below. Occasionally small villages are encountered sitting in sheltered valleys. One such village being particularly noteworthy for its large domed mosque.

As one sweeps up and around it on the road cut into the surrounding hills one is glad of expert driving and a good road- holding vehicle. A moment's lapse in concentration could easily see a vehicle plummet into the mosque's dome that shines so on a misty day. These winding roads are, then, quite a challenge but the road down to Lake Maninjau is quite a unique challenge.

It is far down too to get to the lakeside. Houses and mosques lie deep down below, and from the crater's edge they look like tiny toys or models on a child's train set. Eyes cannot rest long on these villages because as soon as the descent to the lake begins the challenge of the road ahead is met. Hairpin bends weave their way down the steep slope, but not just one or two but 44 complete U-turning bends.

At first these turns are a novelty, but after the first 10 or so queasiness may begin to set in. At times the road drops by as much as a 45-degree angle. No great speed can be made up as you take these turns, but the swinging back and for as the road goes in one direction and then makes a turn to be heading in the opposite direction is quite disorientating.

Some local inhabitants have worked out the honking of horns of vehicles navigating the turns may have another meaning, namely food. Dozens of monkeys emerge from the surrounding undergrowth. Some frantically run alongside the passing vehicles while others, perhaps older and wiser, simply stroll along and patiently wait.

The change in altitude and air pressure combined with the dizzying, twisting road means that the straightening of the road to finally reach the level of the lake is a real relief. The stillness and calm of the lake and the feeling that one has arrived at a different, almost time-forgotten part of Indonesia increase this feeling.

Nearer to the lakeshore there are small homestays but they are mostly deserted.

"We still get backpackers here," claimed the owner of a small cafe with a full menu of Indonesian, Chinese and Western dishes.

However, he was interested to know that we had traveled from Jakarta and complained about all the upheaval in the capital.

Village life

It is a village and a small, community atmosphere resides over and around the lake. On the shores of the lake are relatively few concessions to tourism. There are small hotels and homestays but local amenities are as prominent. A local school stands near the lake and thus red and white uniformed children are more in evidence than foreign visitors. Also, about 100 meters from the lake's waters is a small prison, which is not likely to attract visitors but does attract local people who are directly employed there or are able to sell their cooked food or grocery supplies on the jail's doorstep.

Down by the lake there is evidence that Maninjau is a place of natural beauty, unspoiled by tourist developments. There are no boats for hire or speedboats or jet-skis here. The waters are quiet and calming as they lap up to the lakeshore. This huge mass of gently rippling water is almost entirely devoid of vessels.

Occasionally tiny one-man canoes paddle across the vast stretch of water. The fishermen cast their nets and gather their catches but are so distant that they are seen but not heard. On the pebble-strewn lakeside a gaggle of geese or two may be seen waddling by but little breaks the calm.

Even with the onset of gentle drizzle shelter under a nearby tree allows the contemplative peace to continue. A mist lightly dusts the thick greenery of the trees that cover the surrounding hills. The slowly rolling cloud cover seems to act as a lid on top of the crater. Watching the one or two fishermen paddle, almost in slow motion, across the lake, the soft splashing of the water on the pebbled shore creates a meditation-like peacefulness. The rest of the world seems remote and even a distant memory.

Soon, however, this must come to an end and one must face the challenge of those 44 hairpin turns to get up and out of Maninjau's crater. Maninjau will remain in its restful, nearly timeless way, and anytime peace and time out from our busy and often manic world is needed Maninjau will offer a meditational kind of relief. The road may be long and winding but it is worth the ride.