Padang – devastation

Returning from our paradise island adventure we spent the next few days in Padang to catch up on a bit of work.

I became used to seeing the earthquake damage in Sungai Geringging.  Padang was something different, it was on a completely different scale.  Obviously being a city many larger buildings were damaged and destroyed.  Padang had the majority of casualities from the earthquake, just over 300 of the 1100+ fatalities were in Padang.

Below is/was Ambocang Hotel, apparently the worst hit large building in the city.  Completely destroyed, the second floor became the ground floor after the quake.

We stayed at the Sriwijaya Hotel.  Other than a few cracks it had avoided the earthquake.  It was more like a government worker office than hotel, I think this was due to it being undamaged, modern and with quick internet.  Fairly pricey at 300,000Rp for a twin room.

Padang grew on me – I liked the food, I thought the city was nicely laid out with wide streets and the people were really friendly and happy.  The place has a lot of potential.

One place to avoid; Fella’s Bar – an expat/tourist bar.  Overpriced and poor quality.

I’m into the fourth month of the trip and my brain hasn’t been tested much in that time.  I was beginning to feel slightly brain dead so I thought it was time to set myself some tasks.

1. Brush up on my French

2. Learn the guitar

3. Learn the harmonica

So I found out where in Padang I could buy a guitar + harmonica, I was told to head to Gramedia.  One 10 minture shopping trip later Will and I were armed with two guitars, a harmonica.. and band name; ‘WASH’ (combination of Will + Ash).

Set to tour Australia’s east coast from early 2010.

Tagged as: davastation, earthquake, Padang