Padang – Gateway to Minangkabau 🌶️
West Sumatra (Bukittinggi, Harau Valley, Mentawai), Rumah Gadang houses or Ngarai Sianok canyon
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Padang is the culinary and cultural heart of the Minangkabau people, famous for their buffalo-horned rumah gadang houses and matrilineal society. The city's namesake dish, nasi Padang, offers fiery curries like beef rendang (voted world's tastiest food).
Two hours inland, Bukittinggi's Ngarai Sianok canyon resembles a miniature Grand Canyon draped in jungle. Nearby, the Harau Valley's 100m granite cliffs enclose rice paddies where water buffaloes plow fields unchanged for centuries.
Mentawai Islands offer a wild contrast - surfers chase perfect barrels at Lance's Right while shamans in traditional uma houses communicate with ancestor spirits through ritual trances. The island's tattooed elders preserve one of Indonesia's oldest cultures.
Don't miss Jam Gadang - Bukittinggi's art deco clocktower - or the eerie Japanese WWII tunnels at Lobang Jepang. For nature, trek to Lake Maninjau, a volcanic caldera with 44 hairpin turns descending to its shores.
Travel tip: Padang food is VERY spicy - ask for "tidak pedas" (not spicy). Visit April-October. Mentawai surf season peaks June-September.
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