Two years ago I was in Padang, Western Sumatra for three days.
The people were wonderfully friendly, from the family in the nasi padang restaurant (best chicken wings ever) who told us that their relatives had set up shop in Singapore to the ‘uncle’ who posed behind his ancient cash register for us while we took up space chomping on gado gado salad in his odds-and-ends shop.
A week or so after Lorraine and I left, they experienced an earthquake. The tourguide who had brought us around for a day told us via e-mail that his camera had fallen off the shelf and was broken. His tone was more matter-of-fact than alarmed though – we had been told several times that this city sat on a precarious faultline.
Two years later, I wonder whether these people are okay, whether the fishing villages we saw by the edge of the beach, and the houses I saw perched by the hillside on my drive past Padang en route to Cubadak, survived.
If you are so inclined, please give something. The link for international visitors is here.
