Our private island in Padang Sumatra

This was one of those days that we were not sure yet what to do. We were staying in the Mercure hotel in Padang. I saw some things about the Mentawai Islands, but was not sure how to get there and if we would have enough time. We decided to just take a chance and see how it would go…. We didn’t know yet we would find our own perfect private island. oops spoiler!

Angkot Padang

This must sound strange, but one of the great things I like about Padang are the angkots. These are small busses you can take and that drive a specific route. I have seen this type of transportation in many cities, but never like I have seen this in Padang. There are a lot of young guys driving a pimped and tuned angkot with the flames and racing style symbols on the angkot. They play very loud dance music and drive very fast. There is clearly some kind of competition going on for people that want to take the fastest Angkot. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of these angkots, so here I have a picture I stole from the internet to give you an idea how it looks like.

Angkot Padang

Normally my wife Dessy doesn’t like to take the angkot, but that day she agreed to take the angkot to the harbour nearby. I am not sure if she tricked me but we ended up probably in the slowest angkot that was available. Only the elderly got on our Angkot with their groceries hahaha :D.Off course they were starring at  me (probably shocked or amazed) because I am a bule who takes Angkot. Maybe they were thinking; why there is a bule kesasar in this angkot!?

A few hours later we arrived at harbour, but there was almost no one there. We quickly found out that it was impossible for us to go to Mentawai islands that day. We told some local guys that we would like to go to a nice island. They offered us to bring us on the motorbike to the place where the fisherman come so they could maybe bring us to a nice Island. The motorbikes brought us back on the road in about half hour what took us two hours with our sloooooooooow angkot.

PULAU PAGANG

The local guys dropped us off at a small harbour on the south of padang where some fishermen were. There was a fisherman available to bring us to a beautiful island. We got some snacks and drinks from the minimarket and went off on the small fisherman boat.

In less that one hour we arrived at Pulau Pagang. Our own private island! A true bounty island with the white sand beach, clear water like a swimming pool, coral reef and tropical fish swimming around. And in the middle of the island there are a lot of palm trees. A great view to look at! That day there was only one old friendly man and his dog that live on the island as a guard and that takes care of the island.

The rest of the afternoon we stayed at the island to relax, read a book, take a nap, go snorkeling and repeat 😀

get up to snorkel, it’s a hard knock life

swimming together

At the end of the afternoon we walked around on the island and were getting silly taking pictures. The fisherman discovered that he had missed his goal in life to become a professional photographer and gave us our own photo shoot.

Me Tarzan, you Jane

Jungle Mermaid

Just another day in Paradise. Do you also know a perfect spot to enjoy a day on a beautiful island or beach? Please tell us!