I stayed at Bamboosa Guesthouse in Bukittingi. It's actually not a guesthouse, but more of a homestay. Two bedrooms are probably for rent, one of which I have. But first I brush my teeth, take a shower and crawl into bed to catch up on some much-needed sleep that I didn't get on the bus ride last night. Deep and sound asleep, I am the muezzin, there must be half a dozen in the area, at half past midnight calling for prayer over the loudspeaker for half an hour. I've got my best earplugs in and still you can't sleep like that. They'll do it again tomorrow morning just after five and then again a good hour later. This will not change during my time in Indonesia on Sumatra. I still want to go up to Banda Aceh, Sharia applies there and the muezzin will definitely not be fewer.
A day of travel with almost 1000 kilometers on water and land is behind me. Because I couldn't get any further from the Indonesian island of Batam yesterday, I was only able to start my onward journey to the main island of Sumatra today. Yesterday evening I made an appointment with the taxi driver who drove me to my accommodation yesterday, that he would pick me up at the hotel after morning prayer and take me to the ferry terminal. I think it's a bit early, but a quarter of an hour doesn't matter. At 20 to 5 the muezzin calls to prayer and wakes me up. At half past five my alarm clock does the same thing again. At six o'clock I get in the car to the port.
I couldn't really enjoy the little bit of luxury, namely a wider bed in my capsule hotel. Because at half past one in the night a ruthless horde of South American women came up, who rumbled and yelled as if the bedroom belonged to them. I was really through with this capsule hotel. In Japan I found them so pleasant, but there were also Japanese people who are much more considerate. With the noisy, thoughtless ways of us westerners, staying in a capsule hotel feels more like a storage barracks. Garbage flies everywhere.
Today I have to move in my capsule hotel. From one honeycomb to the other, because a booking in the same "room" was not possible for my stay extension. Now I even have a queen-size bed and a bit more space. But I want to get out of here as soon as possible. Today and overall. These capsule hotels are convenient and tailored to your needs for two or three night stays. But it's been a week for me now and I'm clawing my hooves to finally get back on the road.
Today is the most important traditional Chinese holiday: the New Year's Festival. This means four days of public holiday in Singapore and most shops and restaurants are closed. That's why my plan was to travel on to Indonesia today. But just in time yesterday I remembered that that would have been a stupid mistake. Because I want to fly back home from Jakarta on February 21st. But I can only stay in Indonesia for 30 days with a tourist visa. So if I enter Indonesia on January 22, it doesn't exactly fit. Now I could have rebooked the flight and fly home a few days earlier. Or I'll just stay two more days (one to be safe) in Singapore.