In the Digital Nomad City Ratings series, I review the cities where I was working as a digital nomad. The possible ratings are 0 (awful) to 10 (exceptionally wow). The ratings are of course exclusively based on my personal experience and preferences. These may be different for other people, but besides the ratings, I will share my experiences and a detailed description, so this will hopefully be helpful for you too.
A few notes on the not necessarily self-evident categories and their ratings:
Internet: I don’t need very fast internet, but I need continuous connection.
Prices: I am a budget traveller. People who earn higher salaries may have a very different perspective on costs.
Walkability (a standard point in almost all digital nomad listings – you will understand why when you start your digital nomad life) How easy/comfortable/safe/interesting is it to walk about/stroll in the city
Infrastructure: Are there sufficient and good quality services like hospitals, malls, possibilities to arrange official matters, pharmacies, trains, buses etc?
Sights & Surroundings: Options to visit places of interest nearby, especially if staying for a longer time in the city.
Visa: Can you stay in the country without a visa? If so, how long? If not, how easy is it to get a visa and/or extend it? Can you arrange this in the given city?
Overall Impression: I needed this extra category because even if everything is fine in a given city, you may feel something is not right, and you wouldn’t like to stay very long. Or the other way round: it may lack famous sights and infrastructure, but you still love the place.
72%
Time spent in Padang: 1 month
1. Introduction
Padang is in Indonesia, on the island of Sumatra. It is a coastal city, the capital of West Sumatra, and one of the largest cities on the island, with almost 1 million inhabitants. It has an international airport with connections to Kuala Lumpur and lots of cities in Indonesia. It is also possible to buy “flythrough“tickets (those with a stop somewhere, mainly KL) to and from several other international destinations including cities in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and even Sri Lanka.
2. Internet: 7
I was staying in a guest house in Padang, where the internet access was continuous, reliable and mostly fast enough for me. As mentioned in the intro, I need continuous connection, but speed is not that important. However, I very often upload photos to my blog, watch streaming videos, and I never had a problem with that.
I bought a Telkomsel SIM card when I arrived, in one of the million mobile shops in the centre. They didn’t speak a word of English there, and my Indonesian knowledge was just enough to tell them what I wanted. At least that’s what I thought. The shop assistant assured me that I was buying a SIM card with 6 gigs of data for one month, for less than 50k IDR. But I had to discover later that it was not true. After two weeks, my data connection was gone. That actually caused a lot of trouble for me, because I couldn’t order a Grab bike when I was going to extend my visa. So I went to a shop where there was a guy who spoke excellent English. He said I had a plan for two weeks with 2 GB of data only. I then bought from him another plan for one month with 6 gigs of data for 85.000 IDR.
I didn’t find any cafés with free Wifi, although I wasn’t looking hard. To be honest, I didn’t see a lot of cafés at all. There are some places next to the beach at some sections, but no power points, I think – and this is a huge problem, because at the moment, my laptop’s battery is almost unusable, and I can practically only work when it is plugged in. There are a lot of small restaurants, though, but only very few look inviting for doing some work on your laptop. At some places, there were the types of tables where I suppose you could spend a few hours working, but I never tried. For touristy places, go to the beach. The Bat and Arrow is a café-bar-restaurant where you will only see foreigners, and they sell several types of beer and pizza – I tried the ham and mushrooms one, and it was yummy.
3. Prices: 8
The food in padang is not only delicious, but cheap. There are a lot of small restaurants, where you can have lunch or dinner for as little as 15.000 IDR, if you want to save money and only want to have chicken-rice-vegetables or a soup. But Padang is famous for the special serving style: you just sit down at a table, and they bring you lots of different dishes without ordering. Now that is a good thing, but should you want to taste several of these, the price quickly goes up – not a lot though. The highest price I paid was about 60.000 IDR.
I also loved the streetside shabby eateries, where they sell soto padang, a delicious noodle soup with beef or some other types of meat. Another favourite of mine was Kubang Hayuda, a restaurant where you get freshly made meat martabak (which is called martabak mesir or Egyptian martabak, in Indonesian).
Accommodation is not that cheap. As a digital nomad, you of course want a place where you can work. You need a desk, a not very small room etc. – a simple hotel room will not be enough (unless of course, you want to use co-working spaces and only need a room to sleep). I found a good looking homestay on Airbnb, but the price was too high for me. I then contacted the guesthouse directly. They have a website, and they have weekly and monthly rates, too. I paid 6 million rupees for a month. The double room is spacious, with a good desk, a cupboard and a large comfortable bed. Air con, of course, it is needed here.
The staff are very nice and helpful, but they don’t speak English at all, unfortunately. Google Translate is used for all communication with foreign guests – unless you speak Indonesian, of course. But breakfast is included, free unlimited coffee, tea and drinking water, and they have a nice little café, where you can work, if you don’t want to sit in your room.
If you want to book tours to the Mentawai islands, that will be expensive – but that’s already a different story perhaps. Entrance to the main museum is 3k – less than 20 Euro cents. I don’t use taxis, but Grab is very cheap, just like everywhere in Indonesia.
4. People & Communication : 7
The people in Padang are very nice and helpful. When I arrived by plane, I took a local bus from the airport to the centre. But I didn’t have data connection on my phone, so I used Google Maps on my tablet, where I was smart enough to save the map of Padang (why I wasn’t smart enough to do the same on my phone, don’t ask me…). But my tablet doesn’t have a compass!
So I got off the bus, and was trying to find out which direction was where – I knew and saw that my guesthouse was nearby, but that’s all. A girl very soon approached me and asked me where I was trying to go. She checked it on her mobile phone, and insisted to come with me until I only had to go straight on to reach my destination. Yes, yes, it is a terrible thing, but at first, I automatically thought she would be trying to offer some kind of services for money, but this was not the case – she genuinely wanted to help me find my guesthouse.
In Padang, if I felt a little bored or tired of my work, all I had to do was go out to the street, where people were smiling at me, waving to me, and the ones who spoke some English, also wanted to chat with me a little.
People of all ages will say hello to you at many places, even from the other side of the street, even from their motorbikes while riding, even from inside a house – and I find it very nice (and yes, a little amusing, too).
Why I gave Padang only 7 out of 10 is because there are very few people who speak English. So even if they are very nice, it is very difficult to get in touch and learn something about their culture, their way of life etc. I met a few people though, who spoke excellent English, and I had very good and meaningful conversations with them. I met a university student, a university professor, a tour guide (not trying to sell me anything) and others who spoke good English – mostly in restaurants, where you van be sure you will be the only foreigner, so people who speak some English at least, will approach you and strike up a conversation. But I also had a good conversation with a uni student in the street, when we were both hiding from the torrential rain under a street vendor’s umbrella.
5. Sights & surroundings : 6
When it comes to sights in the city, Padang is not a famous place at all. In fact, most guidebooks will tell you how to get to various places in the Padang area directly from Padang airport, which is the largest international airport in the region.
The situation is not that bad though. It is true that Padang doesn’t have beautiful old buildings, and most of the streets are lined with run-down houses and various structures, but it does have a few (very few though ?) nicer parts. Padang is a seaside city after all, so first of all, you have the beaches. Well, not the usual holiday beaches – there are no sunbeds and no-one is swimming in the ocean. I would actually strongly advise anyone against it. The water is dirty, and the beaches are covered with rocks. But a walk along the shores of the Indian Ocean is not something to look down on!
A popular place for locals is Air Manis Beach. Besides being a nice beach, it is also famous for a rock formation, which is stunningly similar to a statue of a man burying his head into the sand. This is said to be Malin Kundang, whose legend is famous all over Asia.
Then there is the “over the bridge” area of Padang, to the south of Siti Nurbaya Bridge. I loved this area, with the small houses built on the hillside, and also the nice people who live there.
Even with these options, I have to acknowledge, that Padang doesn’t offer too much to see within the city limits. I only gave it 6 points, because there are the Mentawai Islands about 150 kms from the shores of Padang which in itself is a place worth travelling here from far-away places. Without the Mentawai, I would give it 4 or 5.
Places to see around Padang: the Mentawai Islands for very exciting village tribes and surfing, Bukittinggi for an interesting weekend, and if you have more time, Sungai Penuh to meet the Kerinci people, or Gunung Tujuh, a wonderful lake and the surrounding hills, which I didn’t see myself, unfortunately.
6. Walkability: 7
Padang streets in the city centre have pavements! Yes this is a special luxury in this part of the world. What’s more, most of them are not blocked by parking motorbikes, vendor stalls, garbage and whatnot. An even better treat is that in the centre at least, you will find lots of benches on the pavements where you can sit down to do some people watching – one thing I enjoy a lot and can recommend to everyone.
Most streets are not very well lit after dark, but there is nothing to be afraid of. I have only seen a few stray dogs in Padang, but at night, I usually heard whole packs of dogs barking and running around near my guesthouse. I am terrified of stray dogs, so I actually decided I would never stay out too late in this city 🙂
Why I gave 7 points is because there are not too many nice places in Padang where walking would be fun, even if walking is physically OK most of the time.
7. Safety: 10
Padang is a very safe city. Since it is not a tourist destination, you won’t even find too many people who want to sell you overpriced shit all the time.
I can’t talk about women’s safety, but I haven’t heard or read anything bad about Padang. As a woman, you must of course dress appropriately for a muslim country, but it is not like the state of Aceh on this island further north.
Road safety is OK, too: you don’t have to pray every time before crossing the road. It is a small city (1 million), so traffic is light, and there are even some traffic lights at some places.
8. Food: 8
Padang food is famous all over Indonesia, although I have to confess, that I don’t see why. Yes, food is delicious, but not incredibly so, and I swear I had very similar food in other parts of Indonesia, too.
The small restaurants and food stalls mostly sell the same things, and most of them are fine, but actually nothing special. They have a few specialities like rendang or soto Padang, which you must try, they are delicious. The serving style, however, is very special – see above in the Prices category.
One good thing is, that you will find small restaurants and food stalls all over the place, and the prices are very similar – cheap everywhere.
9. Infrastructure: 6
Padang doesn’t have huge malls. Even the one that advertises itself as a “Grand Mall” (Basko Grand Mall) is not very large. In the city centre, the largest one is perhaps Plaza Andalas, where I could buy a cheap power bank for less than IDR 300k, and they also have a quite large supermarket.
The market (Pasar Raya) is very large, and good if you want to buy fruits or clothing (or various items for your kitchen end things like that). Mango is cheaper than elsewhere in South East Asia, but you will find lots of other delicacies too.
I didn’t need medical help in Padang, but Lonely Planet says that if you need anything serious, you must leave Indonesia immediately. I had, however, quite a serious medical problem in Yogyakarta, and my insurance company sent me to a private clinic there. The clinic looked very nice, the people were extremely polite with good English, but they didn’t help me a lot 🙂
10. Visa: 7
The score is not only for Padang, but for Indonesia in general. You can stay in the country without a visa for one month, but if you want to stay longer, you need to buy a visa on arrival (38 USD), and you can extend it for another 30 days for another 38 USD. You can find a more detailed post about how to extend your Indonesian visa here. The good thing is that you can arrange the visa extension in Padang, too.
11. Overall impression: 6
Padang is not a bad place at all for a digital nomad. I was pleasantly surprised after all the guidebooks implied that you should avoid getting into the city even for a short transit – this, I just don’t understand, maybe none of the guide book authors have personally tried Padang, and they relied on others who again had no personal experience and so on, and so forth. This is a shame, and doesn’t do justice to Padang.
I think that a few weeks is absolutely not only doable, but enjoyable in Padang – I did enjoy my one month a lot.
There are not a lot of tourists in Padang. I only saw two or three white people during the whole month. For those of you who want to enjoy the company of other digital nomads, this place will not be good at all. For the rest of us, who enjoy the company of local people, too, it will be fine.
It rains a lot in Padang. The rain is often very short, but sometimes, it rains for a long time, and then it is not advisable to go anywhere. But I love sitting on a terrace over a cup of coffee and watching the rain – oh yes, the cats and dogs.
The nights are usually cooler. I had aircon in my room, but I always switched it off before going to bed at night. I actually caught a cold once, and I’m sure it was because of the air conditioning.
What did I miss? In Padang, just like everywhere else in Indonesia, there are not many people who speak English. However, I found a few, and I had very enjoyable conversations with them – see above in section 4.
Yes, I was also missing nice architecture, old houses and cafés, but the truth is, I had very little free time anyway, and most of the time, I was working in the guesthouse either in my own air-con room or outside, in their open air café (which was not open for outside guests). At weekends, I often left Padang, which I also recommend to anyone else wishing to stay and work as a digital nomad there.
Check out my other Digital Nomad City Ratings. Some of the latest posts:
Digital Nomad City Ratings: Siem Reap, Cambodia
Digital Nomad City Ratings: Da Nang
Digital Nomad City Ratings: Chiang Mai
Digital Nomad City Ratings: Yogyakarta
Digital Nomad City Ratings: Kandy and Colombo
Digital Nomad City Ratings: Bukittinggi
Digital Nomad City Ratings: Padang
