Besides Danau Toba, the fertile valleys and picturesque lakes of the West Sumateran highlands are undoubtly the most impressive and most visited parts of the island. This has been the living area of the highly dynamic Minangkabau - which have spread all over Indonesia and are known for their trading spirit, kitchen and traditional lifestyle - for centuries.
Sumatera Barat in fact consists of three different parts: a vulcanic hihgland, a long, sometimes wet, sometimes cultivated coastal plain, and a stretch of rainforestg-covered islands just out of the coast. The province is ruled by a part of the"Bukit Barisan ('Row of Hills'), two parallel rows of mountains with wide valleys and blue crater lakes. The vulcanic mountains is mostly covered with unspoiled rainforest, but some peaks rise beyond the tree-line.
A number of these peaks is higher than 2000 metres, among them the still smouldering Gunung Merapi (not the one on Jawa) (2891 metres) southeast of Bukit Tinggi. But the absolute number one is Gunung Kerinci, a sleeping vulcano with an altitude of about 3800 metres. In the environment of Bukit Tinggi are two spectaculair crater lakes. The biggest one, Maninjau, is seventeen km long and eight km wide and is located in an centuries-old crater west of the city. The craterlake Singkarak, a little more towards the southeast, is of similar size. Both lakes can be reached easily; they do have accomodation and some watersports can be practised.
The central and northern highlands of the province consist several valleys which have been cultivated for centuries and maybe even for thousands of years already. They form the century-old cultural heart of the region.
Three of them, the luak nan tigo ('Three Valleys'), with a total surface of about 250 sq.km., form the original habitat of the Minangkabau, or short, Minang, which have spread all over the Indonesian archipelago and the Malay peninsula from here. This exodus can partially be explained by the Minangkabau tradition which is called merantau (leaving to find luck), and all over the archipelago there are Minang- or Padang- restaurants.
The mountainous southeastern region if the province still is mainly covered with rainforests and is the habitat for elephants, tigers, panthers, bearsa, tapirs and rhino's. The biggest part of this region is subjected to the Kerinci-Seblat National Park, which stretches towards three neighboring provinces and contains several beautiful crater lakes. The most spectacular is on the peak of GununG Tujuh. These nature reserved are easy to visit and from Padang several tours are organised.
One hundred km from the coast of Sumatera Barat are the Mentawai Islands. These were formed about 80 milion years ago, when the Indian plate collided with the Sunda plate. The stretch of islands consists of four inhabited islands: Siberut, Sipora, Pagai Utara and pagai Selatan, and dozens of smaller ones. Most of these islands are covered in tropical rainforest and are surrounded with unspoiled coral reefs and a rich maritime sealife.
The big island of Siberut is known for it's special culture. Until not too long ago, the inhabitants still knew stone-age rituals, and still traditional ama or longhouses are used for big rituals in favour of their ancestors.