Agam regency is one of regencies in West Sumatera having many tourism objects. Nowadays its capital is Lubuk Basung. Lubuk Basung is only 150 kilometers from the capital of West Sumatera province, Padang. It is located between Tiku and Maninjau which are both of them are the greatest tourism objects in Agam regency. There are several transportations taking you to Lubuk Basung from Padang. they are taxies, buses, and travels.
Taxies are transportation having highest cost. They use fare-meter to determine how much you will pay. So you should have much money to take this ones. In Padang, They are usually a kind of sedan having yellow colour. There isn’t taxi stand in Padang but they are can be met in Airport or you can also call them to their office. They are quikly driven, so you can arrive in your goal place early. And also they take only one passenger. So it means you can go wherever you want to. But it doesn’t help when you are caught in the traffic. The fare-meter willn’t stop or in other word you will pay more.
The second transportation is buses. Buses are always be my second choice. They are really slow and a pretty noisy transportation. And also they take the passengers more then their capacity. But they win in cost. They are the cheapest ones. And the buses going to Lubuk Basung have good condition and they aren’t old. They are : Lubuk Basung Ekspress (LBE), Harmonis, and Dagang Pesisir. Nowadays they don’t have bus station in Padang but we can find them in front of UNP.
The third are travels. They are my first choice. They are cheap enough in cost. They will take you in front of your house and drop off you until your goal place. And they are too fast, even they are faster then taxi. If you want to use this public transportation, you should know their mobile phone number first or you come to the travel agency office.
Lubuk Basung is a fairly quite downtown. It is a really safe place. It has nice weather and complete accomodation too. Actually the tourism objects have been being built now. But if you want to visit this town, you can come to this town in the certain dates and you will find many events. I suggest you to come around the independent day of Indonesia, you will find several interesting events, especially at the night. The events are held for celebrating the independent days of Indonesia. In this day, most of Lubuk Basung people go out door to see these events. They are traditional exhibition and staging held in the yard of SMP 1 and the night market held in the yard of GOR. If you are a traditional art lover such me, You should go to SMP 1. There, we can look many things and many performances. The exhibition and the staging are held in same place. The exhibition is started at noon. It is earlier then staging started at 08.00 in the night. In the exhibition, we can look many things and many local handicraft in every stand. The stands are arranged as convenient as possible in the side of field because the stage is put in the front of the field or in other hand, in the middle is used for people watching. Most of handicrafts are not sold here, they are just shown to be seen. Meanwhile in the staging, we can enjoy some traditional arts like: Pasambahan dance, Randai, Piring dance, Payung dance, Lilin dance and some traditional songs. If you love shoping, you should come to the night market, you can buy something in low price. And you can also play some games there. They are extremely wonderful to be visited but they are presented only at night. So if you want to look the show, you should get some sleep at the day. But don’t worry, if you can’t go outside at night, you can also look some events at the day in the big parade.

The second place should be visited is Maninjau area. You shouldn’t miss this place. It is a really nice place to visit. Such Lubuk Basung, Maninjau also has complete accommodation but if you want to go here, you have to visit Lubuk Basung first. Because there is no transportation dropping you off there straightly except from Lubuk Basung. From Lubuk Basung you can take an oplet or motor cycle service to go here. Many activities can be done here. If you want to look creation of the Almighty God, you should look the lake Maninjau. Looking lake Maninjau, you will be grateful to God because you have been given life to look a most beautiful creation of Almighty God. I suggest you to look it from 44 sharp bend road. You will look the real beauty of lake Maninjau there furthermore you can also give food to some protected monkeys there. But you can also view it from the side. There is an area used for it. In that area, beside looking the lake, you can also try Maninjau foods, they are Pensi, Rinuk, and Palai . You can also try them in Lubuk Basung, but of course the taste is different, especially pensi. Maninjau has spicy or sweety taste whereas Lubuk Basung has salty taste. Don’t worry, Both of them are delicious. So you should try them all in order you can feel the defference. In Maninjau lake, you can also swim but in the certain area because there is a dangerous area but don’t worry, the dangerous area has been signed so you should notice on it. Beside that you can also try sailing and fishing. As to my know, there are some motor boats used to take passengers into two islands in the middle. I don’t know much about what we can do in those island because I have never gone there. If you don’t like swimming in the cool water or you can not swim, you can try taking bath in a hot water in an area beside the lake. If you want to see a legend house, you can come to Buya Hamka’s house. It always has visitors. There, you can listen to Hamka’s story, reading Hamka’s book, buying some accecories, and making fotoes. You can also buy some old and rare story book for example: romans, novels, and fable. If you love folktale, you can also try asking to a villager to tell about Maninjau lake story, it’s amazing folktale but it has some versions. If you like hiking, there are two hills there. They are Lawang hill and Telkom hill. On the top of the hills, you can look the beuty of lake Maninjau. It looks more beautiful than from 44 sharp bend road, but of course it spend much enegy. In certain dates, we also find tambua party, selaju sampan race, and parachute jumping competition there.
Tambua party is one of traditional art from Maninjau. They are consist of some people playing some musical instruments. Most of the musical instruments are Tambua and the other one is Tansa so sometimes they are also called Tambua Tansa. Tambua is a kind of a big drum made by nature material and Tansa is a small drum giving louder sound then Tambua. So Tansa is not as many as Tambua in Tambua party but Tansa is the least. Both of them are musical instruments hit. It is very interesting to be seen because you will just hear a great sound from those musical instrument without song sung.
Selaju sampan race is a race using canoe. Every canoe bring seven people where six people will row the canoe and the other one will act as leader and give direction and lead in front. Sometimes the acting leader also brings a drum to support his group. Many parcipants follow this event, even from Padang. It is just held once in a year, exactly in the new year. And until now, it is just followed by man.
Parachute jumping competition is held from Lawang hill because Lawang hill is higher then Telkom one. Every participant will try landing in a target area. Sometimes it will be funny because there are some participants will land into the lake or ricefield. Sometimes you can also find the tambua party in this competition area.

The third place should be visited is Tiku. Its location is before Loebas. There are some beaches here. Two of them are Arta beach and Banda Gadang. Sometimes, people also make beach party here. If you are a food hunter, you can try enjoying its food having unique taste and shape. You can also do whatever you want to do such as swimming, enjoying sun set, making fotoes, etc.