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.

It's about my hobbies in the past

Soccer is my favorite sport. I started playing soccer it when I was in elementary school, exactly in fourth class. The time was classmeting event. There are many sports which can be followed by every class members. Of course one of them was soccer. Actually I didn’t love playing soccer because I was thinking that it was not good sport. But my friends needed me to complete the team. That’s why they forced me to play it. So willy nilly I had to play it. Because I played by force, I didn’t play it seriously. They gave me defender position. In the first match, I just stood in back row without doing my job. I did the mistakes again and again. Looking at it, They advertised me repeatedly. But I didn’t care and I always said that I had no skill about it. Luckyly my team won the first match and we could continue to the second match.

In the second match, I saw the preetiest girl in my school watching our match. Seemingly she liked watching on soccer match. Her name was …? She had been my classmate since in the first class. I was as class as with her until fifth class. In the fifth class she got bad news, her father was pass away. And then she moved with her mother to another city. Nobody know where. We lost her so much. She had white skin, short the length hair, and middle tall. She was a smiling and an exciting girl. But she was also a crying girl and a spoiled girl because perhap she was only child of her family. Every boys in my class admitted liking her, even seniors did too. I have an unforgettable experience with her. One day, when I went to in front of the class to answer my teacher’s question in black board, suddently she put one of her legs beside her chair. It felt me down so hurt. I felt that I couldn’t stand up anymore. Everybody just looked at me and laugh except My teacher and herself. Both of them helped me standing. Actually I wanted to cry after standing. But how could I cried in front of my loving friend. So I tried preventing my tears. I looked at her face was full with guilt feeling. Then she asked sorry to me. I forgave her by giving I request. She had to wash my dirty uniform and she agreed. After the event, she changed to me. She was much better than before.

After seeing her watching, everybody got more motivation to win, so did I. I started enjoying soccer and liking it. Of course, we won the second match. After going home, I went to soccer field knowing more about soccer. Arriving there I saw some man playing soccer. They were older than me. One of them knew my present. It looked like he was the oldest there. He ordered me playing for him. At first I dread following his suggestion but finally I dicided to play because I need teaching more about soccer. I played more seriously than before. He trusted me as a wing position. At the time, I felt that the more I played the more I liked. The next day was the final competition. I was looking forward to showing my total soccer furthermore I wanted to be watched by her. So I asked my friend to put me in middle position. Indeed they were afraid if I didn’t want to play so they allowed me playing as a center. Afterwards we won the final match and became winner.

After graduating elementary school, I continued studying to the most favorite junior high school in my city. It’s very unique school. It’s location between two necessary town, they are Pasar lama and Padang baru. It look like train, it is long but having floor. It has soccer field in front of it. There I found many new friends. But unfortunately, my parents began forbiding me to play soccer. They said that it had no advantage and it was also a dangerous one, and they also suggested me to take an English class. After thinking of it, I realized that they were true and may be I should try their suggestion. Then I took an English class and I started decreasing my time to play soccer. At first, I just studied and then went home without going anywhere after the class was over. I didn’t find something interesting there so I went there lazyly. One day, when I came late to the class, I found three people playing something. Then I approached them. Apparently they were my seniors playing scrabble and they asked me to play it because the game can be played by four people. Consequently I was absent in my class. During my first year in English class, I often played the scrabble with them after studying.

When I was in my second year, I lost them. I thought that I wouldn’t play scrabble anymore. So I looked for a new hobby, and finally I put my choice at chess. At the time was my first day in my second year of English class. I didn’t want to go early because in my mind, I wouldn’t meet interesting something again. So I spent my time by walking around the market. In badly, I got tired and I took a rest in front of a painting store. Suddently the seller showed up. He brought a chess. And I looked someone else came in another side, then they played the chess. I really didn’t pay attention with them. I just sat in another bench alone. But I heard that the painting seller always won. After playing two times, the person went. According to me, he got boring because he never won. And then the painting seller called me. He thought that I could play chess, in fact I couldn’t. Then he taught me much about chess. After I understood well, I asked permission to him to go to my English class. Surely, I came late to my class. It seem I got wrong about my new class. There I found two very interesting girls. But the one was the most interesting one. Her name was…? She wasn’t my schoolmate.Her skin was white and she was younger than me about one year. She was so polite and smart one. In my eyes, she almost be perfect girl.. She was also an exciting friend. She liked smiling. She wore scraft or usual female moeslim dress , and she liked poetry. I often practiced my English with her. One thing made her so special in my eyes that she didn’t has special boy friend. She was like the true moeslim girl. No doubt of it, I did like her so much but….? Another girl was …? She was my schoolmate. She also was younger than me about one year. She had bright brown skin and enough long hair. She was also a smart girl but not too polite because she didn’t wear a moeslim uniform like another one. She had had a boy friend. And she loved speech. I loved practicing my English with both of them because their English was so good , especially the first one, Her face can made me fresh. Sometimes, I and they played scrabble after studying in class. But I often played with the first one because the second one always be taken by her boy friend early whereas the first one often be taken by her father late. Actually I had invited her to go home with me by my motorcycle some times but she refused kindly, I understood that, so I decided to play scrabble with her. But sometimes, we just talked about something.

If I had no English class, I always came to my chess master to spend my free time by playing chess. After that I became his immortal rival. Eventhought I never won from him, but I always resisted playing a chess after going home from schooling until he moved to somewhere else. Finally I had lost many thing, from my chess master until my loving friends. Now here I am with my new interesting friends. I still like playing soccer and sometimes I also watch the soccer match on TV.