The coast train
From Padang to the beach.
D.W. Fisher-Freberg — CC BY-SA 3.0 · D.W. Fisher-Freberg — CC BY-SA 3.0 · D.W. Fisher-Freberg — CC BY-SA 3.0 · D.W. Fisher-Freberg — CC BY-SA 3.0
The town beach of the coastal town of Pariaman north of Padang, with pale sand, a long promenade, cafés and seafood stalls, and the old railway station close by. Offshore lie small islands, the best known the green Angso Duo, a quarter of an hour by boat for a swim and quiet outing. Pariaman is famous for the annual Tabuik festival on the tenth of Muharram, when huge colourful effigies are carried in procession through the town and then cast into the sea at this beach, an old tradition brought by soldiers from India in the nineteenth century that draws tens of thousands. The beach is free, and boats to the islands are cheap. The waves are fairly calm, though swimming is nicer at the islands. The nicest way there is the tourist train from Padang to Pariaman on an old coastal line, about an hour and a half, making an easy day trip.
From Padang to the beach.
A quarter-hour by boat.
On the tenth of Muharram.
Pariaman, about 60 km north of Padang
An annual Ashura procession in which huge decorated effigies are carried through Pariaman and then cast into the sea, an old folk tradition that draws visitors, held on its Hijri calendar date.