Participants of ISMIL 9 are requested to make their own arrangements for accommodation.

We recommend that you choose the Nuansa Maninjau: it's the conference venue, and they're offering us a good deal.

However, for participants with more limited budgets, a number of alternative albeit less luxurious options are available, either in Ambun Pagi or along the shores of lake Maninjau.

Ambun Pagi

In Ambun Pagi there are one or two additional places to stay offering simple facilities for low prices.

Wisma Kemala

The Wisma Kemala is located directly opposite the front gate of the Nuansa Maninjau, with, if anything, an even more spectacular view of the lake. It has eight largish rooms with attached bathrooms, going for an asking (ie. negotiable) price of 100,000 Rps. When I checked the place out in early March there were no guests staying there, and judging from the mildew and cobwebs, no guests had stayed there for quite some time. But if a group of participants want to rent some rooms there, we could probably get them to freshen the place up for us a bit in advance. If you want to try and make advance reservations, call 0752-61420 or 0752-61525 (both private residences) and ask for Mus.

In addition to the Wisma Kemala, you might want to check out the Homestay Pondok Wisata, about one kilometer down the main road east, towards Bukittinggi, on the north side of the road, opposite the large white mosque (no further information available at present).

Maninjau

Down by the lake, in Maninjau and neighboring villages, there are literally dozens of places to stay. All of these places are cheaper than the Nuansa Maninjau, and many are attractively situated right on the shores of the lake. Other than two larger hotels, the Maninjau Indah and the Pasir Panjang Permai, catering mostly for Indonesians, most of the places to stay are small backpacker style homestays, which means banana pancakes for breakfast, bicycles for rent, and so forth.

The main drawback of these places, for ISMIL participants, is accessibility: it's a 15-25 minute commute, albeit a spectacular one, involving 44 hairpins, with macaques running after your vehicle begging for food. Also, traffic up and down the mountain becomes very sparse after 7 or 8 PM, so if you're thinking of having a few beers at the Nuansa after dinner, you may then find getting back to your hotel late at night a difficult or expensive proposition. (More details on travel between Ambun Pagi and the lakeside is available here.)

When I spent a few days in the area in early March 2005, I didn't see a single tourist, and many of the places to stay seemed to be either temporarily or permanently closed. in view of this situation, which is hardly likely to change drastically before July, probably the best course of action for those wishing to stay in Maninjau is simply to arrive early enough in the day and check out a few places, then choose the one you like.

Further details on accommodation in Maninjau, including phone numbers for those who feel the need to make advance reservations, are available in the Lonely Planet Guidebook to Indonesia, 7th Edition, pp. 499-501.