Travel back in time in this UNESCO heritage city known for its colonial mining legacy I didn’t know much about Sawahlunto before going. Just that it was small, tucked into the hills of West Sumatra, and used to be a coal mining town. That, and a few grainy photos online — old Dutch buildings, a narrow train track, something that looked like a museum. It sounded quiet. And maybe a little haunted. That’s what pulled me in. The First Steps Through Stone and Fog The road into Sawahlunto felt like descending into a memory. As if someone had paused the clock and left the town to settle in dust. It was morning when I arrived. Mist clung to the hills like it didn’t want to leave. The air was heavy but still, and the streets were mostly empty. A few old men on bicycles. A woman sweeping in front of a faded colonial house. The sound of my footsteps felt loud. I checked into a modest homestay just off the main road — wooden shutters, chipped floor tiles, no hot water. But it felt right. Like something in the town wouldn’t have made sense if I’d stayed somewhere modern. Layers of Dust and Echoes at the Museum I walked to the Gudang Ransum Museum, the old public kitchen that once fed hundreds of mine workers a day. The building still smelled faintly of ash and old metal. Inside were rusted pots so large I could’ve climbed inside one. Bent ladles. A faded menu nailed to a wall, written in Dutch and Bahasa. No guided tour. Just quiet halls and glass cases full of worn shoes, old ration cards, and black-and-white photos of tired eyes and straight backs. In one room, a recording played — the sound of coal shovels scraping
Travel back in time in this UNESCO heritage city known for its colonial mining legacy I didn’t know much about Sawahlunto before going. Just that it was small, tucked into the hills of West Sumatra, and used to be a coal mining town. That, and a few grainy photos online — old Dutch buildings, a
