Cilacap | Chaos roaming the world

Leaving Cilacap was not hard though the breakfast was surprisingly good. Also, we didn’t get onto the road as early as I wanted to but then, my mood seems a bit erratic because of Christmas. I’m much more prone to homesickness and missing friends terribly.

We managed to get a chunk of our task done which was get to Bandung today. Bandung is about 270km from Cilacap; not a challenge with good roads but a stretch in Indonesia. At 11am, it started raining. Getting soaked on the way into Malang wasn’t fun so we stopped for an early lunch and waited till the rain stopped. It didn’t rain much.

So we were back on the road. Thirty minutes later, it started raining for real. A bit fed up with stopping again, we instead pulled on our rain gear, tapped the panniers (heavy rain has a way of pushing in through the gap between lid and pannier) and kept going. It rained quite hard. And long. We did not get nearly as soaked as before with all our gear but it still was not the best riding experience.

Basically, we ducked down our heads and endured the rain until we were in Bandung. The thing with the rain this time was that if we had tried to avoid it, we wouldn’t have gotten very far at all.

In Bandung, we found a tiny place for the night…so tiny, that we had trouble getting all our gear in. It was cheap though. But my mood was not the best and I was quite exhausted from a hard day’s ride. Going out for food seemed like the last thing I wanted to do. I just wanted to sleep.

The only picture of the day, thanks to the rain

Flo convinced me that I needed food though so we stepped outside. Right next door was a design place that also made decals for motorcycles. Having failed so far, we asked about a sticker with the Indonesian flag. They didn’t have one but were more than happy to customize it for us. Flo went back to the hotel to grab the pannier that it was supposed to go on and we had it attached in no time. The word “Indonesia” is even made up of individual letters all sticking to the pannier. And the best thing: The owner gave it to us for free after seeing our pannier with the world map on it. Thanks so much, mangele.com!

From there, we turned one corner to get to the main street were we found a whole alley with food stalls in the more hipster street food style. It was delicious. Also I managed to get a dessert which was fried dough filled with chocolate. Cities are just the best. Not for traffic but everything else. Then I fell into bed and slept from 7pm onwards. 🙂

“When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.” – Gautama Buddha as quoted in Civilization V Brave New World

Saying goodbye to Andy who hosted us for a couple of days. He even prepared lunch care packages for us today.

Before heading out, we had one last morning with Andy. He really pulled all the stops for us. Not least of all getting up with us at 7 in the morning. Staff in the cafe remarked on the fact that they have never seen him around this early. Once again, all we can give is our appreciation and gratitude for what he has done for us. We had breakfast together, got the bike out and loaded up. After we got one last of Andy’s treat for the road, all that was left was to say goodbye. It has been a great weekend, just what we needed and a pleasure to meet fine Andy again. Hugs and goodbye, back on the road.

All the routing tips from Andy were absolutely golden. The first one led us away from the truck laden main highway through the fresh green countryside towards our first goal of the day: Borobodur.

Stairs leading up to the platform on top

We were a bit apprehensive about going. The price tag is hefty on our new Indo adjusted budget and we had such a bad experience at the Mother Temple on Bali. But then again, it is on the cover of our Lonely planet, so what can you do? Overly prepared to be annoyed we actually ended up having a pretty good time. Yes, the hawkers were the worst in Java, but on the other hands there was almost no crowd. Borobudur is impressive for a 1200 year old structure, with great scenery to boot, but not on the level of the Vatican, Milford Sound or Uluru. I wanted to come here, if only to bag as many Civ wonders along the way as possible and we did not leave disappointed.

Right after the Temple, we stopped in a roadside warung to get some drinks to go with our treats from Andy. The panini with home made pesto were soooo good! We will miss Andy, but we will also miss his food 🙂

And, of course, along the coast

On we went, following the south coast to Cilacap. Once again, we have to thank Andy for the recommendation. The traffic was light. We passed over several hills and through beautifully green fields and were in Cilacap by 4 pm. For the first time in a long while, we had a bit of a challenge in finding a room for the night. The first hotel was out of our league, the second I turned down because of the horrible smell of cigarettes in the room. We ended up in a rather odd place in the end: The go-to business hotel for the local (state run) Pertamina refinery. The price fit though, and the next day we got the manager really excited when he realised that we were on a big touring bike, so all was well.