Tag Archives: Yudis

Day 132 – Skirting the rain

The mountains never far

The mountains never far

Sumatra and New Zealand have some similarities. Or at least the NZ South Island and Sumatra have things in common. Both islands have a mountain range running through them lengthwise, creating a west and an east coast. As in New Zealand, so is here the west coast wetter but probably prettier. This formed part of our reasoning while deciding on our route. Also, the Trans-Sumatra-Highway goes up on the east of the mountain range which might mean more kilometres per day but it is also the route that all the trucks will take. To spare us the traffic and to avoid the possibility of highway robbers (there were warnings of that), we plan to go up the west coast before heading right into the mountains. With this plan, we have the possibility of a whole lot of rain during our time on Sumatra. In the last couple of days, we recognized a pattern: It is never raining in the mornings, starts to cloud up around lunch and either starts raining then or in the afternoon. The path was clear…we had to be on the road as early as possible. Continue reading

Day 131 – Squatting

We had an almost perfect start to the day. Instant noodles for breakfast were made even harder to stomached when we learned that they were not even included in the room rate. We could have had cake!

we followed this river for a good while

we followed this river for a good while

Regardless, or maybe because of that, we got onto the road super early. Before 8 am, we were well on our way towards our target for the day: Pagaralam. The Lonely Planet has a side note about some monolithic statues in the area and it seemed better than sticking to the Trans-Sumatra Highway.

The ride was a much needed breeze, with sunshine, cool morning temperatures and very light traffic. We had the first 110 km done before 10 am. From here, we turned off the alternative highway onto a real back road. The GPS has been set to shortest distance avoid unsealed roads. I was a bit nervous about the shortcut we were about to take, but it worked out perfectly. For the next 50 km we followed a sealed single track mountain road, through forgotten little villages, forest covered peaks and deep gorges. But even here, squatters have started to transform the peaceful mountain road into the customary one long roadside village that we got so familiar with on Java.

Thanks for the food rescue, it was delicious!

Thanks for the food rescue, it was delicious!

We were still riding in sunshine for the most time, with the occasional cloud providing some welcome cool, but we could already see the big thunderstorms building up behind the mountains to the west. With only short breaks not to break our stride we arrived in Pagaralam just in time for lunch.

For some reason, we picked the only place in town that sold meatballs exclusively. Nina asked for vegetarian food as always but was turned away at first, after Yeni, the resident English speaker was called to translate. As we were about to move on, Yeni came back and said that they would be able to dish something up regardless, so we sat down. Once again we were blown away by the friendliness and helpfulness of the Indonesians. We were the only ones with anything other than meatballs and we tucked in. The food was great, but way too much for us.

we got reminded of Quasimodo ...

we got reminded of Quasimodo …

On our way out we went through an almost customary round of photos and selfies with the staff and selected guests. Everyone is super friendly about it, so we don’t mind posing. It still is super weird, though. I take it as a tiny sliver of the experience that celebrities go through. Just that we have not done much to deserve that attention other than being white and coming to these places on our own.

With directions from the Bakso place, we found a hotel (we decided on a different but brand new one on the way to the one we were looking for). The sky was already darkening at a disconcerting pace, so after unloading the bike we quickly got back out in search for the Batu Beribu. These stone carvings of squatting humans are thousands of years old. We started with directions from the roadside and then added directions from the locals along the way. In the end we passed it three times before honing in on the place, just before the rain set in.

We made it back to the hotel just mildly wet and before the really heavy rains set in. This gave us ample opportunity to catch up on the project for awesome (http://www.projectforawesome.com/) via the hotel WiFi and rest. There are 850km ahead of us until the next milestone, and 1600 km in total on Sumatra, before our time in Indonesia is up. We are starting to look forward to catching up with my dad and his partner over the holidays and to savour Kuala Lumpur in the new year.

The day ended again on a highlight. Yudis, the lone staffer in the hotel that night offered us a taster of his afternoon snack (a kind of fried spring role with sambal) and we got talking. He is a real charmer and his English was plenty enough to have a good chat. We had coffee and tea served and sat with him until evening prayer time.