Category Archives: Motorcycle

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.

Day 130 – Covering some distance

Waking up on Sumatra, we had to come up with a plan. Wanting to meet up with Flo’s dad in Thailand over Christmas, we don’t have that much time left. Most of the sights we want to see are in the north of the island and the port town that we’re going to ship out off is about 1800km away.

our standard drink, citrus juice on ice. This was lime ... hmmm.

our standard drink, citrus juice on ice. This was lime … hmmm.

So with a bit of a heavy heart, we decided to skip the two National Parks in the south and put some miles on the clock instead.

Luckily, the traffic here is much lighter than in Java despite many trucks using the Trans-Sumatra-Highway. Those trucks are slow and emit whole clouds of black diesel clouds which make it hard to breathe and makes our faces very dirty…but…they are easily overtaken.

A day in the saddle it was. A break for a fruit juice at 10am broke up the morning ride a bit and then we had lunch at a roadside warung. The young staff cracked up laughing about our difficulties ordering food, in a nice kind of way. Food was good, especially the eggplant-chili-plate. When it was time to leave, the same staff asked us for photos. Of course, we obliged. Then Flo asked them for a picture with lead to squeaks and a bit of excited chaos before everyone was ready.

Stopped one more time to buy new chain oil. The owner of the small warung moto was so happy that we stopped at his place and very interested in our travels. With a big smile on our faces, we moved on.

before the rain

before the rain

It started to look like it’s gonna rain and we were getting exhausted so after 300km, we looked for accommodation along the road. The first hotel we looked at was not up to my standard though we briefly considered breaking out the air mattresses and sleep on the floor. We turned it down in the end, moved on to a little shop further down and had another coke and juice. Again, the girls asked us for a photo session. This time, I actually copied one of their poses and she squee-ed like it was her birthday. 🙂

The sat nav told us there where more hotels about 30km further along…so back on the road for us. In the end, we didn’t need to ride that far as we found a roadside motel that was affordable. It even had AC, some power cuts and the cutest pet monkey ever! Even better, it gave us shelter from the massive monsoon thunderstorm rolling in at nightfall.

Day 129 – Gridlock

Heat, pain and frustration is what I will remember of this day.

Before setting out for the last 110 km on Java, we had one more thing to do here. A package with Christmas presents and minor bits of kit needed to find its way to Germany. After two missed offices, we ended up in the central post office. We found someone to neatly wrap our things up as a package and got a waiting number assigned. 40 numbers ahead of us, we thought this could take a while, but then we got called out and ushered to a desk half way through the wait.

I wish my Bahasa Indonesia were better or I’d have done some research. I could not ask for slower and cheaper shipping options and resigned to pay the $85 shipping in the end. We left for the road and towards the ferry in Merak by 10 am.

Thus followed six hours of the worst traffic I have experienced in my life. The entire 110 km between Jakarta and the west coast is one long filthy clogged agglomeration. The roads are full, in disrepair and dangerous. Add to the mix temperatures of up to 40°C, smog and clouds of dusty dirt. We tried our luck twice trying to get on the toll motorway. Both times we were turned away by overzealous road authority worker. My highlight was when he tried to explain why two wheelers cannot go on the motorway: “It is too dangerous”. Instead, he turned us back to the death trap disguised as a road. I guess dying is ok as long as it is not within your jurisdiction.

We arrived at the ferry at 4 pm and seemed to have once again caught the slowest ferry on offer. On board, I was chatted up by a bunch of friendly but boisterous men. Nina did not like them very much, and given their views on extramarital affairs I cannot blame her. One observation struck me though: It was the one guy who has seen the world on container ships that set the others straight more than once. Isolation breeds conservativism and nothing works better for melting away those quirky ideas and stereotypes than seeing the world.

The ferry arrived after sunset. To break our “no riding in the dark”-rule we checked into the first hotel we could find about 10km out of the harbour. It was $10 more expensive than we would have liked, but by now … we just stopped to care. Sleeeeeeeep!

Day 127 – Raindrops on my helmet

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

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. 🙂

Day 125 – Ride out with the Scooby gang

Sunday. Finally, I was doing better. Probably not as well as I’d like to be but well enough to be social again. Me doing better also decides our next step: This will be our last rest day; tomorrow, the road will have us back.

Cool countryside

Cool countryside

Under that premise, I was very much inclined to spend another day in bed. BUT, it was Sunday. Sunday is the free day for the four backpackers helping out at Andy’s and Shinta’s place at the moment and Andy had plans for a ride out, showing them some of Jogja. We were invited, too. For quite a while we were about two minds…seeing some of Jogja would be great…doing the rest of our “homework” would also be great.

In the end, we decided to join the Scooby gang for half a day. We gathered at “AS coffee” were we are staying. Andy took Laura as a pillion, Victor and Camille shared a bike, then Flo and I on the tiny bike that Andy had given us for driving in town and Yanto with Cecil as a pillion were at the back.

The gang and the ladies from the orphanage

The gang and the ladies from the orphanage

The first stop was at an orphanage in town. Andy and Shinta had sponsored a filter station for water so that the kids have clean water to drink and this was a check-up after a couple of months if everything still works as it is supposed to. As a side business, the orphanage also sells some of the water to generate a bit of income. All in all a great project. The kids weren’t around though so we “only” got to see the filter station and talk to some lovely ladies from the orphanage.

Leaving here, the plan was to head to the river for a swim. However, two things happened which made this part of the ride out more than remarkable. First, there was a police check point at the bridge were we wanted to cross the river. Andy stopped a bit before it to make sure everybody would be good to go through…and of course, we were not. Not even Flo had his driver’s licence with him…so we needed an alternative route to the place. Instead of heading straight across the river, we took a turn in midst of a large group of young people on their motorbikes. It kinda looked like a gang to begin with and they all also avoided the police check point. So when we checked that everyone made the turn and drifted off behind the big group, we saw a guy at the street side, waving a big gun in the air in a way that was not very confidence-inducing. He also looked quite angry. When he realized that the motorcycle gang had passed and just a bunch of tourists remained, he stuffed the gun in the pocket of his pants, again in a not much confidence-inducing manner. Andy just checked that all four bikes were there and we drove off, turning off this street as soon as we could. I was really quite shaken. Though we have seen a couple of firearms on this trip so far, none ever had been waved around like that.

crossing this bridge to get to the swimming place

crossing this bridge to get to the swimming place

The river spot was very secluded and quiet so we all spent some time sitting on the edge talking. Andy sprinted into the water for a swim but was only joined by Victor in the end. The day was overcast and not hot enough for me to get in. Flo put his feet in but not more.

Another short ride away, up in the hills, we had lunch at a local warung. Andy knows all the good places around here and ordered Nasi Campur for the whole group. Suddenly, while eating, I felt sick again but luckily not enough so to throw up. It was 2pm by now so Flo and I waved good bye to the gang and headed back to headquarters to get our stuff done.

Everybody else arrived back at “AS coffee” at around 4.30pm where Andy concluded the ride out with a scoop of chocolate ice cream and some cakey-fudgy-thingy for everyone. So yummy! Flo then went on to take apart our broken charger cable for the laptop. This time, he had a much better chance of fixing it as he was allowed to use Andy’s “man cave” work bench with tools and a soldering iron. We even got to polish our shoes because they really, really needed it by now.

Soldering the Surface cable ...

Soldering the Surface cable …

In the evening, Andy introduced us to “Mondo Enduro”, a film which we know from hearsay as it is a classic but haven’t gotten around to watching yet. So we watched most of it but then take away dinner arrived and we were interrupted by it.

Dinner was shared by all of the Scooby gang again which was lovely as this way, we got to say good bye to everyone. The plan for tomorrow was to start quite early and we weren’t sure who would be up by this point.

Day 124 – Bikes, big and small

I have been in contact with Andy for a while before we came here and he was helping me to sort out a spare part that was getting urgent. The brake pads on the front breaks (the Transalp has two disks on the front wheel) where getting precariously close to the wear indicator. Luckily, there is one bike sold in Indonesia that uses the same pads (for the most part), the “enormous” CBR 250 ABS. Although the parts list say that only the right side is compatible, I found that the same model could be used for the left side if a spacer from the old set is reused.

Andy found a shop that at least has one pair and was going to drop me off there to get things worked out from here (and check on the state of one of his bikes in the shop). When we turned up they did not only produce one but two sets of pads for me, so all I had to do was get Rocinante and fit them to be 100% sure. Andy rode us to where Rocinante was safely stored away and showed me the way back to the shop. I was back there in no time.

The engineer who rode my bike into the shop got jealous stares from everyone else. I was more worried about my bike. Sure, the Indonesians can ride, but they are used to half the weight and power. At least they picked the tallest guy in the shop and he could almost reach the ground with his feet …

The work was done in 10 minutes and once we found the ABS reset plug everything was good to go. Both sides fitted. It was just in time as well as the old ones both were down to 0.7mm and the wear indicator.

Later that day, I got to use Andy’s tools (well, a rubber mallet) to have a go at my dented pannier. It worked pretty well. I hope the fancy mounting brackets of the ZEGA II pro will last the rest of the trip though. They are starting to bend and warp all over.

The rest of the day was a continuation of yesterday. Chilling, good conversations and a great dinner from Andy. This time we got his take on Indonesian food. I tell you, the eggplants in chilli were to die for! Later I found out that Andy is not only a good cook but also magically efficient in getting the kitchen back into shape. Colour me impressed!

Day 122 – On to Yogyakarta

I wasn’t really doing much better today. However, we both agreed that being so close to Yogya and with us not liking Solo that much, I needed to be tough and get through this day before crashing.

In Solo

In Solo

After breakfast, we tried the Batik quarter again, just to see if more shops were open in the morning. A couple more were open at 8 am but maybe this was now a bit too early for this rather sleepy town. Anyhow, that fancy shop yesterday with its hand-drawn batiks and natural colours had an impact on me liking the printed cloth now and I didn’t find a new sarong to add to my collection. Those fancy ones were really nice and way out of our price range though.

Slightly disappointed, we walked back and headed into one more Batik department store before we reached the hotel. The AC had cooled it down to icy cold so we took our time browsing the clothes and fabrics. Flo found a shirt that he really, really liked but all the sizes were too big on him until staff undressed a mannequin for him to get a smaller size available. We ended up buying it because it’s really, really nice and fancy. Yes, it cost more than we wanted to spend and yes, the price was still laughably small if Flo would still earn. So we went for it as it was one of the things we had agreed on before even starting the trip: New sarong for me, batik shirt for Flo. With the very limited space that we have, this seems a good compromise between not buying anything and wanting to have souvenirs.

Nice views despite the clouds

Nice views despite the clouds

Back in the hotel, we packed…I had a good round of vomiting…and we left for the temple Candi Sukuh halfway up Gunung Lawa. This was the only thing for today before heading to Yogyakarta. I was dreading the temple due to our experience in Bali but it turned out to be a very small one, unused by now with only one “warung souvenir”, no hawkers and almost no other tourists.

The temple itself is undergoing some maintenance at the moment which was a pity but the views down to the Solo plain were still great. We didn’t take long to move through the area once but it was lunch time by the time we moved on.

Only a couple of kilometers away, we stopped at a warung where I tried some plain rice in the hopes of keeping it but had to ditch my lemon squash as my stomach sent a clear “too early” message. Flo liked his food and the home-made sambal though.

Spelling again ...

Spelling again …

Finally, we were on our way to Yogya. Andy and Shinta who we met on Flores quite a while back have a cafe and a home stay where we were headed to crash a couple of days. In my perception, the last 100 km took forever but we arrived at the “AS coffee” at around 4 pm with neither Andy nor Shinta around. Staff was lovely though, telling us that Andy would be back at 6 pm so we settled down for a coffee. Despite my stomach, I had to try the “Java chocolate” and was drinking it in tiny sips to make sure it’s okay.

At some point, Andy called and we were invited to come to his other place which has a pool to hang out and drop our bike there as it has secure parking. That’s what we did.

Andy's cats chilling

Andy’s cats chilling

When we arrived, Andy and four backpackers were just getting ready to get food so we passed on the pool for now and tagged along. Since our bike would spend the night here, Andy sorted us with a small local bike which Flo loved instantly. We followed the jeep to a roadside warung which had quite the selection of unusual warung food, including sea snail skewers, whole roasted quail and cow skin. I still stuck to coconut rice and a bit of tofu though, not trusting the peace completely. It was good food. Andy collected the remaining meat scraps to take home for his four adopted cats and we went back to the cafe.

Cafe is probably a bit misleading as most of the space is filled with goods of Indonesia that you can buy. It is all very colourful and you can spend way too much money here: batik, leather bags and wallets, silver jewelry, clothes and all kinds of nifty tidbits. Of course, there are also tables inside and outside to sit at for your coffee and four cats running around….well, mostly sleeping really. A very home-y place.

The day had been long enough for me though so I headed straight upstairs to our room and slept while Flo shared stories and a beer with Andy.

Day 120 – Crashes

This could have been an uneventful day. Our only goal for today: Eat miles! With over 350 km to go till Solo, our next “want to see” item on the list, it was clear that we had to stop somewhere along the way, but no place was coming forward as a logical stopping point. All we did was set a route as far south as possible and got going. To force us south and avoid going through the busy and populated middle I set a waypoint on what I thought to be the last proper road somewhere half way between Malang and Pacitan.

This looks promising, and less traffic as well.

This looks promising, and less traffic as well.

After a light breakfast we got on the road early and were in for the first section of pain. The urban traffic of Malang was exhaustingly slow going. I would not mind if there were a ring road or motorway around, but everyone has to go right through the heart of the city. Two hours later we had covered maybe 20 km.

From here on out it got better, but in no way enjoyable. It seems that every possible stretch of flat land on Java is one endless settled mess. Rubbish, vehicle, people all moving about each other. The roads are good but full. It was one long exercise in overtaking. Everything was made even harder by a bunch of the worst drivers in Indonesia to this point. In ascending order: slow cars – Mostly new ones, so I expect inexperienced drivers plus tiny 800cc engines. Black Mitsubishi pickups – The primary means of short range haulage, most drivers think they are the main character in Gone in 60 seconds. Plus, they constantly try to squeeze in with the bikes and block everything. But the crown of jerks must go to bus drivers – The number of times we have seen these 10t death wielders force others off the road in just three short days is shocking. They stop where they want, they go where they want and I am sure if they were allowed to mount crash bars they would start pushing the people in front out of their way.

3 more seconds. See the deep rut on the right?

3 more seconds. See the deep rut on the right?

It was on a more densely settled stretch that we witnessed our first accident. We heard it mostly. With the sound of a giant water bottle being crumpled, someone came off their scooter just behind us. We stopped to check a couple of meters down and saw the rider crumpled on the ground, but there were already a bunch of others on the case. Plus, people started looking at us. We were not directly involved, but maybe someone was distracted by us or something. We felt it prudent to leave to avoid getting into a pickle here.

Then suddenly 50 km on, the same road took a turn and everything became bliss. There were steep mountains on the horizon, and when we hit them, the traffic turned to a trickle. The road got windy and settlements ended. We had a short rest in this stunning scenery, at a spot where we could even see the sea. Further down, the road became this beautiful brand new strip of tarmac, leading along the beach and sweeping on a new bridge over the river. And then, it stopped. The brand new road ended in a gravel track. On the GPS I saw another road maybe 500m down, and the gavel was not looking too bad. Even after a small river crossing … see, there was the other road, 50m ahead, just up the … very steep washed out track. Hmm. Nina got off and thus catastrophe commenced. Ten meters short of the seal, I hit a rut and dropped the bike. Nina was there in no time and we got the bike up again. A check revealed only minor damage. Good. When I got back up, Nina let go of the bike due to a miscommunication on my part and I fell hard into the exact same rut. Sandstone! This time, one of the paniers got a dent and a bunch of nasty scrapes and our mood was down to arctic levels.

The dent can be bashed back out, miffed about the sticker though ...

The dent can be bashed back out, miffed about the sticker though …

After a long breather and an assortment of curse words, we were now on the right road. Only to learn that it too would end just around the corner. So would every other, leaving only gravel tracks to go further. It turns out that I marked a gravel track as our waypoint and have led us into a 35km dead end 🙁 – Ah well, at least these were the nice 35 km. That, unfortunately also removed all hope to get to Pacitan in time tonight. Back where we took the wrong turn, I checked for hotels along the road and found two about 45 km further along. It would be a bit of a push but that seemed doable.

What followed was one of the nicest stretches of road in Indonesia, yet. A winding road led over the mountains towards the sea again. There was barely any traffic. The views were gorgeous and our spirits rose while our butts started to cave. We made it to Panggul on the coast by 5pm and the hotel was within our price range. We even found a warung with a lovely owner staying open for us so that we could get a dinner.

Day 118 – Overdue (Stats 103 Timor-Leste)

cc-by Nicolas Raymond

cc-by Nicolas Raymond

A lot of little things to do accumulate when we are travelling. Most of the time, we do not get through all of them in our evening downtime. Or the required facilities are not around (WiFi, Laundries etc). So the little scratches, tears and aches accumulate, until it is time to just not move, rest, watch a movie and get through our homework.

We stayed in our Probbolingo hotel for one more day. They had WiFi, a good warung across the street and bug-free beds (I murdered a lone bedbug, but I feel that we have brought that with us).

We got our mid-term plans for Indonesia to Malaysia shipping and a visit to my dad in Thailand over Christmas / New Year’s sorted out in concept. There is even time to finally do the Timor-Leste stats post. So here we go. Continue reading →