West Sumatra – Page 2 – Simply cycling around

Bukittinggi, day off

Short day today. I’ve been mainly working on my blog because I’m still late and did not have the opportunity to write since I left Kediri.a I don’t like to show my laptop in some places. Not because I’m scared but because I don’t want people think they can not afford this. And most of the time, even if the place would be right to use it, I don’t have the time because I am chatting with locals every time I stop somewhere. My bike and trailer are too rare and often people tell me that : “It does not exist in Indonesia”. I feel some people are very happy to discover technology thought my stuff when some other envy me. This is difficult to explain that I like to buy expensive things that last more than several times the same cheap thing. Most of the Indonesian people can not save money like we do with our wonderful bank system. Anyway, today I’ve got a room for myself and all the time to work on my laptop without bother anyone.

Solok > Bukittinggi (76km, 5h30)

Keep it rough, this is how I enjoy life! I survived to 31 hours of Indonesian bus so I can certainly go a bit further now :-) Sumatra as started not really well like the rip off I experienced with the bus or the sad, polluted city of Solok. But quickly, everything came in place and as always Indonesian people are great! Contrary of what I’ve heard several times, Sumatra seems to be safe. I’m not going in big cities, that certainly explain one part and why I feel safe here. Nope, really it’s a bit rough here but I like it :-)

Bakauheni > Solok (1117km by bus, 31h)

How is 31 hours travelling by airplane? Painful? Scary? Sooo long? Okay, so I will tell you how is 31 hours in an Indonesian bus! In fact, I don’t mind the time. Normally I just sleep the whole way like I’ve done between Kutoarjo and Merak. But this trip was kind of different. The traffic in Indonesia can be seen as crazy compare to modern countries. People drive everywhere even on the wrong side of the road but everything is going slow and fluent. The dangerous one are the buses. They always go as quickly as they can like they are doing a race! They have a copilot who wave his arm out of the bus to clear the road when needed. I think during that trip, the bus drove more on the right side than on the left haha.