Sumatra – Page 3 – Simply cycling around

Bukittinggi > Lubuk Basung (70km)

Bukittinggi and its famous clock Jam Gadang. When I looked online to find some point of interest in Indonesia, this is one of them which came up. I bookmarked this on google maps and it became one of my goal destination. This morning I hanged around for an hour and hit the road towards the Sianok Canyon without knowing it would be that wonderful. I’ve just seen on google map that there was a shortcut and wanted to try it. Later on, I arrived to the lake Maninjau (another point of interest) and discover another wonderful place. I’ve finally ended on the other side and continue pedaling until dark. The last surprise of this day was when I met Rahmat who follow me on scooter and asked me for a photo. I finally spent the night with his family! Warning, this post has a lot of pictures. Enjoy!

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 :-)

Step, Kediri > Solok (354km + 1117km by bus, 7 days)

2 months is very short to visit the whole Indonesia (especially when I spend many days with people here :-). I’ve stopped nearly a month around different places because I’ve enjoyed the time and what I was doing. This is why I had the catch a bus for about 1700km across Java and Sumatra.

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.

Merak > Bakauheni (30km by ferry)

Well, I have spent the last 12 hours in a bus travelling from Kutoarjo to Merak. I did not really noticed which road we took. I did not really care about it because there was nothing to see at night. I’ve been half asleep the whole way expecting to be recharged and fresh when I would arrive to Merak. I was the last guy in the bus at the end and the driver had a moment of hesitation when he saw that I was still in the bus. Actually I was confused too. Did I miss the stop? I know it was the last stop so it should be ok. We clarified the situation and soon I had my feet on the ground and my bike to assemble again. The staff was looking at me and even helped me. They were very nice. Later on, I’ve been looking for a place where to get some breakfast. I knew the ferry here run 24/24 so time is not so important. I met a guy who was working not far away and spoke a bit of English. I had my breakfast and we chat maybe during an hour. He told me he has a friend who work in the ferry station and could help me. Well, OK, thank you. Finally I followed him and his friend who were driving a scooter. We passed across different entrances, I did not see any queue. When we arrived front of the “bridge” that goes to the ferry the guy told me “you can go”. “But where do I pay?” “This is OK”.