1st to 10th of Dec - Sibolga, Bukittinggi, Jambi, Palembang, Lampung, Jakarta
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1st of December - Tuk Tuk to Sibolga, ~200 km, 5 h incl. pauses
From Tuk Tuk I headed North and it was really a nice ride along the coast of the Samosir Island in the middle of this mega volcano crater.
On the other side of the island a bridge connects to the mainland and I took the road up to Tele (yes, also the real name), a great ride in the mountains. The following 70km to Tarutung went relatively fast.
That’s when I made the wrong decision to drive further to Sibolga instead of staying up there. Only 66km it said…but never stopping hardcore rain followed and not 50 meters of this “road” were straight, potholes, in one place they just bombed a tunnel into the mountain with no asphalt in it but 30cm of water.
Two times my back wheel came sliding over the bad asphalt pothole road. Wow, that was like driving on soap. I screamed to myself under the helmet: Watch out you idiot! There was oil on the road and in the beginning I thought the oil on the street came from trucks and cars losing it but then I discovered that the oil was driven out of the bad asphalt patches by the heavy rain.
Very late I arrived in Sibolga on the West coast of Sumatra (the last 2.5h I drove in the darkness) and water poured out of my jacket when I asked at the main bus terminal for a hotel. In the end I found one, I lost so much water in the lobby that they had to clean up all the mess around me…30 Euro, a relatively high price for Indonesia and the room was just rubbish; but I didn’t really care. I heard the sea outside working hard on the concrete barriers.
I liked these Batak houses
of course they have TV; what do you think?! :-)
views from Samosir island
on the way up to Tele...looking back: a great ride
2nd of December - Sibolga to Bukittinggi, 380km, 8 h incl. pauses
I think this is world record time but it was sooo dangerous.
CRAZY, these roads, the traffic, the car drivers. Egoism pure…this does not fit at all to the friendly Asian mentality of community and family. The minivans would just stop in the middle of the road to pick up someone or if there is no one to pick up they just wait + everybody has to cruise around…traffic jams and chaos in the smallest villages around the market place or the one and only crossing in the village. Chaos.
That makes one really wild, so one will pull the trigger once outside of this mess which is of course dangerous. And outside of these villages and towns? Wild East. Once they overtake, they will, no matter what comes or is in their way. So you better slow down a bit and get off the road if u can. If you cannot brake anymore and there is no space to move just go on the edge of the road and pray when they pass by, sometimes in a 10-20cm distance. So fu_____ dangerous!
When I finally reached Bukittinggi and checked-in in the hotel I didn’t see that the mosque was on the backside approx. 200m away. When I found out it was too late and I thought, ok, wakeup call from the Muezzin at 6h in the morning…anyway I should start very early because the next day I wanted to drive more than 500km. Well, at 4 am I got my wakeup call. Are they nuts? I remembered the words of a customs officer in Medan while waiting for the motorbike papers “you know, the Muslim cannot work that hard because they always have to pray”… HE said this.
I woke up from the voice of a woman (?!) reading the Koran, I guess. After approx. 15 min the Muezzin started, then the woman read again her text over the megaphone, then my friend the Muezzin made the next round and on and on. Sometime after 6 am I got some sleep again when my alarm clock rang. Hard.
I remembered as well when I passed through one of the cities on my way before that on a 4 lane road with a separation wall in between all of a sudden cars and trucks came towards me. Again I thought they are just nuts. After a km I saw the reason: on the other lane in front of the mosque all the people were praying with their carpets on the street. No comment, just amazing.
shortly before Bukittinggi. An impressive moment.
Bukittinggi views
3rd of December - Bukittinggi to Jambi, 560 km, 10 hours!
Well, as said I had my early wake up. So I went the 500m from the hotel to the bridge at Fort de Kock spanning to the next hill with a traditional house on top. Around this hut they did arrange a zoo…poor animals. One Orang-Utan hung in the fence and we examined each other for 5 minutes. He made no move. When I left his eyes still followed me the staircase up.
From Muarabungo onwards trucks, trucks and trucks. There must be mines up there. Indonesians told me about their bad economy…how can it be that there are thousands of trucks and cars on the road if the economy is such bad? Is corruption the reason for this misfit?
At a roadside restaurant (I am always the center of attraction when I stop somewhere, also in the cities the people will look or stare at me; foreigners are quite seldom here. The children between 2 and 7 years are just amazed… In one case a father with his son came to me and introduced his son. The boy shyly offered me his hand and when I shook it he took my hand and touched with my hand his forehead in a gesture; I didn’t know that I am a saint, hopefully I am not because then I wouldn’t be alive, or?:-))
When I felt I should look for a petrol station to fuel up I saw the first one closed…ok, then take the next one… while wondering about all those wooden shacks and booths on the roadside offering petrol in canisters and bottles on wooden shelves. The next petrol station after 40km was also closed. So I clenched my teeth and thought another 50km I can go but then…In the end I had to stop at one of those booths and I made sure with hands and feet that I didn’t want to have an gasoline/ oil mix which many of the motorbikes use here. Again very friendly people and no bargaining at all.
I tried to find out why all those petrol stations are closed in the country side…economy is bad I understood….hmmm.
On a small map of Jambi I saw before that there should be a Novotel. Well it was after 8 pm and since 2h I drove through the darkness in dense traffic…I was done for the day and I thought why not.
Later I found out that the hotel was no Novotel any more, now called Novita, room and all facilities rubbish and crap, mosquitos in the room... So, Novotel stepped out as they did also in Medan, from what I heard. Even a renovation would not meet any western standard because some of the ceiling heights are far below average…but at least no Muezzin at 4 in the morning.
4th of December - Jambi to Palembang; 280 km, 4.5 hours
I have no choice, I have to make my way out of Sumatra. I have to service my bike which troubles me awfully in the never ending traffic jams when the motor just stops and I have to re-start again…in such kind of traffic one always have to try to keep moving even though it is only 1km/h.
And I also want to leave Sumatra. In Berastagi, in this Raymond Café, I met a British guy briefly and he told me that Sumatra and Java is all crap. He lives with his Indonesian wife on and off in Indonesia and he had not many good words for the country. I couldn’t believe at that time…but yes, the dirt and dust, the garbage, the pollution reminds me now again of India.
Of course I did not see all parts of Sumatra…for me the most beautiful part was Lake Toba and its surrounding. The rest…hmm.
The asset of Sumatra is its friendly and helpful population: Really nice people.
Palembang to Bandar Lampung, 460 km, 9 hours
Horrible to get out of Palembang, traffic jam all the way out. Truck, truck, truck, bus, bus, truck, car, car, truck, truck. And motorcycles everywhere in between. I took partially the curb/ shoulder in order to make at least some progress. That is what I did also the days before. When everyone tries to overtake everyone and finally everyone got stuck I tried my way on the left hand side beside the road on the gravel (if there was otherwise on the grass or dirt), on intersections, between vegetable booths and whatever there was along the road. I think I shocked many people but when I stopped at “restaurants” and I see some of the people again, especially the motor bikers with thumbs up, all of them impressed by the show. :-)
Trust your navi, this time it did a great job. A big sign showed left to Lampung, my navi send me straight. A great choice because on the next 100km I met only motorcycles and some cars and trucks. I passed through nice villages with really neat houses without garbage in front, banana plantations…how can it be that in this area the people take care of their homes whereas in the rest of Sumatra except Lake Toba not at all?
I stopped at a nice looking restaurant (the only one on this remote way). The few guests engaged with me, only one spoke a little bit of English and I got nice vegetarian food with fresh vegetables, 2 coffees and water and the guy told me it is for free, it is part of my adventure :-) When this guest with his family left I still tried to pay for my food but the restaurant personal pointed to me that I am invited. So kind these people…they were so happy that I stopped at their restaurant.
Later my navi wanted to send me different ways but actually there was only one paved road so I continued and ended finally on another bigger road. Another 100km I was lucky to meet not too many trucks. But approx. 80 km before Lampung this came to a sudden end and the rest was just awful and painful…I used again my tactic, going on the shoulder of the road, in order to just keep going.
Before dawn I made it to Lampung...happy me!
Palembang
Even though forbidden: I just stopped on that bridge to take some fotos. Nobody cares anyway.
That's Golden Gate feeling or? :-))
But in traffic like this driving is like heaven in Indonesia. No joke.
The Indonesian way to unload a truck. I saw many scenes like this...as I said, like India.
One can see the dirt in the air..
one of the nicer market places in a village..
and then I drove through these clean and neat villages. How can it be that in this area the people really care and in other regions not at all?
I stopped at this nice restaurant, actually the only one I saw on a stretch of 80km. Lovely owners and guests. The one guest in front of me translated for the rest of the restaurant.
The restaurant owners invited me and said it was an honor for them, that I stopped there and spent my time with them. Such lovely people.
School is over.
I cannot recommend someone to come to Sumatra for motor biking, it is really like India or maybe even worse because the people go much faster here. Every single second you have to be 150% alert. Not one single second relaxation or looking into the nature or environment left or right. If you look straight again after a second someone ahead will attack you even on a straight road (rare here). You go on your lane and you think everything is alright; for sure somebody on the other lane will overtake and just push you off the street. If they are friendly they flash their headlights before they sheer out, if they are not that friendly they will just pull out. That means a 9 hour’s drive goes to the absolute limit. I thought about the process the brain is going through: 1. capture the situation, 2. analysis of the situation, 3. calculation, 4. action. The brain does this every single second for 9 hours. Hardcore.
Like in the animal kingdom, you have to impress/ frighten the other one with size/ bigness and noise/ loudness. Well “noise” I have, one young driver of a minivan beside me at an intersection grinned and animated me…I pulled the trigger shortly: I saw the shock in his face about what noise came out of my “silencer”. About “size”: I discovered that it is the best to drive while standing. You can even feel the consideration of the car drivers who intend to overtake if they should really try. Maybe I look like a monster from the front, orange with a burning headlight + a black huge person with black helmet hovering over this subject. It doesn’t work always but in 70% of the cases.
6th of Dec - Lampung to Jakarta, 215km, 6.5h (!)+ ferry 2h
On the 90km from Lampung to Bakauheni I was relatively fast. The transfer with the ferry went smooth but then the way from the ferry terminal on Java to Jakarta: Horror! It took me 5 hours to cover the distance of 120km!! One is not allowed to take the toll way with the motorbike which is really a big sh___. One has to go through all these villages and cities on the way into Jakarta, a never ending traffic jam. And believe me I used every single chance to overtake no matter where, left, right, middle, beside the road…one simply cannot drive.
The following days I have to arrange my stuff in Jakarta, all is stress here because it takes always hours to cover the smallest distances. For the motorbike repair I went to the KTM shop but they have no technical service center in Jakarta. We just did the computer readout and then I searched for the big bike mechanic Hengky in Jakarta. The whole round took me a whole day. I left my bike there and went with the taxi to my hotel; distance 17km, 1.5h even though we took the toll way. The next day I went to Hengky and we took apart nearly the whole bike, cleaned everything in order to make the motor again running smoothly. Other things to be done are my visa extension, payment of outstanding bills in Germany, fax some documents for my insurances…very nice, you never get rid of those things…
From Tuk Tuk I headed North and it was really a nice ride along the coast of the Samosir Island in the middle of this mega volcano crater.
On the other side of the island a bridge connects to the mainland and I took the road up to Tele (yes, also the real name), a great ride in the mountains. The following 70km to Tarutung went relatively fast.
That’s when I made the wrong decision to drive further to Sibolga instead of staying up there. Only 66km it said…but never stopping hardcore rain followed and not 50 meters of this “road” were straight, potholes, in one place they just bombed a tunnel into the mountain with no asphalt in it but 30cm of water.
Two times my back wheel came sliding over the bad asphalt pothole road. Wow, that was like driving on soap. I screamed to myself under the helmet: Watch out you idiot! There was oil on the road and in the beginning I thought the oil on the street came from trucks and cars losing it but then I discovered that the oil was driven out of the bad asphalt patches by the heavy rain.
Very late I arrived in Sibolga on the West coast of Sumatra (the last 2.5h I drove in the darkness) and water poured out of my jacket when I asked at the main bus terminal for a hotel. In the end I found one, I lost so much water in the lobby that they had to clean up all the mess around me…30 Euro, a relatively high price for Indonesia and the room was just rubbish; but I didn’t really care. I heard the sea outside working hard on the concrete barriers.
I liked these Batak houses
of course they have TV; what do you think?! :-)
views from Samosir island
on the way up to Tele...looking back: a great ride
2nd of December - Sibolga to Bukittinggi, 380km, 8 h incl. pauses
I think this is world record time but it was sooo dangerous.
CRAZY, these roads, the traffic, the car drivers. Egoism pure…this does not fit at all to the friendly Asian mentality of community and family. The minivans would just stop in the middle of the road to pick up someone or if there is no one to pick up they just wait + everybody has to cruise around…traffic jams and chaos in the smallest villages around the market place or the one and only crossing in the village. Chaos.
That makes one really wild, so one will pull the trigger once outside of this mess which is of course dangerous. And outside of these villages and towns? Wild East. Once they overtake, they will, no matter what comes or is in their way. So you better slow down a bit and get off the road if u can. If you cannot brake anymore and there is no space to move just go on the edge of the road and pray when they pass by, sometimes in a 10-20cm distance. So fu_____ dangerous!
When I finally reached Bukittinggi and checked-in in the hotel I didn’t see that the mosque was on the backside approx. 200m away. When I found out it was too late and I thought, ok, wakeup call from the Muezzin at 6h in the morning…anyway I should start very early because the next day I wanted to drive more than 500km. Well, at 4 am I got my wakeup call. Are they nuts? I remembered the words of a customs officer in Medan while waiting for the motorbike papers “you know, the Muslim cannot work that hard because they always have to pray”… HE said this.
I woke up from the voice of a woman (?!) reading the Koran, I guess. After approx. 15 min the Muezzin started, then the woman read again her text over the megaphone, then my friend the Muezzin made the next round and on and on. Sometime after 6 am I got some sleep again when my alarm clock rang. Hard.
I remembered as well when I passed through one of the cities on my way before that on a 4 lane road with a separation wall in between all of a sudden cars and trucks came towards me. Again I thought they are just nuts. After a km I saw the reason: on the other lane in front of the mosque all the people were praying with their carpets on the street. No comment, just amazing.
shortly before Bukittinggi. An impressive moment.
Bukittinggi views
3rd of December - Bukittinggi to Jambi, 560 km, 10 hours!
Well, as said I had my early wake up. So I went the 500m from the hotel to the bridge at Fort de Kock spanning to the next hill with a traditional house on top. Around this hut they did arrange a zoo…poor animals. One Orang-Utan hung in the fence and we examined each other for 5 minutes. He made no move. When I left his eyes still followed me the staircase up.
From Muarabungo onwards trucks, trucks and trucks. There must be mines up there. Indonesians told me about their bad economy…how can it be that there are thousands of trucks and cars on the road if the economy is such bad? Is corruption the reason for this misfit?
At a roadside restaurant (I am always the center of attraction when I stop somewhere, also in the cities the people will look or stare at me; foreigners are quite seldom here. The children between 2 and 7 years are just amazed… In one case a father with his son came to me and introduced his son. The boy shyly offered me his hand and when I shook it he took my hand and touched with my hand his forehead in a gesture; I didn’t know that I am a saint, hopefully I am not because then I wouldn’t be alive, or?:-))
When I felt I should look for a petrol station to fuel up I saw the first one closed…ok, then take the next one… while wondering about all those wooden shacks and booths on the roadside offering petrol in canisters and bottles on wooden shelves. The next petrol station after 40km was also closed. So I clenched my teeth and thought another 50km I can go but then…In the end I had to stop at one of those booths and I made sure with hands and feet that I didn’t want to have an gasoline/ oil mix which many of the motorbikes use here. Again very friendly people and no bargaining at all.
I tried to find out why all those petrol stations are closed in the country side…economy is bad I understood….hmmm.
On a small map of Jambi I saw before that there should be a Novotel. Well it was after 8 pm and since 2h I drove through the darkness in dense traffic…I was done for the day and I thought why not.
Later I found out that the hotel was no Novotel any more, now called Novita, room and all facilities rubbish and crap, mosquitos in the room... So, Novotel stepped out as they did also in Medan, from what I heard. Even a renovation would not meet any western standard because some of the ceiling heights are far below average…but at least no Muezzin at 4 in the morning.
4th of December - Jambi to Palembang; 280 km, 4.5 hours
I have no choice, I have to make my way out of Sumatra. I have to service my bike which troubles me awfully in the never ending traffic jams when the motor just stops and I have to re-start again…in such kind of traffic one always have to try to keep moving even though it is only 1km/h.
And I also want to leave Sumatra. In Berastagi, in this Raymond Café, I met a British guy briefly and he told me that Sumatra and Java is all crap. He lives with his Indonesian wife on and off in Indonesia and he had not many good words for the country. I couldn’t believe at that time…but yes, the dirt and dust, the garbage, the pollution reminds me now again of India.
Of course I did not see all parts of Sumatra…for me the most beautiful part was Lake Toba and its surrounding. The rest…hmm.
The asset of Sumatra is its friendly and helpful population: Really nice people.
Palembang to Bandar Lampung, 460 km, 9 hours
Horrible to get out of Palembang, traffic jam all the way out. Truck, truck, truck, bus, bus, truck, car, car, truck, truck. And motorcycles everywhere in between. I took partially the curb/ shoulder in order to make at least some progress. That is what I did also the days before. When everyone tries to overtake everyone and finally everyone got stuck I tried my way on the left hand side beside the road on the gravel (if there was otherwise on the grass or dirt), on intersections, between vegetable booths and whatever there was along the road. I think I shocked many people but when I stopped at “restaurants” and I see some of the people again, especially the motor bikers with thumbs up, all of them impressed by the show. :-)
Trust your navi, this time it did a great job. A big sign showed left to Lampung, my navi send me straight. A great choice because on the next 100km I met only motorcycles and some cars and trucks. I passed through nice villages with really neat houses without garbage in front, banana plantations…how can it be that in this area the people take care of their homes whereas in the rest of Sumatra except Lake Toba not at all?
I stopped at a nice looking restaurant (the only one on this remote way). The few guests engaged with me, only one spoke a little bit of English and I got nice vegetarian food with fresh vegetables, 2 coffees and water and the guy told me it is for free, it is part of my adventure :-) When this guest with his family left I still tried to pay for my food but the restaurant personal pointed to me that I am invited. So kind these people…they were so happy that I stopped at their restaurant.
Later my navi wanted to send me different ways but actually there was only one paved road so I continued and ended finally on another bigger road. Another 100km I was lucky to meet not too many trucks. But approx. 80 km before Lampung this came to a sudden end and the rest was just awful and painful…I used again my tactic, going on the shoulder of the road, in order to just keep going.
Before dawn I made it to Lampung...happy me!
Palembang
Even though forbidden: I just stopped on that bridge to take some fotos. Nobody cares anyway.
That's Golden Gate feeling or? :-))
But in traffic like this driving is like heaven in Indonesia. No joke.
The Indonesian way to unload a truck. I saw many scenes like this...as I said, like India.
One can see the dirt in the air..
one of the nicer market places in a village..
and then I drove through these clean and neat villages. How can it be that in this area the people really care and in other regions not at all?
I stopped at this nice restaurant, actually the only one I saw on a stretch of 80km. Lovely owners and guests. The one guest in front of me translated for the rest of the restaurant.
The restaurant owners invited me and said it was an honor for them, that I stopped there and spent my time with them. Such lovely people.
School is over.
I cannot recommend someone to come to Sumatra for motor biking, it is really like India or maybe even worse because the people go much faster here. Every single second you have to be 150% alert. Not one single second relaxation or looking into the nature or environment left or right. If you look straight again after a second someone ahead will attack you even on a straight road (rare here). You go on your lane and you think everything is alright; for sure somebody on the other lane will overtake and just push you off the street. If they are friendly they flash their headlights before they sheer out, if they are not that friendly they will just pull out. That means a 9 hour’s drive goes to the absolute limit. I thought about the process the brain is going through: 1. capture the situation, 2. analysis of the situation, 3. calculation, 4. action. The brain does this every single second for 9 hours. Hardcore.
Like in the animal kingdom, you have to impress/ frighten the other one with size/ bigness and noise/ loudness. Well “noise” I have, one young driver of a minivan beside me at an intersection grinned and animated me…I pulled the trigger shortly: I saw the shock in his face about what noise came out of my “silencer”. About “size”: I discovered that it is the best to drive while standing. You can even feel the consideration of the car drivers who intend to overtake if they should really try. Maybe I look like a monster from the front, orange with a burning headlight + a black huge person with black helmet hovering over this subject. It doesn’t work always but in 70% of the cases.
6th of Dec - Lampung to Jakarta, 215km, 6.5h (!)+ ferry 2h
On the 90km from Lampung to Bakauheni I was relatively fast. The transfer with the ferry went smooth but then the way from the ferry terminal on Java to Jakarta: Horror! It took me 5 hours to cover the distance of 120km!! One is not allowed to take the toll way with the motorbike which is really a big sh___. One has to go through all these villages and cities on the way into Jakarta, a never ending traffic jam. And believe me I used every single chance to overtake no matter where, left, right, middle, beside the road…one simply cannot drive.
The following days I have to arrange my stuff in Jakarta, all is stress here because it takes always hours to cover the smallest distances. For the motorbike repair I went to the KTM shop but they have no technical service center in Jakarta. We just did the computer readout and then I searched for the big bike mechanic Hengky in Jakarta. The whole round took me a whole day. I left my bike there and went with the taxi to my hotel; distance 17km, 1.5h even though we took the toll way. The next day I went to Hengky and we took apart nearly the whole bike, cleaned everything in order to make the motor again running smoothly. Other things to be done are my visa extension, payment of outstanding bills in Germany, fax some documents for my insurances…very nice, you never get rid of those things…
