Archive for the ‘Cycling’ Category

Day 331. 96km. Bandung – Warung Peuteuy

Posted: March 26, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia
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‘Come to my house!’
It was getting dark as I passed his house. What welcoming smiling faces after a day of traffic jams, fumes and noise.

Family

Family

Putrid air thick from the black fumes coughed out by the bikes, trucks and cars without filters. A packed road with trucks, cars between the trucks, and motorbikes between the cars – and then me, squashed between everything. Then there was the eternal noise of engines struggling up hills, or overtaking to get one car in front in the mayhem. And, to top it all off, my first serious banjir (blocked drainage causing the roads to turn to rivers). The traffic jam only lasted for 70km. The last 30km today had so few cars I could cycle at my own speed (in the rain).

Macet

Macet

Banjir

Banjir

Rain ahead

Rain ahead

Thanks Dony in Bandung for a great night last night!

Dony and team

Dony and team

Day 331. 96km. Puncak – Bandung

Posted: March 25, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia
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Java is one big traffic jam. My great warm showers host Dony said that shortly after Bandung this will no longer be the case, but today was a day of cycling through the car and motorbike fumes, weaving in and out traffic, and waiting when the road was so full, even a little bike couldn’t squeeze past. Macet.

Macet in Bandung

Macet in Bandung

I am staying with Dony in Bandung – a great cycling guy who has given me lots of advice on my route forward on Java. Again, a great community of cyclists. Thanks for the hospitality! Coming soon: beach, volcanoes, temples – and quiet roads. I’m looking forward to it!!

Day 330. 48km. Bogor – Puncak

Posted: March 24, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia
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Cramp. Already before lunch. Today was a stop-start affair – stopping to wait for the cramp to subside and then starting. Nafal (my warmshower host from Bogor) and I are at the top of the pass at Puncak in the nice, cool air, sleeping in the prayer room at the tourist information.

Me and Nafal

Me and Nafal

Three weeks of air-conditioned malls in Jakarta have taken their toll. My first hilly day in Sumatra was the same after a week of feeding in Singapore. Cramp. It’s very frustrating. I feel fine, and want to continue, but I know if I move it will hit, and when it does, I buckle over in agony. The heat, the bright sun and the steep road did it – I sweated all the salt out of my body.

Today I felt like a chain-smoker. The road heading up out of Bogor was bathed in car fumes and noise. Climbing a pass isn’t meant to be stopping and starting waiting for a free space on the road while struggling up a hill. At the first chance, we left the main road and took the alternative route – one that was steeper but with much less traffic.

Mountain view

Mountain view

We find ourselves perched on the top of the pass with a beautiful view out over the valley, with dark clouds and the flickering of lightening, and a beautiful, bright rainbow.

Rainbow

Rainbow

Day 329. 48km. Jakarta – Bogor

Posted: March 23, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia
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My 3 weeks in Jakarta have come to an end. No more living in an air-conditioned malls, and once more I hit the road – this time into the densest traffic I have experienced. Good-bye Pak Dion – my Indonesian guru, and hello Nafal and team in Bogor – my warmshower host!

Pak Dion and my certificate

Pak Dion and my certificate

My goodness the traffic is bad in Jakarta. Usually with a bike you can skirt around cars, and move forward. Not in Jakarta – the density of traffic is too high (the Pauli exclusion principle comes into play – little joke for the physics nerds).

Just out of Jakarta I hit 29000km.

29000km

29000km

For the first time I felt quite proficient in Indonesian. I’ve spent the whole evening with my new warmshower friends speaking Indonesian with only rare forays in English. It’s a cool team here, and a house with bikes everywhere. Thanks, Nafal for the great hospitality!

Nafal and the team

Nafal and the team

New video: Cycling from Singapore to Jakarta

Posted: March 18, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia, Singapore
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A 3 week rest and time to put together another video. This is my latest one, on the 2000km trip from Singapore to Jakarta through west Sumatra. I hope you like it!

Day 328. 44km. Tanjulgkait – Jakarta

Posted: March 17, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia
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‘The washing is taken at 12.00 – so now!’
Having arrived in civilization at my new abode in Jakarta, we had to gather up our clothes for washing very quickly. Clement gave me an armful of smelly rags and jumped into the shower. After the clothes were whisked away, Clement opened the door, naked, and realised he had absolutely nothing to wear. A day naked in Jakarta.

River in Jakarta

River in Jakarta

We cycled through some very run-down areas entering Jakarta. Endless slums, men working chest deep in open sewers on the side of the road. Two boys were diving in the brown slimy river looking for rubbish to recycle. I have been a naked captive of the hotel room today uploading blog posts while Clement went clothes shopping. We’re going out on the town now. ☺

No more blog posts for a while. I’ll be stopping in Jakarta for 3 weeks studying Indonesian. ☺

Day 327. 90km. Merak – Tanjulgkait

Posted: March 16, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia
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Java is like the Netherlands. Flat. Endless fields. Straight roads. Never mind the rice paddies and coconut palms. It has a different feeling to the west coast of Sumatra. It feels like one of the most densly populated pieces of land on the planet.

Village

Village

We stopped within reach of Jakarta for tomorrow – in a Chinese temple near the beach. An early stop gave us time to relax a bit, and for me to show Clement one of the videos that inspired me to go on my trip – The Road from Karakol. A must see.. ☺

Day 326. 126km. Tambak Rejo – Merak

Posted: March 15, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia
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The boys jumped off the massive ferry into the water below and were swimming for money. People threw a coin and there was a big frenzy of splashing as they fought for it. I would have liked to jump off the ferry into the cool waters below. I don’t know if I could have got back on the ferry, though.

On the boat to Java

On the boat to Java

Today we had a tailwind, and everything was easy. Before we knew it, we were blown to the port on Sumatra with boats to Java, and that is just where we went. Jakarta is getting near.

Day 325. 92km. Wai Krap – Tambak Rejo

Posted: March 14, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia
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Today we had an in depth discussion about mosquito control – or the lack thereof. Thanks to Clement’s sweet blood, I was spared by the mosquitos last night. The mosquitos couldn’t survive the constant rain, though, today. We survived, but only in the form of drowned rats.

Invited for lunch

Invited for lunch

The Indonesian people seem to be rather unworried about mosquitos. The toilets and showers are arranged to form an optimized mosquito breeding ground. In a little outhouse, the squat toilet is next to a small reservoir of water – like a deep bath made of concrete. A little bucket or scoop floats on the water which is used to flush the toilet or to throw water over yourself as a shower. The water is still, and there is a guarantee of juicy, ripe, naked flesh for any inhabitant mosquitos.
In Thailand and Malaysia there were fans everywhere, which can be used when sleeping to blow the mosquitos away. In Indonesia, there are no fans, and no mosquito nets. Instead, if people are worried about the mosquitos at all, they sleep under a blanket, also covering their face. If I were to attempt this, I would drown from my own sweat. People think that our mosquito net is cute, and chuckle a bit.

The high pass today was not too steep (compared to what we have already done on Sumatra), and the descent was perfect – not too steep, and straight. We’re sleeping in a truckie restaurant, ready for our (hopefully) last day on Sumatra tomorrow.

Day 324. 78km. Beach – Wai Krap

Posted: March 13, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia
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‘Duku. How much you pay?’
We told him.
‘Come. You can have gratis.’
I followed into the forest, and watched as the boy bolted up the verticle tree, laughing at my amazement, his sisters giggling at the bottom.

Picking duku

Picking duku

I would like to thank flat tyre number one for this experience. Being forced to stop at places you would otherwise zoom through is good sometimes. Flat tyre number two was a bit uneventful, though.

Then the road decided to do a West Sumatra on us, and started an incredibly steep climb. I have been spoilt with the number of food stalls on the way, and consequently don’t take too much extra food. Today I ran out of energy, and almost out of food.

The road climbed and climbed and I got slower and slower. Clement had stopped and was waiting for me. I wolfed down my peanut brittle that was in some deep recess of my bag, and a bag of peanuts. It was lovely to feel the energy return into my body, and my perceptions broaden from the narrow spectrum of suffering to hear the crickets chirping and monkeys hooting in the vibrant forest around me.

The road continued climbing and once again I was out of energy, but with no food this time. Luckily we passed the first shop for ages, and I roared in like a ravenous tiger and breathed down a packet of biscuits, two fried noodles with egg, and a big vat of rice. In this time Clement fixed a broken brake cable. We could then continue.

We find ourselves staying in an abandoned school with a guy fixing watches in a small room.

Watch maker

Watch maker

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