Eaten or sampled ! Funnily
enough, our bill for that meal
ended up being TWICE of what we
had paid for our room for that
night.
The following morning, we visited
the Harley Davidson showroom in
Medan, where we met Ijeck (Musa),
Eddy and Rudy, all of whom were
introduced to us by DiDi in
Malaysia. Wonderful people and
superb hospitality. musa even
invited us into his home for dinner,
where we had the opportunity to
meet his lovely family, to eat
a delicious meal and to play with a
golden tiger cub that they kept as
a pet !
The next day was a big day for us,
as we were to reunited our bikes
after a weak ! We drove to the port
that was about 2 hours from our
hotel and went directly to the
agent's office. We paid them about
300,000 Rupiah for each bike,
then went to the customs office,
picked up the custom officers,
went to the warehouse to enable
them verify our bikes and then
returned with the officers to the
customs office to get our carnet
stamps.. Phew !!
However, the process was smooth
and we did not face any problems.
I only got upset when I saw a hole
in one of my saddlebags and
Engine oil all over it. I could not
remove that oil through my entire
duration in Indonesia, even though
I tried hard to clean it !!
Islands of Sumatra and Java. we
managed by visiting small roadside
cafes and cooked up our own meals
(mostly eggs) in their kitchen ! We
also stocked up on cheese, bread
It was around 1 pm already. We got and tomatoes from the local chain
our bike, fixed our bags and
of supermarkets called IndoMart.
decided to ride to wherever we
We usually ended up halting at a
could reach that night. A local
beach or beside a river, under a big
biker from Medan, named Joe
tree to eat our food.
volunteered to accompany us on
his small bike, along with a few
Over the next 2 weeks, we rode
more riders. They helped open a
every single day, across Sumatra
pathway on the very crowded
and Java - by road and on ferries
roads, for 3 big bikes full of
between the islands. We had been
luggage ! Glad we had them
cautioned to stay off the roads at
around.
night, especially in Jawa. However,
for the entire duration, we could
And then our journey through
not manage to reach our night stop
Indonesia truly began ! As there
before 9-10 pm. We were thankful
was heavy traffic in the cities, we
that we faced no problems
decided not to use highways and
anywhere.
main roads. Instead we took
beautiful curved roads along the
One day, somewhere on the
scenic coastline.
roads of Java, we spotted a guy
walking alone. That got partner's
In Indonesia too, just like all the 7
attention. we pulled over and
previous countries we have ridden spoke to him. I could not
through, we did not book anything believe my ears ! This guy was on
in advance. we started our ride
a WALKING tour round the world
around 8 am each morning, used
! He started 6 years ago, has
Google Maps to navigate our
walked across continents and
journey on beautiful small roads,
has now reached Indonesia !
mounted on our bikes and rode till
we felt we were done for the day.
The world is full of incredible
people and in our journey we will
We arrived in the country during
surely meet many of them. we
the Holy month of Ramadan.
Hence we faced a real problem to just need to keep our eyes and
minds open.
find food, especially on the