We are thoroughly enjoying our time riding across Java, there is so much to see and there is always a surprise around every corner. The people here are absolutely amazing too and are always so enthusiastic to hear about our journey.
A surprising fact about what isn’t even the biggest island in Indonesia, is that the population here is actually bigger than Russia’s! Java has a population of 151.6 million compared to Russia with 144.5 million. In terms of population density, that equates to 1,219 people per km2 here and 9 people per km2 in Russia. Now we know why the roads are so busy! To give those of you from the UK a better idea, the UK has a population density of 276 people per km2.
0 Comments
A big milestone reached today. It felt very special to us to reach this this point. We have another few days left in Sumatra before we ship the bikes to Malaysia.
We spent 34 days in Indonesia with 14 days waiting for our bikes in Bali and 20 days on the road from Denpasar to Tanjung Balai in Sumatra, covering the three islands of Bali, Java and Sumatra, a total distance of 3,414 kms averaging just 41km/hr. 27% of our whole journey completed! It’s been a mad ride across Indonesia especially in comparison to our first Leg across Australia where the roads were well maintained and empty. Riding in Indonesia requires you to learn a completely different and unnatural set of Road Rules, if you can call them that, in fact each of the three islands has a different set of rules we found. Firstly the amount of traffic is insane with a variety of different forms of transport with scooters being in the majority but with slow moving trucks, minibuses, various types of taxis, motorcycles with sidecars, mini buses and suicidal coaches all vying for a small evaporating piece of space on the road to move forward. We had to learn the rules fast or you would get nowhere or end up coming a cropper. Road conditions varied from deep washed out potholed gravel tracks in Sumatra to perfectly tarmac roads with barriers and white lines, but these are infrequent. Motorcycles are not allowed on the very good toll roads, although thanks to a Google navigation mistake we ended up on one for a few miles before being turned around by surprised but happy toll attendants. BIG beats small on the roads with trucks taking up both lanes but coaches (intercity busses) own the road and will do literally anything to move forward fast. The will overtake a line of trucks, cars and scooters at speed without considering oncoming traffic and we have witnessed them overtaking on blind corners at a blistering pace. We both very nearly came a cropper when a coach came around the corner towards us on the wrong side of the road leaning over at an impossible angle, Richard had to swerve off the road to avoid it and Lawrence was literally millimeters away from it as it finally tried to pull back into its own lane otherwise it would have run into a line of trucks coming the other way behind us! We have all this on a frightening video, so watch out on our YouTube channel for this (will be a few weeks before we publish). You have to “defend” your space otherwise others will push you out. You have to make normally unnatural maneuvers to get ahead otherwise you will be stuck behind a truck going 5km /hr belching out thick black smoke. Scooters drift out in front of you and join the road from side streets without looking or stopping. It’s scary but it works to a point, once you get used to it, traffic mostly flows and people don’t use horns or get angry at each other when somebody cuts in or forces them off the road in what we would deem a suicidal maneuver. We have seen some amazing sights as we traversed this country, witnessing the varying daily lives of people in poor, remote and rural communities to those in the big highly populated cities. We travelled during Ramadan which pretty much the whole population of Java and Sumatra follow, fasting from dawn until dusk, no drinks allowed, so finding food was a challenge, let alone a cold Bintang Beer at the end of the day, but there were benefits, some sections of the road were clearer than they would have been with fewer food street vendors and virtually no tourists so hotels were easier and cheaper to book. As you ride along the roads the mosques, of which there are many, are calling to prayer and frequently setting road blocks to fundraise, with people collecting cash donations. Most of the hotels we stayed in through the rural areas were very basic, cleanliness was not a priority, and sanitation was poor in a lot. In comparison to the cities where we managed to find better hotels and facilities but all represent good value if nothing else. What stands out for all of us is the people, no matter where we went they were very friendly especially if you try to communicate with them. A smile and an attempt at speaking their language, Bahasa, goes a long way and always starts a conversation, albeit it limited. Most wanted a photo taken with the bikes and us. Westerners are very few and far between, we might have seen 4-5 outside of Bali and only in hotels, so we were a novelty. It’s been a hell of a leg, physically challenging in the high heat and humidity. The riding itself has also been a challenge, weaving through traffic and navigating a plethora of obstacles, and an assortment of animals along the way- iguanas, water buffalo, chickens, cats and dogs. There are no car ferries from Sumatra to Malaysia but we found a post on a Web site saying there were rumors of a guy with a boat taking motorcycles across. He was contacted a few months ago to verify that he did indeed take bikes across, which was confirmed. It was a big punt to ride 3000kms to someone with a banana boat but it paid off and the shipping to Malaysia of the bikes went as planned and the four of us got up at 3am to catech fast ferry. Mark a friend from home who lives in Kuala Lumpur VERY kindly drove for 2 hours to collect us from the ferry port and drop us off at our hotel, another 2 hour drive. We are eternally grateful to him. It was wonderful to see him and saved us much hassle. Immensely appreciated. We collected the bikes this morning, import paperwork correct, almost, and rode the first few kms to our hotel in Kuala Lumpur in anticipation of our next leg of our journey through Thailand and Laos to the border of China. Memorable for sure. Today we went looking for a spot to take some iconic photos and a rice field seemed like the natural place. Well I got more than I bargained for and got the photo of all photos: “Bike Upside down in a rice field”. The locals were there in a flash to help us out with smiles and laughter. Bike was OK, Jude and I are OK, our riding gear has finally been christened and Winston got a mud bath. Having ridden in Vietnam many times now, it takes a lot to surprise us, particularly with what people can carry on their scooters. This guy did a pretty good job though and we saw him carrying two panels an hour later! We are now two days into our ride across Java and all is going well, despite the humidity. As we were advised, we are drinking plenty and keeping on the move as much as possible. As we mentioned in a previous post, we have shipped all our camping gear to Kyrgyzstan and are so glad that we did as it's an absolute relief to reach our accommodation, where airconditioning and cold showers are definitely the order of the day! We pay £14 a night for our rooms, which is pretty good value. Tomorrow we are hoping to visit Mount Bromo, an active Volcano that isn't too far from where we are tonight. Java is an amazing place but it is the most populous island in the world, so the roads are a bit mad here to say the least! If you haven't already done so, please visit our website www.2upfromdownunder.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel from there (free to do). We are supporting two great mental health charities through our ride the more subscribers we get the better for raising money and awareness of these two great causes and the work they do, Black Dog Ride in Australia and Mental Health Motorbike in the UK. Please help us to help them. Having waited a couple of weeks in Bali the bikes arrived with all the necessary paperwork in order and cleared by Customs. We booked a taxi to take us the short distance to the Jetfast warehouse where we unpacked the bikes and put the screens and mirrors back on. Lobo noticed that there was a nail protruding from the crate into his front tyre, luckily not deep enough to cause a puncture. Now for our first experience of riding in Indonesia on the chaotic roads and high humidity!
Still in Bali but have moved onto a tiny island off the coast called Gili Air.
Are Team 2up actually on a motorbike trip I can hear you asking! We are but we are still waiting for our bikes to clear customs. Our saying is, “when life gives you lemons, drink Margaritas on the beach (I know that should be limes but that didn’t work in this instance!)”. Again, the cost of accommodation here is unreal – we are a short walk to the most amazing beach and our villas are GBP14.00 per night including a fantastic breakfast served to us on our veranda. It’s cheaper to be on a motorbike tour than living at home! We do have some news on our bikes, they are in the country now and have been x-rayed, so we do just need customs to inspect them now. The wait is having a ‘knock on’ effect, as the time spent here is eating into our journey times to meet our guide in China, which is the one deadline we have to meet. We won’t be able to ride any faster through Indonesia, so we’ll have to ride longer days and have fewer rest days, but right now, that seems like a price worth paying! So where are we?
We landed in Bali on Friday night and found our way to an amazing place that Linda and Jude had found, miles away from any ‘hustle & bustle’ and a welcome contrast to the heat of Perth. We have a villa each and a lovely pool, these villas cost £30 per night, which was cheaper than camping in Australia! We have flown all our camping gear on to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan as we knew accommodation would be good value from here to China. Everything here was built by a local high priest and used to be a place where they trained monks, so the grounds are full of the most intricate temples and offerings are still left to the gods and ancestors 3 times a day. We have so easily relaxed into the way of life here, that we could go full ‘Marlon Brando’ (Apocalypse Now) if we stayed much longer! We will be moving on soon but need to be in Bali at least until the 9th when we hope our bikes will clear customs, it’s a holiday here until then. One funny story was our encounter with the immigration officers at Denpasar Airport, you know how these guys can be if they’re having a bad day. The queues were massive, we had to queue up to pay for our visas first and then show them at the immigration desks some 2 and a half hours later! We were full Team 2up in our T Shirts – Richard went through first with a few questions with Jude shortly after, she was quizzed as to whether she was a rider too and a bit more about our plans. Linda was after Jude and the desk next door opened up for me, so we both stepped forward. Linda’s guy had all the information he needed from Jude and was busy telling Linda about all the places we should visit while in Indonesia. He then left his desk to tell my guy all about our trip, my guy asks are we going to fish while we’re here and whips his phone out to show me all the best places to fish in Java and about a live volcano that we have to visit, they spent about 5 minutes with us - you couldn’t make this up! I could however feel a hundred pairs of eyes burning into us from the queues behind. Today we all fly out to Bali in Indonesia. We will leave a magnificent country and continent behind us and all the wonderful people we have met along the way, and start leg 2 of our journey with much to look forward to plus some new challenges as well. Both bikes have had their fuel drained, battery disconnected and crated by Auto Classic BMW Motorrad in Perth, Thanks guys, and have been collected by Jetfast, the shipping company for Airfreighting to Denpasar in Bali. They were originally scheduled to fly out on the same day as all of us but due to National Holidays and weekends we have had to delay their departure so as not to incur massive airport demurrage charges while waiting for the authorities to return to work and process the import paperwork. So we have to wait an extra 10 days in Bali. Nice you might think? Yes indeed, but 10 days is a long time in our schedule, almost the allotted time planned to travel from Bali to Malaysia, which will mean we will be under pressure to make up time to remain on schedule for our China entry date. We will also have to be navigating the every changing regulations on importing the bikes and license and insurance requirements. We have just under 3,000 kms to cover through Indonesia with poor, winding and crowded roads. It's going to be a challenge. There are Toll freeways in Indonesia but large motorcycles are not allowed to travel on them. It's considered too dangerous. Our average speed through Australia was 79km/hr and we never went above 100km/hr and we have planned to average 40km/hr on the roads of Indonesia, which might actually be a stretch, so we will have too ride longer days than our usual 4-5 hrs per day in order to catch up. To make things even more challenging its still Monsoon Season in Indonesia and today they have issued a EXCESSIVE HEAT warning with high temperatures and humidity in the high 90s plus tropical rains and thunderstorms. Oh Joy! This leg might be a challenge but on the other hand there is much to look forward to as we travel across the islands of Bali, Java and Sumatra and across to Malaysia: kind and generous people, their cultures and cuisine, magnificent landscapes and interesting customs. We all also be crossing the equator on this leg and into the northern hemisphere! We hope to get our first Video up on our YouTube channel while we wait in Bali so watch this space for more information. Thanks and see you in Bali! It has taken us 18 days to travel the 6,051 kms from Sydney to Perth with 2 and a half days off. It's a BIG country. 6,000 kms is like going from Wales to Tehran, and it represents about 17% of our overall distance to be travelled and about 15% of the riding days planned. We have taken the bikes to Tyres For Bikes in Perth for a new set of Tyres. A big thanks to these guys for fitting us in at short notice and getting them on the bikes in record time. The bikes have been dropped off at Auto Classic BMW in Perth for putting into shipping crates and providing the certificate for fuel evacuation and disconnecting the batteries, which is required in order to ship the bikes. Again a big thanks to Howard, Jonas, and Carl at BMW for all their help and taking all my calls over the past 12 months. For those interested here are our daily destinations and distances
|