Good Bye Indonesia, Hello Malaysia

I had spent a lot longer in Indonesia than I had originally anticipated and although I had a great time and met many amazing people it was definitely time to move on to the next country and continue the adventure. Most people ship their bike to Malaysia from Medan, Sumatra but because I had made my Sumatra trip a return journey back to Java I decided to ship direct from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur to avoid back tracking the same roads. I knew the ride from Jogja to Jakarta would be a challenge for one day of riding, it was only 550km  but the traffic and road conditions meant that it was a 14 hour ride. The minute you get even remotely close to Jakarta the traffic comes to a standstill, the road was often that packed with cars and scooters that even weaving in and out of the traffic wasn’t an option. I was lucky to meet some local riders amongst the congestion and we took a little time out from the frustratiom of finding a way through the traffic to grab a coffee. These guys were kind enough to accompany me for the next 50 km (about 2 ½ hours) and I must admit the task of finding a path through the clutter of vehicles was a lot more bearable with the company.

I knew that the traffic would only get worse when I was in the city so I planned to stay the night in Bekasi, which was only 30km from Jakarta and do the ride into the city in the early hours of the morning. I hadn’t booked a hotel and by the time I had got into town it was 11pm and I was riding by myself again, I really wasn’t confident that I was going to find somewhere to stay. All of a sudden another local rider came up beside me at some traffic lights and asked to take a photo next to my bike. We talked for a while and I asked if there was any hotels in the area, he said he knew a cheap but good hotel and by the time we arrived 10 minute later a bunch of his motorbike friends there to greet me. This was a great example of the comradery that Indonesian riders share, we talked for a while and took a few photos before I headed up to my room to get some sleep before my 4am start the next day.

All my local friends had advised me to give Jakarta a miss on the motorbike and for good reason, the traffic is an absolute nightmare. Jakarta is the capital city of the worlds most populated island and with a population of around 29 million people in its surrounding areas it is an extremely congested city. The other thing that I found quite difficult to handle was the pollution, I was riding with my visor up because of the heat and at the end of the day my face was black with dirt and my skin broke out in a rash. Fortunately my GPS lead me to the office of my shipping agent without too much of a hassle and after a few hours of sorting out paperwork it was time to leave my baby in the hands of somebody else and for me to jump on a plane to Kuala Lumpur to do some exploring while I eagerly awaited my bikes arrival.

Orangutans and Elephants

Sumatra is known for being an island that is ideal for adventure riding and finding adventure in general, potholed roads wind there way through thick jungle covered mountains and past mirror surfaced lakes and active volcanoes. It is also known for being home to some of the worlds most endangered species of animals, the Sumatran Rhino, Tiger, Orangutan and Elephant are the big four animals that people hope to see during a visit here. The Orangutan and Elephant are the most accessible, thanks to sanctuaries that protect against deforestation and there was no way I was going to visit this island without visiting these amazing animals.
The Orangutan sanctuary was located in the mountain village of Bukit Lawang, it was like a jungle paradise, with guesthouses lining a fast flowing river and jungle on either side. I would have really liked to spend an extended amount of time trekking the jungle to see genuinely wild animals but time wasn't on my side so a day trip was my best option. The Orangutans were a mixture of "semi wild" ( ones that had been released into the sanctuary) and "wild" ( usually the babies of the
semi wild orangutans). I was pleasantly surprised that even though there were a large amount of tourists the guides kept a safe distance and even though these Orangutans  were used to people it felt as though you were visiting them in  their own environment and on their terms. Seeing the mothers and their babies in their small family groups was amazing, and looking into the sad eyes of these beautiful animals made the trip worthwhile. As my guide and I headed down the mountain to the river I got a reminder that these weren't domestic animals, we had been told there was an orangutan ahead of us which the guide was keen to see but he explained we had to be careful because these particular one was aggressive and had bitten many guides and recently even broken ones leg. We couldn't see her as we made our way down the steep track and all of a sudden we heard screaming and shouting from the group 100m behind us, my guide shouted at me to get down the track quickly and the look in his eyes told me he wasn't joking. We got to the river and as we waited at a beach to river tube back to the village we were eventually joined by the group behind us, apparently the female Orangutan had snuck up to the group and tried to attack them, one guide came away a little bruised but luckily there were no serious injuries. We river tubed some small rapids back to the village which was also great fun, I was even surprised to see western girls in bikinis along the river, a pretty rare sight outside of Bali, especially in Sumatra, which can be very conservative but the guide told me no one had an issue here because of the large amount of western tourists that came through the park. This was definitely a highlight of my trip (the Orangutans not the girls in bikinis), hopefully the conservation efforts continue to be a success.
Just outside of Lampung is the Way Kambas national park and Elephant sanctuary, another opportunity to see some amazing local wildlife. Once again I would have loved to see genuinely wild Elephants while doing a multiday trek but I was happy to take what I could get. I was in 2 minds about visiting Way Kambas, I have read plenty of articles about Elephants being ill treated in tourist parks but I thought it best to judge for myself. It was interesting to find out that there were still quite a few wild elephants in the surrounding area as well as the ones in the sanctuary and some of the elephant handlers told us to be very careful when we rode back to Lampung in the late afternoon. The Elephants were amazing, Sumatran Elephants are a smaller  type of Elephant but the adults were still huge and looked so powerful. One thing about Indonesia is that they let you get up and close to animals so it was pretty amazing when the curious babies came over to check us out, even these little guys were very strong and had to be treated with a great deal of respect. It would be wonderful to see these majestic animals roaming around freely in the wild so it was sad to see some of the adults with chains on, sure its easy judge but unfortunately these parks are necessary to preserve these animals. The absolute highlight was taking the bike onto a dirt road to do a little sightseeing, we stumbled across a family of elephants and the babies ran over to check us out, amazing!!! we didn't stay for long though because we didn't want to piss off the parents and I was a little worried that these little guys might get a little to interested in the bike and do some damage. This was another great experience, both the Elephants and Orangutans were a reminder to get off the bike and check out the scenery, there is so much to doing a motorbike trip than just riding.

Mount Bromo

Picture perfect Mount Bromo is Indonesia’s best known volcano and is the feature of many postcards, interestingly it is only one of five volcanos that sit inside the huge Tengger Caldera and an eruption of Bromo in 2004 killed 2 people, who were hit by flying rocks. The nearby mountain village of Cemoro Lawang is the starting point for most visitors and it is littered with hotels catering for the swarm of tourists that arrive every day to see the sunrise over the smoking volcano. The only way to get to the volcano and the viewing point of Mount Penanjakanis is by 4WD or motorbike across the vast “sea of sand” that sits on the bottom of the Tengger Caldera. It seems every person in the surrounding villages owns a restored FJ 40 Toyota land cruiser and has a business as a tour operator, the road side to mount Penanjakanis is full to capacity with cruiser after cruiser, it’s a great sight in itself. I began the ride up to the viewing point at the ungodly hour of 3am, being on motorbike meant I was easily able to pass by the traffic jam of FJ40’s heading up the steep, winding road. The photos that you see of Bromo seem so serene but the viewing area is anything but, there must have been well over 100 people crammed in waiting to see the sunrise. It was worth the wait, the sunrise was spectacular and I managed to get plenty of photos, now it was time to have some real fun, getting down the hill to go for a ride in the black sand and climb Bromo itself.

I met a group of young guys on KLX 150’s, I thought they were locals so I asked if I could tag along for some dirt riding and they were more than happy for me to come. It turned out that they were from Sumatra and this was their first visit to Bromo so none of us had any idea of where the best riding was, nonetheless we set off to explore the sandy trails at full throttle. After a bit of dirt riding we headed up to the smoking crater of Bromo, it was very impressive indeed. As per usual I managed to slip past the safety barrier for some better photos and convinced a very patient Japanese gentleman to take a few pictures for me. The boys from Sumatra headed home when we got to the bottom and I hung around to explore a little more of the sea of sand.

I had to cross the Calderra again to reach the city of Surabuya, this time the bike was fully loaded and a little more unstable in the thicker pockets of sand. It was great fun and after a few km’s I reached a deteriorated road that led up to the top of the mountain. The road was in terrible condition and was more rubble than road but I had a ball riding up and passing 4wd’s crawling their way along. Once at the top the road condition improved greatly and it wound its way through the mountains until it eventually eventually merged with the highway to Surabaya, good bye wilderness hello city traffic. I negotiated the traffic jam into town spending more time on the dirt sidewalk to get around the slow moving vehicles than on the road itself. Surprisingly it didn’t take too long and my friend Yudi organised someone to meet me and escort me to his garage. The bike had a safe place to stay so I could relax, giving the bike a thorough clean and mechanical check was on the agenda but that could wait until tomorrow.