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After seven months of cycling almost over 4'500 kilometers in the Indonesian archipelago (including the Malaysian Borneo + Brunei), we have touched down in mainland South East Asia.
It has certainly been a very interesting time and especially the two Indonesian islands of Flores and Sulawesi will surely rank as a highlight even at the end of this trip. But that is hopefully still far away.
Since my last travel log from Tuktuk, we have traversed North Sumatra from east to west and then descended into Aceh. The riding in North Sumatra is great: lots of mountains, beautiful vast valleys, lots of farm land, friendly people and little traffic. That's the way we like it. Oh, did I mention active volcanoes? Not? Yeah, there are active volcanoes in the Karo Highlands and as always, I had to climb up and had a look.
The rainy season has started in Indonesia and we certainly saw plenty of it. However, the rain patterns are pretty distinct. Usually it starts raining some when between 2 PM and 5 PM and somehow we managed to always either arrive early enough at our destination or duck under an awning before we got completely drenched. But one effect that the rain has in the mountainous areas is landslides. We crossed quite a few wash outs and saw many landslides. Some enormous ones from the previous year were still visible. Luckily for us, none of the new landslides made passage impossible just yet.
We therefore made it safely to the other side and down into Aceh. We tried to do some research about the infrastructure in Western Aceh before heading into that direction, but it proofed to be difficult to find reliable information. The 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami killed some 160'000 people in Aceh and also destroyed a good 400 kilometers of the main road. We were not sure if it had been rebuilt just yet. Neither were we sure about available accommodation.
The southern part of Aceh has been largely unaffected. The road is in excellent condition - probably the best road we had on this trip so far. It's a very scenic and laidback place with plenty of beautiful beaches, small villages and plenty of rice paddies. The fact that Sharia Law (strict Islamic law) is in place in Aceh was a bit of a concern to us. Generally, as a non-Muslim foreigner, you are not affected by most of the rather draconic laws (however, I wouldn't recommend to test the limits of this rule). But traveling with a woman made things somewhat awkward - obviously even more so for Erika! herself. She observes general rules of decency in Indonesia: long trousers, baggy shirts, never shoulder-free, etc. But in Aceh, even this seemed to trigger much leering, staring and clearly sexually related chatter. I even had to confront a few of the worst offenders a few times. And unlike in India, here it actually did embarrass them.
We were also required to show our marriage certificate a few times before the owners of hotels would let us check in. In many places we were turned down without even having a look at the certificate. The police are apparently cracking down on non-marital togetherness in one room. And besides the offenders, the hotels get in trouble as well - so they are very reluctant to take you in.
Also, the steady stream of NGO aid workers in the region caused the hotel room prices to skyrocket to ridiculous levels. We have paid by far the most for hotel rooms in Aceh during our whole stay in Indonesia. Even the somewhat upmarket Tabo Cottages in Tuktuk (Lake Toba) were cheaper (and much more beautiful, clean and spacious).
Eventually, we arrived in Meulaboh which has been described as 'Ground Zero' in the press. The whole city center was wiped out by the tsunami. If you wouldn't know though, you couldn't see. The survivors simply moved to a northern suburb and it looks like your usual bustling Indonesian city. If you do look a little closer though - and especially a little bit outside of the center of town - then you can still see some of the wastelands the wave left behind. There are also thousands of small houses that look exactly the same. These are the houses built by the aid agencies and the Indonesian government for the survivors.
The further north you go from Meulobah, the clearer the destruction becomes. At one point, the paved road end and all that is left during the rainy season is a mud fest. Many bridges are still missing and at some points, you have to cross rivers on small wooden ferries. The town of Calang was completely destroyed that day in 2004 and what is there now, tells the story: quickly built wooden buildings, a few concrete mosques, dirty broken roads, tree stumps standing in the water (the whole coastline was changed by the wave). It's not a pretty sight.
We didn't ride that part though. First I picked up food poisoning (again). And then Erika! was struck down by a stomach bacteria (we are currently having it checked out, so that we can get rid of the bugger). We had to leave the country by the 23rd November and at one point riding all the way to Banda Aceh became unrealistic. When we did travel from Meulaboh to Banda Aceh in a small bus, we realized what an undertaking it would have been during the rainy season: pushing the bicycles through mud, camping in mud, eating in mud, being splattered in mud. If anybody wants to ride this part, certainly only do it in the dry season.
As planned, we took the bus back to Medan. Oh how I hate buses by now: numb butts, crazy drivers, puking neighbors. Nah, I do prefer my bicycle - as hard as it sometimes is, it's still by far the more agreeable mode of transportation.
In Medan, we found that the ferry operator's office was closed on Sundays. Therefore, we just headed to the port town of Belawan on Monday morning. Only to find out, that there are no ferries to Georgetown (Penang, Malaysia) on Mondays. Great. Having to cycle the 28 kilometers back to Medan was not a big deal. The fact that we were overstaying our visa on the other hand...
My line of thinking was this: we had entered Indonesia on the 25th September 2009. If we'd leave the country on the 24th November 2009...what Immigration Officer would notice the one day we spent in the country too long? Well, to make a long story short: the one Immigration Officer we came across. He checked the dates on his mobile phone and announces that we had overstayed our visas. The penalty for this offence is 200k Rupiah per person and per day. That's about 20 US$. We had spent most of our money and we could only offer 150k Rupiah for the both of us. While the boat and all its passengers were waiting, the Immigration Officer in charge and we had sort of an Indonesian stand-off. We explained, that we had been at the port the day before and that there was no boat. Additionally, keeping us back would only make the situation worse. He maintained, that somebody had to pay the 400k and it was not gonna be him. After some 30 minutes of this, he eventually announced that he'd take the 150k we had, but that he couldn't give us a receipt for it. Sure, as long as you stamp us out, it's all good. Just before we left, he mentioned, that now he'd have to pay the remaining 250k Rupiah fine. Hahaha. Good one. Sure buddy.
Now we are in Georgetown on the island of Pinang in Malaysia. And what a difference it is. During our ride into the city center from the port, we saw more white faces than we had seen during the past seven months together. It's a bit of a shock to the system. But this time we are ready. The last time, when we had to leave Sulawesi, we wanted to stay and because of this, we had sort of a bad start in Malaysian Borneo. (Obviously, Borneo didn't do much to swing our moods in its favor.) But now, after five months in Indonesia, we are ready for something new. Something different. At the moment we don't even care so much that we have to share it with umpteen million other bule. (We have already started to categorize them: there are the clown pants, the gap years, the washed up old guys, the disgusting old guys (the ones with the 17 year old Thai girlfriend) and many more.)
One thing that has been awesome though is the food. For the past seven months we have mostly eaten padang food (white rice with usually fried eggs and some veggies) and nasi/mie goreng. This was fine. We like it. But with a few exceptions in Borneo, that was all we ate. Here in Georgetown though, we have not only Malay cuisine, but also tasty Chinese treats and delicious Indian food. We're on a Indian food spree at the moment and our taste buds are nothing less than stunned.
We have already applied and received our Thai visas - but to whether they are one month or two months visas, there is quite a bit confusion. I fear they are one month visas only, which would be a bit of a problem as we're meeting my family in Chiang Mai at the beginning of February. But first we will go for a ride in Malaysia anyway. We have to wait for Erika!'s lab results to return (which will take a week) and in the mean time, we plan to head up to the Cameroon Highlands.
As usual, I have uploaded some pictures since my last travel log, check them in the Last 50 Photos Gallery.
We have also created and uploaded a new installment of our Juggernauting Through Asia Vlog. You can watch it on this site on the Videos Page or directly on our YouTube Channel.
For those who didn't know, we have a Facebook Site as well - come over and become a fan.
Stay safe and don't stress out too much over the festive season. Maybe you would want to come and visit us in Thailand to avoid it all? ;)
Adrian |
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