THE WAIT OF EXPECTATION…
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Day 23
Start – Penegahan, Sumarta Finish – Pedamaran, Sumarta Distance Travelled – 360km (12 hours on the road) Words by - Johnny Bang |
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We aren’t having much luck with boats – for the second time a boat we want has been delayed or cancelled. Well - at least that is what I can gather from my 18 emails and 2 phone calls with the Indonesian agent. We are trying a well-used shipping route from Belawan to Penang and our contact is a bloke called ‘Mr Lim’. I was told the boat comes every Tuesday, but then I was told that the boat comes every Tuesday except next Tuesday (the Tuesday we want). Then Mr Lim told us to call his friend Mr Agung to confirm dates. I called and Mr Adnan said the boat does in fact work next Tuesday, then I tried to confirm this with Mr Lim who said no it doesn’t. Confused? I sure am. The policy that got us this far is to make the best decision with the available information. Well the available sucks and we have to cover a lot of km on bad roads to get somewhere, but I don’t know where somewhere is. For now we are going to keep riding up Sumatra and see how things pan out.
In other news, my communication device (Sena 20s) has failed and I am now unable to communicate with the other boys. It has been a quiet few days in the helmet.
We scored a hotel tonight, pulling into the lobby about 30 seconds before another massive storm hit. It’s hard to know what is up here sometimes. I paid $35 for a $25 bill when the rate on the wall was $22.50.
I am trying to collect 3 quintessential photos of Indonesia – safety logs, a whole family on a scooter and street kids on go carts. Here is what I have so far:
When a truck breaks down on an Indonesian highway they don’t pull off to the side, they just stop and block the whole lane- this happens regularly. Far from being inconsiderate, the truckie will place a ‘safety log’ at the rear of the truck. Sometimes safety logs are placed in exceptionally large potholes, and sometimes rubbish is also poured into potholes to ‘fix’ them.
Here is a photo of a whole family on a scooter, including a baby, a child and 2 adults. No helmets. This is pretty common. If I have time I will be trying to compile a scooter file of all the different uses for scooters (work-ute scooter, tractor scooter, motocross scooter, etc…)
Also the cops are cooler here, one of them asked Shaun to do a wheelie today. Unfortunately Shaun could not oblige. I think over there we are the equivalent of a guy that drives a Ferrari but can’t do a skid.
In other news, my communication device (Sena 20s) has failed and I am now unable to communicate with the other boys. It has been a quiet few days in the helmet.
We scored a hotel tonight, pulling into the lobby about 30 seconds before another massive storm hit. It’s hard to know what is up here sometimes. I paid $35 for a $25 bill when the rate on the wall was $22.50.
I am trying to collect 3 quintessential photos of Indonesia – safety logs, a whole family on a scooter and street kids on go carts. Here is what I have so far:
When a truck breaks down on an Indonesian highway they don’t pull off to the side, they just stop and block the whole lane- this happens regularly. Far from being inconsiderate, the truckie will place a ‘safety log’ at the rear of the truck. Sometimes safety logs are placed in exceptionally large potholes, and sometimes rubbish is also poured into potholes to ‘fix’ them.
Here is a photo of a whole family on a scooter, including a baby, a child and 2 adults. No helmets. This is pretty common. If I have time I will be trying to compile a scooter file of all the different uses for scooters (work-ute scooter, tractor scooter, motocross scooter, etc…)
Also the cops are cooler here, one of them asked Shaun to do a wheelie today. Unfortunately Shaun could not oblige. I think over there we are the equivalent of a guy that drives a Ferrari but can’t do a skid.
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