After 3 weeks and 3,500km in Sumatra, it is time for a ferry crossing (image 1) from Sumatra (image 2) to Java ( 3)

Besides the potholes and the beautiful countryside, here are some of the scenes that we encountered along the way in Sumatra.
We came across this bride heading to the house of the groom early in the morning for their big day.

We usually came across all types of venders at fueling station. These seems to be skipping school for some reason. Fuel in Sumatra and in most of Indonesia is just terrible! You almost only get what is called Premium(4500 RP or $.50), which is around 85-87 octane, and that is if you are lucky! In Java you can find what is called Pertamax Plus, which should be 95 (6500-7000 Rp). But this is not widely available even in Java. And the wide variation in price between the two grades means plenty to be gained at mixing things at the pump! But the bike is still running with the aide of octane additives.

We met Fred, German biker on his way to Australia, in Penang, Malaysia and again in central Sumatra and rode together to Southern tip of Sumatra. And we always got a huge local reception where ever we went with the bikes. Always friendly but absolutely terrible at giving directions.

Rice fields cover great extent of Sumatran landscape.

Central Sumatra is mainly Catholic and churches come in all size an shape and nothing less than the best dress will do for the Sunday mass.

Bukittinggi, pop 150,000. Very much a stop over point on our way to southern Sumatra. The main attractions are the local market, the Clock Tower and the Dutch Fort. But there was nothing attractive about the fort as it has changed shape and function over the years and now serves as the local zoo, where animals are confined to caged that are smaller than themselves and in school children run around screaming with dripping ice cream.
Bukittinggi at height of 930m is a cool (temp) resting place, at least till the 4:30am mosque prayer call gives you a ear full.

Images: The clock Tower, Local museum, View of the town over from the pedestrian bridge and the colorful local market

Equator Crossing at the twon of Bonjol, Central Sumatra

Next, down to South east Asia’s largest lake. Danau Toba or Lake Toba is 1707sq km and 450 deep at the deepest point. The lake is the result of caldera that was formed after a massive eruption 100,000 years ago. Yes this is the land of volcanoes. And in the middle of the lake there is island of Samosir or Pulau Samosir, which is the size of Singapore. A truly impressive site.

Viwe of the lake when arriving from the north west (image 1). Traditional Batak housing (2). Leaving Toba from south east, lake in the distance (4) and more potholes.

Berastagi, a tiny but busy town in the Karo Highlands, South East of (whole days ride from) Takengon. The most of the population in Berastagi is catholic and we passed through chirches of all different sizes and shapes on our way. And the main attractions in the town are the two volcanoes, Gunung Sibayak – 2094m, smaller more easy to climb (images) and the larger Gunung Sinabung – 2450m.

Berastagi, with its mild climate and the fertile soil (from volcanic activities) is one of the best vegetable growing towns in Sumatra.

(Image 1) The crater in the distance and (image 4), way down through the jungle.

Ridding through the central Sumatra highway that runs through the central mountains from Takengon to Bandaralampung, the southern tip of Sumatra was a real challenge. The roads run through some of the remotest areas, some beautiful scenery. But if there is only onething that we will remember it for, it we will for riding more than 2,000km, mostly through knee deep pot holes and mud pits. In the central Sumatra we would ride whole day just to cover 150km. It was mud pit after pot hole after mud pit!

images 1-3, fairly good sealed roads and beautiful scenery. Images 4-8, pot holes and mud pits and Image 9, crops such as rice and coffee sun-dried along the road

Having spent four days in Pulau Weh, it was time to head to the central Sumatra. First stop over at the town of Takengon, up in the hills, away from the mid 30C of the coast but the water is freezing (no hot water showers here!).

Takengon, a friendly town at the end of a (polluted) lake. Local market is colorful and filled with local delicacies.

Buffolo ridding seems to be popular with the local kids, not sure how the buffolos feel about it though.

We arrived in Banda Ache two days later, having ridden 680km from Medan. These days Banda Ache has become synonymous with the destructive wrath of nature since the 26 December 2004 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 220,000 in the Banda Ache and the along the Ache coast.
At the moment the town of Ache is a construction site filled with earth-moving equipment and dumper trucks as well as NGO's.
Accomodation in the town would have serous damage to our piggy bank so we headed straight to the island of Weh or Pulau Weh as it is locally called. Image-1, leaving coast of Banda Ache in the distance





The ferry from main Banda Ache takes two hours to arrive in Pulau Weh. The island used to be more important than Singapore before the WWII, you could not imagine why and what ever was important then has now disappeared. But the place is very laid back and perfect place to take a rest and do some snorkeling. Oh the roads leading to the small resorts of Iboih and Gapang are bad!

Medan, 50km south of port of Belawan was or our first destination in Sumatra. There was very little to interest us here but to stop for the night after the day spent at Belawan getting the bike. Medan is the capital of Sumatra and the commercial centre.



Next move is to head noert west towards the province of Ache.
The North Sumatra Highway runs more or less along the coast, Andaman Sea to the north and rice fields to the south (images). The quality of the road so far so god, sealed and only a few pot holes.
The scenery along the way, small motorbikes are the best means of transport. Ache is a conservative Muslim state, and there is separate school buses for the boys and girls. Since the 2004 Tsunami, things in Ache sre quiet but there had been a 30 year old civil war taking place up to then and we were advice not to travel at night.
And so far (having been in Malaysia and Thailand previously) finding decent accommodation has been difficult. There is very little or no international tourism in this part of Indonesia. So far accommodation at twice the rate of Malaysia and Thailand, has not included a toilet seat or a shower. but the food is good.

We arrived at the port of Belawan, Sumatra, Indonesia, on the 22nd of May. Overtaking the onion boat carrying the bike on our way there on the much faster passenger ferry.Port of Belawan in the distance.
It took us 3 hours or so to complete the paperwork and deal with the local port authorities to clear the bike.


Bike being unloaded from the onion boat.

First experience of Indonesia: most things have a price tag on them, and if you're a foreigner you also suffer the added "tourist tax" on top!.

First destination after the port was Medan, (with little appeal) before heading north-east towards Aceh.