Ant's Sumatran Adventure

ant

AngryAnt
As most of you know I've been on extended holidays for about two months - nearly time to venture back into the workforce, so on the spur of the moment I bought a cheap ticket to Medan, North Sumatra (Indonesia). $320 via KL. Plan is to stay about three weeks and try to see as much of the island as possible.

Lake Toba, North Sumatra - volcanic caldera

Lake_Toba.jpg


Plan is to hire or buy a bike - something small and light - big bore is wasted over there. Ideally you want something small, local and cheap to minimise chance of theft and to maximise the chance that if you break down, almost any local male over the age of 12 can diagnose the problem and fix it for you with string, a cigarette butt and some chewing gum - at least til you get to a workshop.

Something like this would be perfect:

A mighty 200cc Honda Tiger

2008%5C04%5C13%5Cbikepics-1251305-320.jpg


or a 225cc Yamaha Scorpio

scopio_4e95673b9b008.jpeg




You can buy older versions of these (5-10 years old) for around AUD500-1000 - but then you have to try to sell before you leave and of course have to take a haircut, but that's not too bad for 3 weeks of use. Forget about insurance. If you have an accident - you pay. Likewise for rentals.

Renting is OK, but harder to do in Sumatra than say Bali, where you can rent any sort of bike for between $3-10 per day and where you walk down the street random people shout "Rent bike?" at you all day unless you are actually on a bike. Also renting you have to return the bike rather than starting in the North and riding south and then selling it.

If I do have to rent, it will probably be a scooter - but these are actually OK for this kind of travelling. They handle the roads well, you blend in with local traffic and they are suprisingly not too bad on gravel or packed dirt. Even a bit of mud.

taksi+motor+di+medan.jpg






To get you in the mood, here's why I won't be riding a huge bloody GSA - make sure you watch the end of the video


https://www.facebook.com/BikersTech/videos/vb.361769703999225/681199138722945/

Will try to do trip reports as I go depending upon internet access availability!
 

ant

AngryAnt
Sorry for the delay in posting, but nothing much happened until today :)

Got into Medan Monday night, Tuesday struck out on any chance of a rental. There are a few shops but only rent to locals, typically workers from out of town who need a commuter. Unlike Bali where they scream "Rent bike!?" at you wherever you go, here they are reluctant to rent to a mad westerner who wants to take their bike all over Sumatra and to places they themselves have never been.

Anyway, with the help of a local found a used bike shop on Wednesday, but no stepovers, only scooters. But the price was good RP 7500000 which sounds a lot but is actually $750 or thereabouts. The salesman Mr Samuel was a nice guy - he took me to another shop where they had bigger bikes but they were too new and expensive for my tastes. Anyway, got the guy's number and walked away, still dreaming of a Yamaha Scorpio.

Medan, your typical grimy Indonesian city. 3-4 million people in a space much smaller than Melbourne.

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(Posting from phone so will send now before I lose it- TBC)
 
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John_Johnny

Long Timer
Saw the pics on Facebook Ant. Cool. That's a lot of zeros there! 7500000. Wonder why they don't just knockoff 3 zeros throughout the country? It would make things easier. Guess it may not be as easy as it sounds. W-)
 

ant

AngryAnt
Wednesday got out of town - two hour bus ride to Berastagi which cost $1. Up in the mountains the town has not one but two active volcanoes close by - volcanic dust coats everything and annoys the locals who are forever cleaning the bikes/cars/houses. But beautiful and dramatic. Up in the hills the maximum daily temp is around 25 so pleasant.


Volcano No. 1

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Number 2

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Always something for a dog to eat on the streets

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ant

AngryAnt
Saw the pics on Facebook Ant. Cool. That's a lot of zeros there! 7500000. Wonder why they don't just knockoff 3 zeros throughout the country? It would make things easier. Guess it may not be as easy as it sounds. W-)


I think Italy actually did that with the lira in the 70s!! The Indos seem to like all the zeros.

The Aussie dollar is about 10000rp so it makes mental calculation of the exchange rate easy at least.
 

ant

AngryAnt
Back into it today. Called my bike shop friend Mr Samuel and he took me to see a few more places. One place had a crappy scooter for 6mill. I said no, something bigger , I dont care if it's old. "Why didn't you say so, we happen to have a fine example of a 2006 Honda Tiger for the very reasonable price of 7.2 mill!" Took a quick look, made sure the tax and rego were in order and bang, I was $720 lighter and the proud new owner of a Honda! Never thought I would say that. 200cc of untamed power and hopefully reliability. They even changed the oil and filled the tank, advised me to change oil every 1500km. Bike mechanics are cheap and ubiquitous here so why not? Probably cost me $10 for a full service.

My new pride and joy safe in hotel car park.

As I was not confident finding my way back to the hotel I got the shop assistant to pillion me home for $5

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So old most thieves will not be interested, yet near mint! The hotel staff were admiring it in the garage... "oh, the old Tiger, remember these?"
 
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