Road trip to Singapore - Day 3

Continued from day 2.

Reference - exchange rates:
one pound approx Rp15,000
one US$ approx Rp10,000

06:30 and 21 hours into the bus ride. Ms Sid (ice age) still sleeping soundly beside me. I really wanted to ask "are we nearly there yet", but bit my tongue and decided to go with the flow. Little did I know that we had barely passed half way. More shuffling, stretching, rolling, sleeping, food stops and the day wore on.

Later in the day, on a particularly rough stretch of road, the bus hit a bad pothole, the bus let out a loud bang of complaint and we had to pull over. We all got off and saw the rear of the bus almost touching the road. Something had snapped, this was not good.

The team of drivers didn't seem too phased, no one was pumping a hand phone for AA assistance. They broke out an assortment of spanners, a jack and a length of chain and got stuck in. The lads on the bus set-up a series of hand signals and whistles, to aid the passing traffic, it was all very efficient and seemed well practiced.

One of the drivers waved down a passing truck and borrowed a bottle jack. Indonesia is a nation of people who will help you when you are in trouble, I have experienced this many times myself, remembering back to a time when I ran out of petrol. A guy siphoned off a cup full from his bike and poured it into mine, enough to get me to a petrol station. And, he would not take any money for the favor.

We had not stopped more than ten minutes when a passing kitchen on a motorbike pulled over, seeing a whole bus load of hungry customers and he did very good business too. What an entrepreneur.

The blipped image is of a few of the lads relaxing at the side of the road. It always amazes me how they can sit like that so effortlessly. I have tried it, but just roll over. I suspect that if I was successful, I would never be able to stand again as my aging joints welded into the unnatural position.

Two hours later the repair was completed and we were once again mobile. No one had whinged, moaned or complained, it was all just a part of the day, everyone just accepted the situation and got on with it. I was very impressed.

We arrived in Pekanbaru at 23:30 after a 38 hour bus ride. For an hour or so after leaving the bus, the ground was still moving, just as if I had been at sea for a week, very strange sensation.

I was way too tired to even think about more ticket negotiations or hotel searches. I grabbed some food, drink and started looking for a piece of floor. One of the ticket vendors took me to a raised platform that was there for the purpose of over nighters. It was not padded or anything, but that did not concern me, after that bus ride, I could sleep anywhere. The thought of having to do it all again on the way home did keep me awake for a while though.

The blipmap shows my end-of-day location.

To be continued

Dave