FROM TIMOR TO INDONESIA

Wednesday morning I ran straight down to the shipyard at 8 AM and miraculously got my bike! So from here I managed to leave Dili at 11 AM covering approximately 100 KM of construction sites to the Indonesian border, seriously these ‘roads’ were more like a motocross track – which was freakin’ awesome!

Dili shipyard, the adventure truly begins!

Dirt roads with stunning views and cliffs to make you think twice.

Traditional homes lined the road to the border, seconds before I was surrounded by on-lookers.

I arrived at the border 2.5 hours later and was welcomed by the Indonesian customs officers. After teaching them how to stamp my carnet for the bike and getting my visa checked I was placed in a room full of sniffer dogs. “Turn around” “Hands on head” “Move.. dog.. attack”, so I stood there with my hands on my head facing the wall while a big black Doberman on a thick iron chain stared at me from the side. “Empty bags” “Don’t move” “Empty bags” “Don’t move!”... it was actually kind of amusing at how bad they were at this, scare tactics mixed with getting me to comply mixed with a language barrier which I made great use of! This went on for roughly 20 minutes or so. I just responded with “Can I take a picture of the dog” ... of course “No” “Go, enjoy Indonesia”. And then with fist bumps, high fives and handshakes I was finally in the country. A mixture of emotions flowing through me, mainly confusion!

Flooded fields and magnificent mountains, the feeling was absolutely surreal.

40 KM of windy, mountainous roads and I was in the tiny town of Atambua... practically no English here so I found a modest hotel, ate some Mi Goreng (yum) on the road side and had an early night. The following day I continued along the amazing roads with only a stop for lunch. Whenever I stopped anywhere it was like I was some sort of celebrity, everyone would come and ask for photos, touch the bike and then stand around me while I ate... generally the entire village of roughly 30 people. After lunch I continued on and made it to the sea port city of Kupang. The day had been long and rainy with an average speed of 30 KM/H.

My oil leak has returned, but I'm just monitoring it for now.

Night markets, rice with fish OR noodles with fish?

Glamorous toilets in most of my accommodations

In Kupang I stayed at the Lavalon B&B for a few days, which was extremely cheap, beautiful beach location and they made wicked pancakes for breakfast! Here I met up again with an elderly British cyclist (Nigel) who was cycling though Indonesia, but first met in East Timor.

Lavalon B&B, can't beat this for $5 a night!

My most common meal, Nasi Campur.

Got my bike ready to go early in the morning, did grocery shopping for the long ferry ride ahead and had Mi Goreng for lunch (Fried rice, or fried noodles are pretty much the only items on the menu). I rode the 8 KM to the port through the bustling city traffic, fuelled up, checked out the coastline and then bought my ticket at the port. Oops, turns out I bought a ticket for the passenger ferry and not the bike ferry... no worries, so I rode another 3 KM to the next port and bought myself another ticket there, this one being $35 instead of $1 haha! I was the centre of attention here, people sitting on my bike, trying on my boots, playing around with my helmet. ‘Look with your eyes’ is not something Indonesians know. I even got to pose with a group of school girls whom it had taken about 15 minutes to work up the courage to ask if they could have a photo with ‘Mister Austrahly’. I was actually quite enjoying myself although my patience was being tested, this had been going on for about 6 hours when they finally called boarding for my delayed ship. As I approach the ship I realised that they had not lowered the front ramp where trucks and bikes can ride on, the few scooters with me were quickly lifted through the ships windows and then someone yelled “sorry try again tomorrow” and the ferry left without me, WHAT! I was fuming, and could not even vent... the language barrier made that extremely difficult.

Lunch stop before the ferry.

Wild cheeky monkeys and dopey goats.

No swimming signs everywhere due to crocs...

Getting my ticket in the storm.

Awaiting the ferry, super excited still at this point!

The next morning I rocked up at 9 AM and road straight onto a different ferry, destination Larantuka... one days ride East from Ende. The ferry departed around 2 PM and was scheduled to arrive the following morning, mixed sources told me 5 AM or 7 AM or 9 AM... anyway after a sleepless night with many passengers waking me to ask me questions we arrived at 3 AM (“Where you from? Where you going?”). So I rode off the ferry and started my 320 KM journey for the day to Ende, the roads were slow, windy, uphill, downhill, cliff here, pot hole there.. so it took roughly 9 hours to get there with few stops in-between. I still haven’t found anywhere that sells breakfast so for now it’s always been the free ‘breakfast’ (more like a snack) and then an early lunch. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story, the riding here is epic!