Cycling Central Java

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Malang was the end of part one of our trip across Java,our next stage was to get to Yogjakarta and the temple of Borobodur to the north.
Feeling refreshed from our two day break in Malang and I with 10 toes fully operational again we headed off out of Malang on the flat towards Kepanjen.Once again we found ourselves in heavy traffic but there's nothing better to get you motivated and push on than lots of vehicles spewing fumes over you.We wanted a quite road asap and getting out and away from Malang was just the tonic.30km done by 9am we stopped for Soto(a noodle soup)and were given a telecom map of Java by the resturant owner who spoke exellent english.
We bought rambutan fruits along the way.Lovely fruit full of juice and sugar.Would of liked to have stayed in Wilingi for a day,this clean,leafy town had an air of calm about it.Yes I could see us becoming honorary Wilingiarians for the day but it wasnt to be.The road was good and we had temples to visit in Blitar,mainly Panataran a Hindu complex from 1200 ad.
But Asia being Asia we stumbled upon a catolouge of problems and hurdles.It started well,after our 85km day was finished by 1pm and we were washed in the mandi(bathroom water bin and scoop)we headed for a becap driver to take us to the nearest bus to Panataran.I was sure he understood me but after 3km of his peddling we got worried that we were going the wrong way.Sure enough when we arived at the bus station it dawned on him and us that we were far from our intended bus stop and futher away than we started.We jumped onto another bus going back into town and got talking with a guy who spoke passable english(our indonesian falling well behind when it comes to complicated matters)he asured us the driver knew what we wanted and we relaxed until I saw a sign for leafy Wilingi pass by.
I jumped up and asked where we were going only to find out we were once again heading into oblivion.We got off again now even futher away from temples than before and resigned ourselves to miss out on them if only we could now find our way back to town.We did but not without the paranoia of asking the conductor if we were going the right way every 100 yards.
Im sure the temples do exist and im sure they are lovely this time of year,it just wasnt meant to be.The moral of the story is when you take public transport ,bloody take an interpritor.
We consoled ouselves that night with an amazing Padang,lots of curried dishes from the region in Sumatra of the same name.
Started the day with the usual bakso and strong javanese coffee which we normally topped up with Pocari Sweat the popular energy dink of Indonesia.Our Nelles map told us today that its a shorter ride than usual to Trengglek although something of an uphill.But Nelles gets it wrong from time to time,luckily for us it was shorter than antisipated and the uphill was a nice flat road.Had a laugh in the pasar(market) in Trengglek mixing with the locals buying new shorts and some odd fruits we'd never tried.Spent the evening at at sit on the floor outdoor resturant eating fried goodies and washing it down with silty black coffee.
Definitely up today.A good 10km uphill through forested hills rich in red soil, made it to the top in no time feeling the benifits of last nights rock n roll saturday night.Ate lalapan goreng(fried catfish) at the top and decended in the heat towards Ponorogo.
Quite a big town Ponorogo home to the Reyog traditional dance.A lazy day spent washing clothes and reading in our sunny courtyard.Had some fried fish heads in bater later that afternoon,sometimes it pays to be fussy.Wont be trying that again.Tried to find the Liverpool-Man U game later on in the posh hotels but came away empty handed.
Monday began well with an unexpected ride along a rual road running parrallel to the main road.Here we saw local farmers tilling the fields in their "volcano" hats and carrying all sorts of greenery along on the back of their bikes.Wondered whether I should get me one of those hats,would be good against the sun.Badegan brought us back to the main road and we wondered if we'd happened upon another island.There were hardly any cars and the trees we passed were shedding leves and had the feel of autumn about it.Time for a Pocari break as we headed up along side the volcanic slopes of mt Kukusan but once again the haze blocked out any view of its 2298m summit.
We began to climb and at Purwantoro it became busy with buses(cyclists worst nightmare).Tough day today the hills were short but steep as we rollercoasted our way along the highway towards Slogohimo where we stopped for a lovely nice lunch in an outdoor pagoda,where after we both fell asleep exhausted from the days climb and heavy heat.
A bit more up hill was blessfully followed by an exellent downhill which passed many huge terraced rice fields and complicatd irrigtion systems.We pulled into Wonogiri in the early evening and pitched up at a big pink hotel just before it began to rain.
You usually get brakfast in an Indonesian hotel which can be from anything like a cup of tea to this mornings feast of fried rice and coffee.All that with room for about 5 euro.Cant be bad.
Off at 6 50 this morning,going to Yogjakarta today so have to get the eary start for a long day in the saddle.Even had a downhill to begin things.The Indonesians like an early start too so we were glad to get off the main road and onto rural roads within 10 km of riding.
Had a coffee break at the village of Tawangsari and were warned by the owner to "be carefull of terrorists".Great! Here we were making exellent progress along flat roads full of village life and then coffee man goes and plants terror seeds in our minds.Every farmers tool for the next 30km became an AK47 or RPG every beard became an Osama look alike,but as usual everything turned out fine.
Really nice ride this morning passed huge barns for storing rice and many houses had corn cobbs drying out front in the sun.Unfortunatly our small road ended in the busy Yogja to Solo road but we soon made short work of the 8km to Prambanan Hindu and Buddist temple complex outside Yogya.
Built between 8- 10 centuries the two powerfull dynasties were bought together through marrage.Unfortunatly due to a powerfull earthquake last year many of the shrines and temples are out of bounds due to instability.Although very impressive we felt a bit frustrated by not being allowed to go into over half of them,still ,for our own good.For me the highlight was the Sewu temple that stood the furthest away.This is a Buddhits temple and was full of carvings and had an exellent main temple in the middle surrounded by about 200 smaller ones.We had it to ourselves too which added a nice touch to it.
Now all that was left was for us to ride into Yogya ,a city of about 5 million.If youve ever played burnout on the xbox then you know what type of ride it was.If our rides through the farm areas were sunday mornings then this was a saturday night.Nailed it at 30kph it was the only way to go.Dodging becaps and slipstreaming trucks we made ourway to the tourist enclave of Jalan Malioboro where we found adiquate digs at hotel Indonesia.A five day ride of heat and hills behind us we were back in the land of the banana pancake and the cold bintang.Wheres the touts!
Wont go into the whole tout thing here,lets just say we didnt miss them out on the road.Funny being back in a tourist zone.The rules change straight away.How do the foreigners get from Malang to here,we didnt see one in the last five day,maybe theres a tunnel,a tunnel with aircon.Thats the answer im sure of it.
Well we topped up on Bintang and pizzas in Yogja ,put the bakso on the shelf for a couple of days.Took in the Kraton where the Sultan still lives.Didnt think much of it if im honest.Watched a carnival procession come through town and went, but failed to get a visa extension.Now we have to get a move on and be in Jakarta by the 9th november at the latest.
Found Yogya to be quiet,considering its the number one tourist destination in Java there werent many foreigners around.Outside of Kuta in Bali though we found this to be the trend.That was ok by us though because the next day up at Borobodur we selfishly had the place almost to ourselves.
Id have to put this experience up there with places ive been lucky enough to visit like Machu Pichu and Easter island.Borobodur is a fantastic example of Buddhist achitecture.Built around 800 ad and literally wrapped around a hill Borobodur is a remarkable testimony to the faith and the skill of the builders and sculptors of the time.60 000 cubic metres of stone ,1500 carvings of Buddhas life story,400 Buddha statues and topped with 70 odd bell shaped stupas at the top complete with lucky Buddhas inside to touch for good luck.
Walked around clockwise in Budhist fashion and made our way slowly upto the top through seven levels on our way to Nirvana,which happened to be a huge stupa right in the middle at the very top.
A very hot day but worth the bus ride out there.
Fantastic place.
Recharged once again we headed out onto the Yogja plain,leaving town was much more chilled out than coming in.We were soon down on the road to Cilacap passing agriculture fields of corn,rice and all sorts of vegtables..Crossed river estuaries at Glagah ,fishing nets hanging suspended over the water at low tide.The day was hot but a pleasant tailwind blew happily from behind.Today was a mamouth day for us,by the end of it we'd covered 132km.Although the first 120km were flat and quiet , the last 12km were a thing of nightmares.
At Puring we had a choice of heading inland around the rocky cape Karanbolong or ignore local advice and go take the shorter hillier route.And being cyclists the harder route was the only way.Well after a long day the hills we met were unbelievably steep.Tati resolved to pushing and me being a stuborn old mule rode the lot.The locals in these parts didnt seem as friendly as the rest of Java,we had one lot of abuse and a beg from a middle aged man,really off the beaten track now.Very hard work over several valleys,completley dripping by the end of it we managed to get to the top of our viewpoint towards Cilacap and found a decent campspot in amoungst an old paddy field.This would be our only camp in Indonesia.A vey humid night but slept well due to the days exertions.
Had a big downpour in the morning but managed to get to a small warung for a rice and yesterdays fish breakfast.Wet ride along the flat coast road to Adipala where we joined some local lycra cyclists on the main road into Cilacap.
Here according to 1995s version of lonely planet Java there is or was a boat to Kalipucang which would give us a great shortcut to Pangandaran our next day off.
The amount of differing information we had about a boat to our destination was crazy.There was one then there wasnt followed by its down the road ,only to come back again to find it was here in an hour,make that two then to come full circle and find it wasnt coming today but it'll be here in an hour.Maybe.
We ended up with a local guy taking us with a cargo of containers and two other pasengers about 2 hours into our boat finding mission.The trip was great passing through mangrove islands full of birds and stilt villages alive with fishermen mending nets ,drying fish and casting out from their boats.I envy their symplistic lifestyle sometimes.
Our pirate captain dropped us off at the road to Kalipucang,we paid him our pieces of eight and off we went over the mountain to Java's number one beach resort Pangandaran,try saying that after a few Bintang.
Again it was a quiet place but with a beautiful long stretch of black volcanic sand, although quite alot of litter,with fishing boats at one end and surf crashing down all the way along.
We got our bikes cleaned up and filled up on western food once again before watching the local men and women land fishing nets by dragging them together through the surf upto the beach.
Something I noticed about this place was the amount of stalls there were in comarison to the amount of tourists.There seemed to be blue canvas stalls everywhere.I hope they make enough money on weekends and holidays.Tourism is definetly down on Java.Its seems a hard life with this little customers.
We have now booked tickets with Air Asia that fly us to Singapore from Jakarta on the 10th of nov.The boat option we would of prefered but as it departs after our visa expires weve gone for the safe option.
Air Asia turned out to be very bike friendly,they weighed nothing and only asked for a bike box,so we recommend,and at 40 euro each with bike ,its a bargain.
So completes central Java ,were really off into the unknown now.Asked a few people about the road ahead but with the differing amount of info we got on it we decided that no one really knew a lot about it.
Only one thing for it then.

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Photos

The tunnel of death
becap mafia in Yogja

Comments

[Julian]

Big toe flu?
Big toe flu? Who would have thought... Did you have a go on one of those becaps? Suerte amigos

[mudyshox]

got a few rides in the becaps but left the diving to the experts

[Tim]

Photos, cycling in Java
Hi, I am intrigued. I all of the sudden had a air ticket change so I arrive in Bali and leave 3 months later from Saigon. So I ask, what do I do in Indonenia after a week on a beach in Bali. I am 60+ , a good backpacker (5,000+ miles treking) but a failing back, so I ask how was cycling. Was the culture, people experience exceptional. I like getting away from it all (tourist travel stuff) eg Sahara, Amazon stuff, Do you have any recommendations as far as out of way villagers who are peaceful. Cheers Tim California

[mudyshox]

hi Tim, well the cycling was pretty tough,very mountainous and hot.The people on Java dont see many tourists judging by their reactions to our passing.We didnt see hardly any outside of the tourist zones.Along the south west coast was the most remote part of Java for us.Theres so many trecks you can do up various volcanoes,we only did the touristy one to Bromo from Malang,you can treck the whole bromo area,Keep you busy for a week or two.Cheers Daren

[mudyshox]

it was more the trouble in the south of thailand to be honest although we had wanted to go to tioman but were a little disapointed with it.Liked Pangkor and I really like Penang What do you think of Penang?

[gita]

what an adventure trip you had
a very good blog i must say, i laughed a bit here and there. im indonesian, and im quite surprised of you or other tourists interest in our country (since ive gotten tired about it, especially for its traffics). im actually just got back from a road trip circling the land of java yesterday, and what i can say about it is that, java is more adventurous than bali (even i got lost for once at kalipucang). In bali you can have a slight adventure but you could also get off of it at anytime, since there are more sleek hotels, international foods, bars, etc everywhere, including locals who are familiar with english in case you got lost. but in java, you'd most likely get stuck in it once you jumped in, cheap motels with indonesian vibe, locals with so little english and you could only stick on viewing the paddy rice field for some refreshment. but the beautiful of it is just the same as bali. i recommend you to visit green canyon, about 30 mins driving from pangandaran. its not very popular, yet quite amazing. its a teal blue river leads to some stalactite cave, felt like i was at kalimantan river (havent tried to visit kalimantan river but ive seen it on the fickin' anaconda movie). enough from me, i hope you enjoyed your trip here. cheers!