The Next Getaway

Its been almost a year since my last Indochina Trip and i am ready to do another trip. There were so many ideas about the destinations like Kathmandu or Japan but early next year I already had a quite interesting plan, at least for me, which is to visit the Komodo National Park and Kelimutu Crater. This is going to be a very special trip because of these things; I went to or at least passed through several National Parks Before and going to Komodo Island means one more National Park visited and still many more to go. The next thing is, I am going to visit it my wife so it means that I am going to have another honeymoon and finally yet importantly, I am going to go there by motorcycle.

The plan is to start from Jakarta on New Year’s Eve by train to Yogyakarta to pick my wife and take the morning train to Banyuwangi. My motorcycle should has been shipped there before to shorten the duration because I don’t have many annual leave left and then the trip on my motorbike will be started in Banyuwangi.

On the first day, I planned to get to Lombok Island, so I will pass through Bali Island without taking any night stop there. The next day the plan is to reach Sumbawa Besar or Bima in Sumbawa Island and take a maybe one or two nights there before continuing to Flores Island. To get to Komodo National Park, I am going to leave my motorcycle in Labuan Bajo, the city where most of the Komodo Tours depart, and take a boat. I am not planning to spend too long in Komodo National Park because I have to continue the trip eastward to Kelimutu Crater. Honestly, I still do not have any idea what the places I want to visit next and maybe I will just decide later, but there is one thing that I have planned for the way back home, I will ride my motorcycle to Yogyakarta and maybe will visit Bromo and take the Southern coast route in Java Island.

My Ride

I enjoy riding motorcycle everywhere, I do not really remember when the first time I felt so excited was riding my motorcycle. My parents bought my first motorcycle in 2002 and it was a cub or underbone from Suzuki and in Indonesia called by Suzuki Satria. There were two version of Suzuki Satria at that time, the automatic and manual clutch and I chose the automatic one because at that time I did not have enough confidence yet to ride a manual clutch motorcycle. It had 120cc engine capacity and two strokes engine. Although the engine was not quite big, it can run fast and I had my first motorcycle speeding experience, around 120 KpH, with it. Because of its two strokes engine, the pillions always had their clothes smelt like smoke from the exhaust pipe and drastically decreased the price when finally I sold it because of the rumor that two strokes engine motorcycles were banned from entering the city streets.

In 2006, on my second year in college, I changed my old Suzuki Satria with the new four strokes Suzuki Shogun 125, it was the third generation of Suzuki Shogun in Indonesia and I Owned the Sport Production version. What made that version different from the standard version is the application of manual clutch and the size of the carburetor. Although so, this was no match for my old Suzuki Satria it term of the speed and power.

With this motorcycle, I started to do some short touring trips out of the province, but the most distant I have ever gone was only about 280 km. This is the starting point where I realized that I enjoy riding so much.

I bought my third motorcycle in 2012 right after i went back from the apprentice program in one of my office`s branch in Panama, Central America, ( I will write other post about this later), because I thought that my old motorcycle my parents gave to me was to small in therm of the size and the engine capacity and also because I wanted to take touring more seriously.

Bajaj Pulsar 220, was the motorcycle I bought, there were so many reasons and considerations that I had to think about before choosing this motorcycle like the engine capacity, riding position and lastly, but not least, the price. Actually, Bajaj is still quite popular up to now in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta, because Bajaj was the name people gave to the one of the infamous public transportations in Jakarta that had three wheels, noisy two strokes engine and usually in bright orange color.

This is a general-purpose street motorcycle or in Wikipedia, it categorized as standard class motorcycle. It has 220 cc, 4 strokes, oil cooled engine and it can burst around 21 bhp. I am still using this motorcycle and still do not have any plan to replace it although it has clocked almost 30,000 km. With this motorcycle, I started to explore further and there already so many places in Java and Bali Island that I have visited. I also have many big touring plans with this motorcycle like to go to Flores or Timor Island.

Bucket List Part 1

Most people have one thing or two that they really want to do in their lives. Some of them are, to eat some specialties food from tribes in Lesotho, to visit Great Wall of China or go to North Pole. For me, personally, it should be big, adventurous and something that I really like. I like to go to new places, see new things and went to a unique places where not so many people willing to visit, so I will combine that and write a list of epic things that I really want to do, even once.

1.   To take the Trans Siberian Train. This is probably one of the longest train routes on planet earth, so why don’t I try it. I am not so crazy about train but I like trains, so to be in a train for days, in foreign countries heading to the Eastern Europe is one thing I want to try. If I have the time and the money, I would start the journey from Hanoi, where I can board the train to China and then continue my trip To Eastern Russia. From Moscow, maybe I would visit some countries by train and go along the famous Orient Express Route to Istanbul.

2.  To go around the world on motorcycle. Riding motorcycle has become one of my favorite activity for a quite a long time. I have never gone for more than 600 km here in Indonesia from the city I live currently, Jakarta to my hometown Yogyakarta. I have done that for so many times but I like to take different route if possible so that I can get different experiences although sometime it takes more time. I like to feel the wind in my face, to feel and breathe the air along the way is other things I like about riding motorcycle.

3.   Visit Petra in Jordan. I don’t really understand the exact reason why I want to visit this place, but sine I read the article and saw it in so many places in the internet and movie also, I have a certain kind of attraction to that place. The humongous statues, doors and sculptures are looked amazing plus the history behind it, which makes my mind wandering on how great it was when it still be a capital city.

Keep Exploring

Every traveler has a quite same one big dream, to explore the world more and more because exploring is the thing that travelers do. To go somewhere new is not just merely to see new people and places but the most important thing is to find out who we really are because you will trust and know yourself better in an unfimiliar situation and place.

In my opinion, the most important thing in traveling is the journey itself, not the destination we want to go, although the destination is still important but it’s not the main star here. For me, personally to seat in a small van from Penang to Krabi or to confusedly looking for the bus ticket booth to Pattaya in Suvharnabhumi Airport are a lot more thrilling.

To carry around a map and asking people the direction of the place that I want to visit always brings me a rush of adrenaline and some kind of unexplainable, nerveous yet exciting feelings. Those feelings are addictive and i always try to experience them by keep exploring and go somewhere i have never been before.

I don’t need to abroad to do that, because exploring new places can be done anywhere. The simplest thing to do, like what I like to do is to riding through the street in the city where I live that I have never gone through before and see where it leads and it does feel so good when finally I know where that street leads.

Therefore, like what I have written in the first paragraph, to explore and see, feel and touch something new is good, is healthy in so many ways. It can enrich your knowledge that slowly can make you wiser, you can learn to trust and listen to yourself in a completely new situation and places and of course to fulfill the passion that we have, to see every inches of our big beautiful world…so, keep exploring…..