JAVA INDONESIA - the island of Cyclist Federations

Cycling towards Indonesia’s most populated area -East Java- is anything but fun. Slaloming between trucks, cars and scooters restlessly honking and overtaking in this humid and sticky climate is simply the worst cycling experience for sure. 

As soon as we set foot and tire at the tip of the island, we were accompanied by the members of a cycling club "Federal" present in almost every city throughout the island. Being contacted by one of its members on our social media, he organized for us meetings with his friends in different cities we crossed. The warmest of welcomes we could have imagined. The friendly members were always proudly representing the federation, wearing colorful uniforms, specific for every city. They are of all ages and all very excited to see foreigners, especially on this not touristy-site of the island. They took countless photos with us, on the bike, next to the bike, behind the bike... It’s adorable, but intense. We tried to cycle some smaller roads to avoid the main one, but in a 10 million people metropolis, there are simply no empty roads... Besides, our new cyclist friends seemed to enjoy cycling the busy road, which could be understandable when you grew up in such environment.

For the first 100 kilometers on Java we cycled through the traffic-choked streets of Cilegon, Serang, all the way to Tangerang, being handed between members of each community. In this last town on the outskirts of bustling Jakarta, we decided to take a bus all the way to the center of the Island to the famous Javanese city of Yogyakarta. We were planning this for a while, given our visa duration and the desire to get to Timor Leste in time! We gave ourselves some time off the bikes in Yogyakarta, for the first time we saw Western tourists since Singapore. Unfortunately, there was no bus which could take our bikes directly to „Yogia”, so the choice changed quickly into a city nearby: Surakarta (also called Solo). Perfect, only 60km separating these two cities. In Solo, we had the chance to see a traditional show with javaneese dancers. Very beautiful, but the dialogues being in bahasa, we didnt stay until th end. The next morning, we were off cycling to Yogi. On the road we passed by some magnificent temples from the 9th century. This time we were accompanied by another young member of the local federation. Akbar was so curious about our adventure, and so excited to cycle along with us, that even waking up at 4 am didn't scare him! He invited us for a royal breakfast at his family house. We spent together a beautiful moment. His kindness and hospitality blew us away. 

Cycling on the east side of Java was a bit more relaxing. Less traffic and more secondary road options. We decided not to tell our new cycling community friends about our itinerary. We wanted to cycle at our rhythm and a few days later we reached our next stop: the city of Malang, on the foot of a massive volcano: Bromo. By luck, a great Warmshower was living there. Adi was happy to host us and cooked for us the best pancakes in the world! There was another cyclist at his place as well: Rasmus from Denmark, cycling in Indonesia for 3 months! We left our bikes at his place and rented a scooter to climb the steep roads of the volcano for sunrise. The expectations after having climbed Mount Kerinci were high, so we ended up being a bit disappointed. Mount Kerinci was a real adventure and we were alone! This time we were far from being alone and the road goes all the way up the ridge with thousands of tourists visiting every day. Surprisingly, after sunrise, all the visitors were gone to the next selfie point, so we enjoyed our moment facing this incredible spectacle, alone.

After leaving Ali’s place we continued our way east and while cycling, between little colourful houses, up in the sky, appeared Mount Semeru. The highest volcano on the island of Java and one of the most active ones in Indonesia was overlooking us evilly from behind the clouds at 3676m. We cycled through an abandoned village, with walls of dry muds, the result of the last eruption.

Later on the road, we were supposed to sleep at a Muhammad place, another local host. Our desire for a wild bivouac was too strong though. Muhammad, a bit skeptical about our wild camping close to the most dangerous volcano, eventually guided us to the best spot to put up a tent. On our way we bumped into two cyclists from Belgium going the opposite direction but eventually deciding to join us for the 5 stars bivouac on the foot of Semeru. We couldn't even see where the volcano was because it was entirely in a mysterious fog. We prayed for better luck in the morning. The next day, very slowly, the whole sky cleared up giving us the best view we could have dreamed of. 

The last stop for us on Java Island was the Ijen volcano with the world's largest acidic lake and sulfur mines with horrendous working conditions. Another unbelievable place on earth and most of them… in Indonesia! An early quick hike up, we enjoyed the first sun-rays, admired the turquoise-coloured crater lake, Kiawah Ijen and went all the way down to “touch” the lake (not really, remember: its acid). On the way up we met some miners who still extract solid sulfur from the crater, carrying heavy loads and steep paths. We quickly understood they were making more money from the tourists seflies than the rocks they transport. At 9.30h we were already back at our hostel, a little nap and at 13h we were back on our saddles in the direction of our third island: Bali.