Jambi

In the end, since I arrived in SE Asia, I've not had many sunny days. No complaints, I like the hot, tropical weather, I've already adjusted to sleeping in non-A/C-rooms, and some rain, time by time, is nice. Washing the streets, and a nice thunderstorm brings a cooling breeze and refreshment, I would be fine with a few hours of rain, a day. But on the long run, I started to dislike the cloudy weather. Only seeing the sun for 1, 2 or 3 hours a day (except of rare fully sunny days) started to bother me, my desire for more blue skies and sunny days grew steadily, over the last few weeks.
Checking the global weather for SE Asia regularly, and talking to locals, confirmed my suspicion that rainy season is coming to early, so waiting for the sun won't work out.
As you can never see everything and as plans are made to be broken, I decided to seek the sun in the south, where rainy season shouldn't start before end of October.
As I'm not known for making compromisees about reaching a set target, I wanted to go there as fast as possible (still avoiding airplanes as long as possible). It ended up with travelling non-stop for nearly 60 hours.
Taking the 12hrs night ferry from Nias back to Sumatra was a comfortable start, even if the wooden bunk beds without mattress doesn't look like.😅
Back in Sibolga in the morning, waiting 4hrs for my 18hrs-bus-trip to Pekanbaru, which is a quite big city in the center of Sumatra and known as a transport hub. After the rough minibus ride I had to Sibolga, I've chosen a nice big bus, so I hopefully could catch a few hours of sleep, despite the bad roads, bumping and shaking the bus.
Nice bus ride, seeing amazing landscapes passing by and watching daily life is such a enjoyable part of travelling.🤩
Originally I had planned to stay a night in Pekanbaru, but as there still were dark, heavy clouds everywhere and I just felt not ready for a big, loud, chaotic city, at that moment, I decided to skip visiting this city. After having a short breakfast at the bus stop, it took me 2 hours to find another big bus heading to the south: a 24hrs ride to city of Palembang.
Barely found time for a quick washing myself on the bus terminals washrooms and was sitting in another bus, again.
As always in life, good luck and bad luck are living close by each other: A row behind my seat Oscar was travelling with me, speaking enough English to fill the gaps with google translate easily, had some nice chitchatting, he was going to visit the wedding of his son in Pekanbaru and finally helped me with getting a reasonable priced ride to my accommodation, after we've arrived. On the other hand, my bus seat was broken, so I couldn't adjust my seat in any way and ended up restrained and fighting to find at least an acceptable seating position. 😅 Well, back pain, sometimes, is part of the game, here. 🙈
Nevertheless, during daytime I enjoyed the ride a lot, during the night it became hard.
Another fascinating thing on these bus rides, here, is an incredible time management: Buses making several breaks, around every 2-4 hours, meeting up with other buses for transfer passengers, giving us time to have a meal or simply a rest. This all happens without any schedules, it's just the driver, telling us like "now a short/long break", or "let's move on". Even the locals don't know, they just keep an eye on the driver, when he starts to move back to the bus. (Of course they check if everyone is back in the bus, before heading on😅). Drivers are permanently in touch with their colleagues, about meeting times, and with this basic and interactive way of organisation, most buses are quite on time. 😎
Finally I've arrived Palembang around 9 o'clock in the morning, exactly 60hours after I've entered the ferry on Nias island. Worn out, short of sleep, not only my back is hurting... Lack of fitness now takes it's toll, too. More self-care has to get a higher priority, now.
Saying goodbye to my travel mate Oscar from Aceh, of course I was invited to visit him, hopefully I can do it on my way back home. 🤩
Heading to my accommodation, craving for a proper bed and a quiet room to rest.
But ready for new adventures in one of Sumatra's biggest cities! 🤩Read more