The following few days of my expedition felt like amazing race as I had to be in Dumai, Riau for the ferry to Melaka within two days. It was fatiguing all right as it was the longest ride ever I went on a bus. On Saturday (22/08/10) just after Zuhur, we went to the bus terminal as Ebby & Vania navigated us by utilizing the local bus. As usual, once you access the terminal, there will be people crowding you, holding you back just so they can sell off their tickets. We had ours to Dumai for 270k Rp. with the AC Bus Company. But to my despair, they took a little more time than they promised. We took off on Saturday around 3pm and reach Dumai on Monday about 9pm. Imagine, 56 hours on a bus ride.
The 1st stop was at Merak, a ferry port which connects to Pelampung, southern port of the Sumatra Island. It was midnight then, where we can only enjoy the breeze of air at the front of the ferry for approximately 2hours. We met this family, who were traveling from Solo which totaling their traveling was 5days 4 nights with the bus. How crazy was that? The bus ride was considerably cheap but there was a catch, they will only stop at their chosen restaurant for us to have our break fast and sahur. The predicament was that the cost per meal was above par, somewhere above 20k Rp. for a typical meal.
I wish to explore more on the Sumatra Island because the people here are much alike to Malaysian compare to Javanese but time was against us, we can only perceive the Sumatra mostly through the windows of the bus and during the pit stop. We can pick up their slang better compare to Javanese as they had so much resemblance to the Malay language. The Sumatra Island is four times bigger than the Java Island but is 1/3rd of the population than Java Island. We had a long stop at Palembang but did not bother to wander around much because it was really humid; this is because we were near the equator line. If you might know, Parameswara, the founder of Malacca sultanate in 1400 was born in Palembang.
We reached Dumai that Monday night. Khad had a friend there, his ex college roommate Novli. Novli works at a hand phone shop where most of his income from selling credits. His family offered us a stay at their place for the night. Nov brought us around the town that night and we had one of the best Bakso in Dumai. Dumai is a city in Riau province on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Dumai is an important transport and trade center, both regionally and international (among other things to Malaysia). Dumai is rich in oil (fuel and palm oil). We woke up early the next morning to get the tickets to Melacca. And yes we were late by a day and fine 200k Rp per person per day.
We are going to have a rest for about a week a Malaysia as we were in need to restore our energy and of course we were off budget and staying in Malaysia saves a lot. It seems the Indonesia and Malaysia conflict was getting tenser as the Bendera announced to shave and sweep of Malaysians who were in Indonesia. My flight to Jakarta is just after our independence day. I feel like entering a mine field but I cannot stop now as we were only half way through the whole journey. Do pray for our safety.
Menggo
P/S: where were you? Hope to see you again...
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