Article: A Round Trip from Jambi to Bali by Motorcycle

I spent 2 nights in my parent's house, preparing for the next chapter of my trip, including finding friends who I could contact to become my shelter. I planned to have next shelter in Yogyakarta, I thought it is a moderate distance to reach from Jakarta and I wrote down a few points on the map where friends stay between Jakarta and Yogyakarta if I want to visit them.

Departed from my parent's house in afternoon, around 15.00 WIB, on January 23, 2015, traffic jam made me riding my motorcycle casually. I passed through areas that I had not travelled for a long time -Ciputat, Pamulang, Parung, and City of Bogor. I discovered Bogor had grown into a metro, so different compared to my last visit more than 10 years before and what I saw made me guess what Puncak was like now. Puncak is a tourism spot located between Bogor Regency and Cianjur Regency, which is famous for people who live in Jakarta.

Arrived at Bogor-Cianjur boundary monument, Puncak around 20.00 after had dinner in Bogor I took a rest to enjoy night view. The air was cold enough to make me lazy to continue the trip. Finally, I made a call to a friend in Bandung, asked him if I could stay for a while to take rest at his house. It was my day, he did not mind allowing me to visit him, his welcome words killed laziness on me and in few minutes I was riding my motorcycle to reach Bandung, the capital of Jawa Barat.

After spending 2 nights in Bandung, on January 25, 2015, I continued my journey to Yogyakarta, I took the Jalur Selatan which passed through the areas known as Priangan Selatan. Garut, Tasikmalaya, Ciamis are regencies, and a town called the City of Banjar. In Ciamis I stopped to visit relatives there before I really felt lonely riding a motorcycle at night to enter Province of Jawa Tengah.

Riding through City of Banjar means one step more to reach the boundary between Jawa Barat and Jawa Tengah. Once I crossed the provincial boundary monument I really put my foot steps in Cilacap Regency, the first area of Jawa Tengah Province that borders directly with Province of Jawa Barat.

Next to Cilacap is Kebumen Regency, I tried to call a friend there in the middle of the night and it worked! I visited him for a few hours before continuing my trip. In the dawn, I felt loneliness was even more piercing, after passing Purworejo Regency then in the morning I arrived at border line of Province of Jawa Tengah and Special Region of Yogyakarta, precisely in a spot administered by Kulon Progo Regency. Too sleepy to riding my motorcycle then I looked for a mosque to take a rest but actually I was asleep for hours and woke up at around 14.00. I really wondered why none of people there had tried to wake me up since I have "sleep apnea" disease means I snore so hard while I am sleeping and I was snoring in a mosque!

After showered at mosque then I had my late breakfast (and lunch). I really enjoyed a life motion there, slower than my routines. I could see the people there have their livelihood in a simple way but none of them seemed like misery. Really a mystery of life and I was jealous to them.

Took almost 2 hours after wake up then I was already on the street again, riding to the heart of Yogyakarta. I searched for a location near Meguwo, military airport in Yogyakarta, to wait for a friend who I had called since I was in Jambi, he was going to be my next shelter in Yogyakarta.

Spent 4 days to enjoying Yogyakarta, including meet to friends who I know them through social media (Facebook), a Kawasaki Z130 owners club from Yogyakarta. I took the time to visiting several spots but mainly I killed my time at my friend's home enjoying Yogyakarta's life style.

This "9 days" chapter of my travelling story was written well in my mind as well in my travel diary, moments that sometimes I would like to recall when I am bored with routines.

Chapter 2: Jakarta-Yogyakarta

Jakarta-Cianjur-Bandung-Tasikmalaya-Banjar-Cilacap-Kebumen-Purworejo-Yogyakarta.