2 days in Kuala Lumpur and we have done some washing, eaten well, slept soundly and ready to continue northward. The overnight train from KL Sentral takes us though Kuala Kabu Bharu (Mum’s home town), Ipoh, Butterworth, and finally pulling into a deserted Padang Besar on the Thai border at 9am. Immigration into Thailand takes about an hour, and then back onto a Thai Railways train for the last 100 klms to Hat Yai.

Hat Yai is a large commercial centre and transport hub and is the largest city in southern Thailand. Not a very pretty place, although just up the road about 20 klms is the coastal town of Sogklha, a very popular place with Malaysian gentlemen. (The mind boggles, and having boggled … moves on)

A five hour bus ride gets us to Krabi on the western side of the Thai isthmus. (Isthmus… what a great word… rhymes with Christmas). Krabi was hit badly by the tsunami in 2009 but has made a good recovery. The tourists are dribbling back into the town slowly, and from what we can see… continuing to dribble while they are here. Such is the nature of Thai beach resort towns.

The Krabi Thai Hotel provides a bed for the night, alongwith aircon and Foxtel. Dinner at a local seafood restaurant is good tucker. Rice, grilled fish and Tom Yam soup… like being at home after Indonesian fare.

A lazy day wandering around Krabi, and then a long overnight bus trip via Surat Thani to Bangkok, (the bus of ferals), arriving at 6am. There are some beautiful stopover towns along the route such as Thap Sakae and Cha-am, but the road ahead is long and we skip past in the darkness of the Thai night.

Raining heavily in Bangkok.

Depart Lubuklinggau on bus at 3pm Monday, with 16 hours ahead of us before the next stop… Pekanbaru. Early morning at the bus terminal in Pekanbaru is not an attractive sight, and neither are we. Another 3 hours wait, and crammed into the back of a 4WD we head off with a maniac driver for the port of Dumai. A treacherous 5 hours later, bumped, bruised and broken, we lodge at the Grand Zuri Hotel, a veritable oasis amidst the industrialised Dumai.

Dumai port is ship laden, oil slicked, fume choked and busy (in an Indonesian kind of way). Nestled amidst the sea going tankers is the Melaka ferry terminal. Sadly, we have to leave Indonesia and continue our ambassadorial duties in Malaysia, and after a 150 klm bus ride from Melaka to KL Sentral, will find our way to Uncle Bert’s place.

Farewell Indonesia. We trust you enjoyed our company for the last 2 weeks.

In the short space of 30 years Sumatera has been exploited for its natural resources, especially oil and timber. At the current rate of destruction it is difficult to imagine what it will be like in 10 years. The population of Sumatera has increased rapidly with the increasing demand for labour. The islands infrastructure is way overloaded presently, roads congested, power grid unable to meet demand, housing in very short supply… etc.

There appears to be little regard at the local level for renewable methods. Flat land once covered with impenetrable jungle is stripped, and then lost into the rivers as silt. No evidence of erosion minimisation at all. Factories discharge toxic waste into the streets and rivers, effluent forms a thick skin on most bodies of water.

At a government level the right words are being spoken, but the pockets just get fatter.

Lubuklinggau is a reasonably large town. The main street is lined with motorcycle repair shops, small cafes, hairdressers, an array of small business, hawker stalls … and banks. Plenty of banks. Not surprising really, afterall it is the northern railhead of the southern Sumateran line.

Change money? Not in Lubuklinggau . We arrived here thinking that we would convert a few of our AUD into Rupiah, pay for our hotel, buy some tucker, and get back on the horse and ride north.

Not in Lubuklinggau , and we finally figured that out after 5 banks. Money transfer? Need someone here to transfer the money too. Hmmm… maybe an option, but can take 5 days.

Cash advance on CC? Sorry… no do in Lubuklinggau .

Western Union?… not in Lubuklinggau .

When it seems that we have only two options left… hitch out of town, or stand on a street corner, the bank manager at bank number 6 takes pity on destitute Aussies and converts 200 smackers for us in a transaction that has to be conducted in the basement behind the aircon unit… out of view of the security cameras. Why would he want AUD ? Maybe he is planning a cruise to Christmas Island?

Cashed up we head for the border.

From the ferry terminal at Bakauheni we have to take a grinding bus ride up to Bandar Lumpang Stasiun and arrive just with minutes to spare. Heavy industry lines the degraded highway for most of the 100 kilometres. Massive steel works, concrete factories, power generation and a huge transport hub. Sumatera’s industrialization and degradation of its natural beauty will unfold over the next few days.

The train from Bandar Lampung to Prabumulih runs through the night, arriving at 5am to a deserted station. There are very few people around so we deposit our bags in the Station Masters office and walk around the town… the usual ‘hello mister’.

Right on time at 10.57 our Ekonomi train arrives at the station… and not a minute too soon. The rattles and shakes along the winding route through rubber and tapioca plantations, with very few areas still covered by the original jungles. Large swathes of land have been cleared for farming and the only original features of this landscape are the occasional volcanoes towering up to 3000 mts.

After 8 hours we rattle in to Lubuklinggau , a town that last saw an English speaking tourist when Raffles called past here in 1817. It’s a large town, even has a KFC, the railhead of the southern Sumateran rail line… but we make a fine spectacle walking the main street with our back packs. ‘Hello Mister’.

A rest day here in Lubuklinggau before 36 hours in the bus to the port of Dumai on the north coast, and the ferry across to Melaka.

It’s difficult to find the appropriate words to describe Jakarta. It’s impossible to find any complimentary words. Our train from Yogjakarta pulled in to Tuga Station at 5pm and we had a rough idea that we would stay in the Glodok area, the Chinatown of Jakarta. The Chinta Hotel at $27 (including breakfast) proved to be worth every cent.

Dinner tonight was from a range of street vendors, capped off with a burger from A&W. The streets and narrow laneways are so congested with people, hawkers, motorcycles and rubbish. Nevertheless we walked for a few hours, got lost, walked a bit more, found our hotel, and settled in for the night.

Sadly we missed the chance to catch up with our friend here, but Jakarta is just not a good place to hang around. Taxi to the bus terminal early morning for the grinding 3 hour ride to Merak, the harbour port at the very tip of Western Java. The bus stops at the ferry terminal and the ferry is waiting. It’s a big ferry, in fact it almost reaches status of ship. Fortunately it’s not busy and the 3 hour cruise across the strait to Sumatera is quite relaxing, except for the deafening music, pestering vendors, and the stench of oil and Indonesian cigarettes.

Sailing into the port of Bakauheni the mountains rise out of the sea, and the port is surrounded by small uninhabited islands. A two hour bus ride to Bandar Lampung where we arrive at about 6.30pm… not even time enough for a bite to eat before the overnight train to Prabumulih where we have to wait for our connecting train to Lubuklinggau… where we have to wait for our connecting bus to Bukuttinggi…and so it goes on until Dumai.

We have traversed Java, end to end, east to west. The Sumatera slog has begun.

Borobudur on the cheap is still very expensive. Local busses for the 40 kilometre trip to the small township costs about 3 dollars. Entrance into the monument is 20 dollars each.

Originally built 1500 years ago, it is difficult to find much of the original structure. Multiple tiers, and about 100 metres square, the view from the top is fabulous, the design is impressive, the history is significant, but it’s just not the original structure anymore.

After clambering over the modern Borobudur for a few hours clad in a sarong of respect, we head back towards the bus stop. The bus back to Yogjakarta, a 20 seater mini bus, has a long list of safety concerns including no headlights. This becomes an issue about halfway through the trip apparently and we sat roadside waiting before the driver just continued on in darkness.

Dinner at the Superman Bar and Restaurant finished our two nights in Yogjakarta with a chicken Kiev, famous local cuisine. Tomorrow morning… the train to Jakarta.

The train from Kalibaru (Sri Tanjung) winds it’s way through jungles and rice paddies, heading north(ish) to Probolinggo on the coast. The tree lined streets and multitude of gold shops in this quite large town suggest a degree of prosperity. Beautiful clean streets, and a great restaurant, Sari Kuring. Mt Bromo is about 30 kilometres from here, and at 2am we are picked up by our driver for the ride up the mountain to watch the sunrise.

What a spectacle! Standing on the lip of the caldera and watching as Mounts Bromo, Semaru and others revealed themselves to the first light of day was well worth the effort. Jumped back into the 4WD for the steep drive back down into the caldera and across the black volcanic sand to the base of Mt Bromo. The climb to the lip is about 2 kilometres, and hard work, but so worth the effort. Standing on the lip and staring into the abyss reveals a steaming sulphurous crater.

Our driver then returns us to Probolinggo just in time to catch the Sri Tanjung (economy train) for the 7 hour journey to Yogjakarta.

The sector called Sosrowijayan is a jumble of boutique hotels, bars, restaurants, shops and hawkers and is a great atmosphere. Two nights here will give us a chance to do a short trip to Borobudur, 40 kilometres to the north east.

From Kuta on Bali we grab a taxi into Denpasar. The Ubang bus terminal is everything you would expect… grubby, busy, fumey and full of buses. Indonesian bus drivers secure their qualifications by demonstrating that they can reach level 4 in ‘Need for Speed’. The sprint to the ferry crossing at Gilimanuk is a thrilling fairground ride through serene rice terraces.

The ASDP ferry across to Balywangu is the same style of vessel that plies the Sunda Strait around Flores and Timor.

The bus continues on through terraces which get steeper and steeper, eventually giving in to the dense tropical forest and volcanic peeks. The enigma of Indonesia is more apparent here than anywhere… chaos versus tranquility, and never anything in between.

Kalibaru has been described as “a peaceful village of Dutch colonial origin, set on a hillside amongst plantations”. The bit about the plantations is correct. The only real advantage that Kalibaru offers to the traveler is that the railway crosses the highway. There is a resort here, owned by the person that wrote the description of Kalibaru for Lonely Planet. Hot water finally became available at 11pm. Without TV, we had to make our own entertainment. Fire crackers!

Dinner is a hawker degustation from a selection of roadside vendors. Late at night nature returns the favour and the skies light up. Much more impressive than our efforts earlier.

The train onwards from here leaves at 0700.

Friday July 12

Arrived in Bali from Singapore and went straight to our hotel in Kuta. Wandered around the nearby shops and then went out to dinner at a really swish restaurant. What a surprise… Jim Higgins arrives. Lovely dinner overlooking the beach followed by a walk around Legian area.

The next morning we met up with Jim and Ruly for breakfast, and then a massage. Jim’s friend Chris Myers also came along.

Beach walks and window shopping in the afternoon and Jim and Ruly came down to Kuta for dinner on our last evening in Bali. Was a good night out with great company finished off with a coffee at Gloria Jeans across the road from our hotel.

Sunday morning, early breakfast and then a cab to Ubang bus terminal in Denpasar.

The chaos of Indonesia is about to unfold.

Arrived in Singapore about 5 in the afternoon after a delay of one hour. Caught the train from Changi to our hotel and then went to Lau Pa Sat in the city for chicken satay and chilli stingray for dinner. Walked the full length of Orchard Road and stopped at Raffles Hotel for a picture. Walked around the river at Boat Quay, and then went back to the hotel.

Flight for Bali leaves early in the morning.