Our first week in Indonesia!

After months of arranging, anticipatory excitement and after our goodbye party it is time! On the twelfth of August we fly to Jakarta with our Brompton foldable bikes and many plans and dreams.

At the check-in desk at Schiphol airport it gets a bit tensed. Will they allow our precisely packed and sealed Bromptons on the flight with Gurada Indonesia? “You should have packed them in boxes”, says the lady at the desk. Fingers crossed!

Yes! By our AirTags in the framebags of the bikes, we can see that they must be in the aircraft hold. What a relief!

When we arrive at Jakarta’s airport we arrange some roepia’s, our visa and to our both relief we grab the bags with the Bromptons from the luggage belt.

In the hotel we take a rest to recover from our jet lag and after this we can start to rig up the Bromptons. This isn’t a big deal for us, since we practiced a lot while we were still in the Netherlands. When we start pedalling in the streets of Jakarta, our no limits journey really starts, amazing!

Many people want our attention when they see us, they raise thumbs and want to know what we are doing and why. We explain in English or with gestures what Cerebral Palsy is. We even get invited by a couple from Kuala Lumpur and many times people want to take pictures with us.

When we later want to get out of the city of Jakarta, we decide to take the metro. They are used to foldable bikes – Jakarta has its own Brompton clubs – and even the metro is adapted for foldable bikes.

We bike via a route through small villages and alongside rivers toward de mountains close to Bogor. Quite often we have to push our Bromptons uphill because it’s too steep. We drink loads of water to stay hydrated. When we take a rest, people again want to take pictures with these not so common persons.

In the mountains it’s Daeng – owner of a cafetaria – whom helps us to get a camping before the rain starts. He and his wife love our initiative and they insist on not letting us pay for the drinks (when we visit them a day later).

On the 17th of August its Independence Day in Indonesia. The night before, we are invited for the party in a village. On the 17th we enjoy a whole day of festivities. First we have to be judges for the nasi goreng contest. Later there are many games: sack races, tug-of-war, nail-in-the-bottle games, and the most exciting: climbing in greased poles.

Again many people want to take pictures together with us or follow us on our Instagram page. We arrange a place to pitch our tent on the lawn next to the cafeteria. After a cat pooed on our tent and it started to rain, the cafeteria owner insist we sleep indoors. So sweet!

The day after we bike an adventurous route through the mountain villages and we end up at another pole climb contest. Here we make a real Cerebral Palsy awareness picture with the school kids. Green is de colour of CP.

With some local minibuses and a big touring car we travel through the mountain pass to Bandung. We are in contact with a local center that is focussed on people with CP. They invited us to come and look and to tell our story. To be continued!