Beside
surfing destination, Krui is also a transit town for cyclist who venture all
the way along Sumatera. I have often met cyclist who stayed in Krui for a few
days before they continue the journey. Those cyclist came down to Krui from
Bintuhan, a small town about 150 km up north. Bintuhan is just the last
transit town before they come to Krui. Although there are some small towns in
between, cyclists are used to go straight to Krui.
And
so did Jet Agelink of Venlo, Holland
who I met in Krui the other day. If you meet Jet for the first time, you may
think that she’s just like the girl next door, you’ll never know that she has
been able to ride a bike, along with her bunch of stuff to carry, as far as 100
km a day. Jet, 24, arrived in Krui from Bintuhan on June 17, 2012. He spent two
days in Krui and left the town for Kota Jawa, a small town about 120 km south
of Krui, early in the morning on June 20, 2012.
Jet
started her bike journey in Vientiane, Laos, Januari 3, 2012. She first rode
the bike all the way, as far as 800 km, from Laos to Phuket, Thailand. It took her ten
days to finally get to Phuket from Vientiane. Then from Thailand, she continued riding her
bike to Cambodia, then to Melaka, Malaysia.
From
Melaka, she took a ferry over to Dumai, Sumatera, Indonesia. And it is from
this town that she started her long way journey ventured all the way from north down to
the south of the island. He started from Dumai on
May 25, 2012, to Duri. From Duri,
then she continued to Pekanbaru,
then to Bangkinang, then to Tanjung Pati, before she finally got to
Bukittinggi, a tourist destination
town in the West Sumatera. Judging from this route that she took from Dumai to
Bukittinggi, I can tell that Jet is a tough cyclist. A former cyclist that I
met in town before in January, didn’t dare enough to venture this route. He
took a bus instead.
Then
from Bukittinggi, she went down to Pariaman-Bungus-Painan-Tapan-Muko-Muko-Ipuh-Talang
Baru-Bengkulu-Maros-Bintuhan, before she finally got to Krui.
She
rode her bike all day long from early in the morning to the evening and stopped
every time the night falls. She spent the night mostly in a hotel in every town where she ended up. And if she ended up in the middle of nowhere, she would either
hitch a ride on a truck to a nearest town, or stayed in a tent.
During
her journey in Sumatera, she had spent two days off in Bukittinggi, two days in
Pekanbaru, one day in Ipuh, one day in Maninjau, and two days in Krui.
Jet wrote
some notes about her adventurous journey in her blog. www.crazyonabike.com/cycledipity.
In one of her note she wrote, … Cycling on I soon learn I am quickly running out of water. Trying to
buy some with my dollars prove difficult, nobody has any change or there is a
lot of miscommunication. On and on I go, in the hope to find somebody with
enough change. 5km before I reach Sisophon I try to buy water one last time,
when it hits me that I have a thermos flask full in my panniers. I filled that
up the other day after hearing there would be little on my route to
Aranyaprathet but never used it. Cursing myself for not thinking of this
earlier I drink the whole flask in one go. I am feeling a little better, but I
might still be a bit dehydrated....
Goodbye Jet, may
you fare well, and have good lucks.
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