Meet Osmo

Well, I’ve told you stories about surfers a hell of a lot. This time I want to tell something different. Something other than waves and boards. Something that doesn’t have anything to do with the sea and the breaks.

Most of the tourists who come to Krui are surfers, of course, whether they are able surfers or beginners, whether they use long board or just a body board, they are all surfers, aren’t they? And truly, Krui now is better known for its surf tours than other tours. But, for you to know, backpacking tours started way before surf tours though, decades ago.

And besides backpacking tour, there is cycling tour. Cycling tourists are those who tour the whole countryside by bicycle, of course. Bicycling tourists rarely come to Krui, not as frequent as surfers or backpackers. Bicycle tourists usually come to Krui from north Sumatera. They arrive in Krui and stay for one day or two for a rest. It takes them weeks to get to Krui from north of Sumatera region, like this cyclist that I met in town the other day.

His name is Osmo Pohja, he is a Finnish. He lives and runs his business in Finland with his wife and his daughter. Besides working in his home country, Osmo had worked in several European countries before.

Osmo arrived in Krui on 21^st of January 2012, from Bintuhan, a small town in Bengkulu province, north of Krui. It took him the whole day to get to Krui from that town, which normally takes about 3 hours by car. “Bicycling is for times later than traveling by car,” he said.

Osmo bought the bike in Thailand before he came to Sumatera from Pahang, Malaysia, by sea. He landed in Dumai. Then he took a bus from Dumai to Bukittinggi, which takes a day long journey. “I didn’t ride my bike from Dumai to Bukittinggi because it was too hot,” he said. “I took my bike by bus, instead.”

Then he rode the bicycle, from Bukittinggi all the way down to Krui. “It’s nice,” he said. “All the way down from Bukittinggi to Krui is cool. Most of the roads take by the sea. I can feel the breeze from the sea all my way long,” he said. The way from Dumai to Bukittinggi takes across the interior part of Sumatera, maybe that’s why it’s hot.

“Do you always wear the umbrella?” I asked

“No. I only use it when it is too hot and I didn’t put enough sunscreen,” he replied.

Then from Bukittinggi, he rode down to Pariaman, pass the Maninjau lake. He spent one night there. After spending one night in the town, he cycled to Painan. There he took a rest and stayed overnight. The next day, he continue cycling to Muko-muko, Bengkulu province. And then he continued cycling down to Ipoh—Bengkul City (not to confuse with Bengkulu province)—Manna—Bintuhan—until he arrived in Krui on January 21. He rode all the way and stopped in each town and stay one day or two.  

All the way that connect those towns above goes through the coastline. The ways are relatively flat and cool with only few mountains. He cycled only in the day time, and he took the bike by bus where he came to high and long mountains.

It took him two cool weeks to get to Krui from Bukittinggi. When he arrived in Krui, he stayed in the town for two days.

“How about the bike?” I asked. The bike looks cranky to me. It doesn’t look like tough mountain bikes like the ones I often see with tourists. It only has one gear that makes it unable to climb up mountains.

“It’s OK. But I’ve changed about 45% of the spokes. I take the spokes with me. I have the tools. I can cut the spokes and put them on by myself,’ he said. What an effort.

Osmo found it’s relatively safe all the way down from Bukittinggi to Krui. He met no heavy locals bothering his journey. “It’s just a nice ride. Everybody I met in the street said ‘hello’ to me,” he said. “I found no trouble with people, but I lost some of my stuffs in my bag in the bus. And in my journey from Dumai to Bukittinggi, we got a band of men stood on our way. There was a group of local people stopped the bus. They made a fire on the street so the bus stopped. Then some of them came into the bus checking the passengers with a torch. I hid in my seat and they didn’t see me. They probably looked for some foreigners because they didn’t do anything to local passengers,” he added. However, apart from this, he found no troubles at all. 

Osmo looked like enjoying his journey with the bike. He planned to ride the bike to the very end of south Sumatera, the Bakauheni pier, which connects Sumatera to Java by ferry, or at least to Bandarlampung, where he then can take an airplane to Jakarta. However, when he got to Krui, he found it not easy to make a decision. There are two ways to go to Bandarlampung from Krui, down south via Kotaagung, or up north via Liwa. Liwa is only 32 km from Krui, but it look way further because the road is climbing up mountains with many abrupt turns all the way long. It takes at least one hour to go this town by motorbike.

Down south way takes by the coastline and is relatively flat for the first one hundred km or more, before it comes to a jungle with a  long and high mountain. If he took the south way he would end up at the jungle in the evening, and he would find no place to stay. If he took the north way, he would go all the way through the jungle and mountains. There is no flat road but the first five km. He needs at least four hours to get to Liwa by his bike unless he took it by bus. But when he arrives in Liwa, he can get a nice place to stay.

Osmo left Krui on January 23. Nobody knows which way he took because nobody saw him leave. I asked the room boy of the hotel the other day, but they didn’t see him leaving either.