No excuses

There is a rather wide gap between today and the day of my last post. I could say that I just got fed up with the double blogging, which is writing the posts on paper, trying to find an internet cafe with destroyed keyboards, typing it in again, uploading pictures, realizing that another three hours are gone, giving it up, leaving the rest for tomorrow… back to square one, in another city or village, on another island. I could also say I realized that I spend all this time writing and editing instead of actually doing the things I would like to write about. There are many explanations or excuses, however we call them. The truth is simply that I did not feel like posting. The truth is actually that I write much, much more nowadays, but in Hungarian, to myself. This double binding of writing in a foreign language and for an audience I know less and less about made me a little nervous. I am glad to have realized the first time I had this feeling that I do this blog for pleasure, and there is no reason whatsoever to force myself. Buying a new pen and a notebook in a dusty little kiosk on the island of Sumbawa was the most liberating feeling I felt ever since we left Malang…

I have the draft of the post about Sumbawa from the One Post One Island series that is yet to be published, and there are a few thoughts on the Lombok and Bali posts, but they will stay as they are for now. I think in September I will finish them: it will be a nice nostalgic act for bringing back some memories by sharing the stories and pictures that I like the most. For now, there is this post called “No excuses” that is so far mostly about excuses, so I will go on with a brief report about the present, the past and the future.

The Past: In a nutshell I can say that after Flores and Komodo things got even faster than they were before. It was inevitable to start counting the days, and soon we realized that in order to make it back to Malang for the interview that both Zoli and I had to attend, we had to go fast. I did not mind at all: a motorcycle trip for me is more about the actual road than the beaches, trekking in a jungle or on a volcano, or sleeping until noon. We had to choose two slow islands and two fasts islands, so we decided to spend more time on Bali and Lombok, and basically drive through Sumbawa and the western part of Java without any detours. It turned out to be a nice plan, as we never felt like being in a hurry. Somehow the whole thing felt natural. For this second half of the trip apparently Mother Nature decided that we had suffered enough, and rewarded us with nice weather all through these remaining four islands.

All in all it was an amazing trip, something I will never forget. It is beyond my skills to summarize it nicely enough in a few words, and I do not want to write pages about it, at least not yet. The places we visited were extremely diverse: it was fast and slow, busy and quiet, wet and dry, firm and soft, gentle and cruel, smooth and rocky. Through all this diversity the thing that made the whole ride so memorable and special was the company: Luz and Zoli. They are both wonderful people, and perfect companions for such a journey. We got very close to each other and by the end of the adventure I felt like we had known each other for many, many years. Before all this I thought that all I need is a solo motorcycle trip, but now I know that I was (at least partly) wrong. I still feel the need for the solo ride, but this was perfect as it was.

The Present:

This is the part when slowly but surely the ‘we’ that characterized the previous posts become ‘I’ again. I was planning on staying in Malang for three nights, and leave to Sumatra after doing my laundry, fixing the Bajaj and doing all the things in Muhammadiyah that I wanted to. Not so surprisingly it didn’t work out that way. The meetings got postponed, I couldn’t get the parts I needed for the Bajaj (for those who are interested: I needed a new piston and the whole cylinder block had to be replaced, or so I thought. After we opened up the engine we discovered some horrible things… I am planning to write a whole fat post solely about the issues around the Bajaj that the people who do not care about these things), the Indonesian post office tricked me, and by the time everything was ready I managed to pick up some nasty virus somewhere. We arrived to Malang on the 7^th, and today is the 17^th. Instead of the planned three, I am spending my tenth night here.

The Future:

This afternoon my fever finally disappeared, and so did the other virus related inconveniences. Once again my bag is packed, the Bajaj is in one piece and running, and it seems like nothing can stop me from finally leaving Malang tomorrow morning. There was too much planning to do and too many decisions to make during the last two weeks, so from tomorrow on I will enjoy all the advantages of travelling solo on a motorcycle. I have a date by which I should be in Bali (August 6), and a preferred general direction (West) and a vague goal (go as deep in Sumatra as I can or feel like), but that is it. Without taking any unnecessary risks I plan on not planning anything, at least for a few days. I will definitely give some signals about being OK and all, but I am not sure if I will be writing any posts soon, and if yes, in what language. I went so deep in my free fall mood that right now I am not even sure about the direction I will go tomorrow morning: West, through Batu and the mountains to Kediri, North, on the busy Surabaya road and later turn left to Lamongan, or South, to Blitar and Tulungagung. All I know is that in about ten days I will turn around and come back, and that is just enough.

I am not sure what will happen and where or with whom I will end up with, but I have a very, very good feeling about this trip. Just the sight of my ready-to-go backpack makes me smile like a crazy person, and the fact that I do not know where I am going to sleep tomorrow fills me up with excitement. Let the fun begin!

By the way, for those who are interested, here is an album of 50+ pictures that I took on the Flores-Sumbawa-Lombok-Bali trip: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152992680005526.1073741826.671515525&type=1
Enjoy!