Let’s keep the show on the road.
After 10 days in Kuala Lumpur, I flew back to Medan and got back with my Honda CRF 150L.
All the (camera-drone) pictures from this adventures are here.
I then headed back to the other side of the island, to try to reach West Sumatra as soon as possible.
But first I wanted to check out the highest waterfall in Indonesia, Air Terjun Sigura-Gura, from Medan I rode to jalan Sigura – Gura, there are dozen of waterfalls along that road. I stopped at a random one before going to the highest one. The road was a bit rough but cool to ride one.
This was quite a nice waterfall. Air Terjun Nirwana.
Got stuck in traffic in the middle of nowhere.
I kept riding down the road in the direction of Toba Lake and I had my first sight of Air Terjun Sigura-Gura.
I had to put the drone in the air.
You can see how high this waterfall is when you realise the size of the people on the right side of this image.
After this I kept going and slept near Toba Lake.
The next day I was planning to stop after a few hours of riding, but I couldn’t find adecent place to sleep, so I just kept riding until sunset and made it to Kampung Eropa Harau right after sunset.
Just before reaching Harau I rode on this cool overpass system. We’ll come back to it later.
Harau is a small scenic canyon in the middle of the mountains of West Sumatra.
Very cool spot, peaceful and natural area. There’s also, as usual a few volcanos around.
West Sumatra indigenous people are the Minang people, a very important people in Sumatra and Indonesia.
They have very distinctive architecture.
And more from this area:
Took the dirtbike to its natural habitant around Harau.
I then then took a ride back to what might sound like a weird place to visit but this place is really cool and the views are great.
It consists of 9 curves, that’s the meaning of Kelok 9.
At the top of the previous image you can see the old road to get down from the plateau into the valley.
People come to hangout on the side of the road at night, all those tarps are restaurants and cafés.
After a few days chilling in Harau I rode just 2 hours away to reach Bukittinggi. I didn’t take my camera out in the city. Missed a good picture of the famour tower clock!
Anyway from there I went to ride another curvy road, Kelok 44! You guessed it, 44 curves.
Here are a few of the curves.
Another traditional home, called Rumah Gadang, of the Minang people.
In the backround you can see lake Manindjau.
This is a smaller version of the local traditional home, usually this one is there to store rice.
Some close up details of Rumah Gadang. Very nice details.
The next day I went out of town again, to try and find one of the “rarest” and bigest flowers in the world.
The Rafflesia arnoldii, another unsual acticity for me, go walk in the forest for an hour to try to find a flower.
You can ride to this small coffee shop (good Luwak coffee too) and ask them to get you a guide to bring you to a flower.
The flowers are not always blooming so you do need some luck. and forget trying to find one by yourself, unless you’re prepared to walk around for hours or maybe days.
Anyway after getting a guide we walked almost 1 hour in the forest where one flower was blooming. It wasn’t the biggest ever but it was still very impressive.
It was about 75cm wide, some can reach more than 120cm. Many people asked me if it was smelly, as this plant is also called “stinking corpse lily” but it wasn’t smelly for me, I was told it only smells bad when it’s really hot out.
It’s quite an impressive thing to see. It takes more than a year to bloom and only blooms for about a week or two.
Very cool, but it’s time to keep going.
Next stop, the famous city of Padang, the capital city of West Sumatra province and the home of Nasi Padang and Rendang.
It’s pretty cool to get to the origin of the food I came to appreciate so much in Indonesia.
Sunset in Padang, and the sun is showing me to the direction of my next stop.
Another reason to end up in Padang is to get to a famous surfing spot, the Mentawai islands. More people now also visit it for its beauty and traditonal culture, where you can spend time with local tribes living very simply. After some research I decided to skip that activity, I felt like it was too much of a money trap.
I decided to visit Sipura island. I took the slow ferry there, 12 hours, but there’s also a fast boat (3 hours) if you don’t want to bring a vehicle with you.
You can book a ticket from this website https://www.wjl-line.com/. You can look up details on how to proceed my part 1 of this Sumatra trip. It was to Nias but it’s the same company and procedure.
After about 12 hours we reached Tua Pejat Harbour, from there you can ride to your homestay, some are quite far in the south of the island but the first few days I stayed north at Crow’snest mentawai. Very cool sport directly on the beach.
It’s a great place to hangout.
Prestine area.
On the left of this image you can see a spot where people go to surf. It’s only reachable by boat.
After 2 days on the island I got back on a the “MV Mentawai Fast” ferry, to return to Padang and pickup a friend visiting for a few days.
The ferry schedules are quite unpredicable. Make sure to have spare time and verify the schedule with them.
After a night in town I headed back to Sipora with my friend to enjoy the beauty of that island.
The Mangroves of the north of Sipora.
There’s a famous tourist spot called the 3 sisters, it consists 3 thin palm trees, sadly when I was there it was only 2 sisters and a sick one.
Hopefully it healed since. I just checked (March 2026, the 3 sisters are totally gone now, sad. Even without that, it’s worth a visit there)
That place is great, the boat will stop right accross on a wild beach to enjoy the area.
Beautiful spot. There’s more on my Instagram stories if you are interested.
After a few days in the north we headed south to stay at Lances Left Surf Camp. At the time it was brand new but I’m sure it’s still a greap spot now.
A few bungalows right on the beach, what else can you ask for.
The view from the room.
Sunset view.
Starry night.
There’s also a few fancier resorts on the other side of that tip of the island. They also have restaurants that serve great food, beer and drinks.
Great place to watch surfing too, if you’re not the one doing the surf.
This is in front of Hollow Tree’s Resort.
What a spot. There’s a lot of cool spot all aroung this island. Well worth the visit.
Here are some more pictures:
They did build an new airsport on the island and this might develop (or even already has) the island.
At that time you could fly out to Padang on this small airplane, with very limited luggage allowance. You can book a flight using WhatsApp.
I took the ferry for another 12 hours back to Padang.
And then rode up to Batusangkar, a bit of a randon town to visit but you know me!
But the main reason to get there is to check out a special event happening around there, the Pacu Jawi.
Pacu Jawi is a traditional, centuries-old cow racing festival held in Batusangkar, West Sumatra, Indonesia, typically after the rice harvest. It features jockeys balancing on wooden plows while holding cow tails across muddy, water-logged fields to celebrate the harvest and increase the cows’ market value.
This is a pretty regular event now, back in the days they would only do it after the rice harvest. It’s pretty fun to watch and photograph.
Clean bulls as I arrived.
This is what they use around the bulls to ride them.
They then get on those wooden contraptions, grab the tails and ride as fast as possible.
On this picture you can see a technique used by the “riders”. They actually bite the tail of the bull to make them ride faster.
In the end this is moslty a showcase and a “judged” competition more than a race.
If you are around there, check out the schedule and try to get there, it’s well worth it.
The area is also interesting to visit other than the race, sure you can visit it from Bukittinggi also but it’s a bit far to have back and forths.
You can see the “rumah gadang” roofs.
This is the Pagaruyung Palace one of the most famous palaces of the Minang people.
A small back home in the complex.
A lot of detail inside.
And another palace nearby. Lots of history here.
The next day was quite a long one on the road. I rode from Batusangkar to Kerinci.
Along the way I came across this nice lake, Danau Singkarak.
About 8 hours later I arrived to Kerinci, Jambi. I stayed in this real nice homestay
The homestay is at the base of Gunung Kerinci. Mount Kerinci at 3,805 metres (12,484 ft) above sea level, Kerinci is the highest volcano in Indonesia, and the highest of any situated on an island that is a part of Asia.
And it’s also a very fertile land, and perfect place for tea plantations, a very famous one in Indonesia.
Views from PELANGI Guest House, a really amazing place to stay.
You can climb the mountain, but it was quite wet when I was there and not recommended to get up there. Maybe next time.
The tea plantations here look like art.
After this my main goal was to reach Krui, 750km away. 18 hours according to Google Maps.
I stopped in Bengkulu city for a few days, to edit my images and also deal with some issues. I didn’t take any photos or visit anything out there.
After that boring stop, I kept riding south. At some point I was riding in a national park, on a beautiful road, took a curve at a decent speed but the road had a bit of cavity and almost threw me out of the bike while turning. Never experienced anything like that. And a few minutes later I realised I had a flat tire, the cavity/curve event pinched my tube, that gives you an idea of how it felt.
Luckily found a place to fix it quite quickly. In Sumatra there are many areas where you don’t see any kind of shops for hours. So it was a lucky thing I could reach a tire shop quickly.
In the end I made it to Krui before sunset.
I stayed at Kambuna Bungalows for a week, I really recommend that place, it seems like they added a pool too!
Krui is a famous surf spot, this was actually the first place I was suppose to visit in Indonesia as a friend invited me to Indonesia in 2019 to take photos of him body-surfing. But it fell through and we met in Java. 6 years later, this felt like a full circle moment.
My plan was to try to surf and chill in Krui. I rented a board for a week, but after a few tries in front the of the place I was staying and also stepping on a ursin, I let go of the dream of becoming Kelly Slater at 44 years old. Krui isn’t really meant for beginners surfers, but it’s still a very chill place to just enjoy the nature and life.
Lots of empty beaches and wild nature, there is a lot of development but it’s not over the top, yet. These are near Mandiri beach.
This is the wave right in front of the place I was staying. Fun to watch.
I can’t surf but I really enjoy looking at the ocean, waves and people riding the waves.
I wish I had a waterproof setup to photograph surfers, but that’s quite the commitment.
There’s a few things to see around Krui. Such as Tihang Stone Beach.
Along the way.
This is on the opposite side, nearby Mandiri beach.
Back near the center of Krui.
Another amazing spot in Indonesia.
This is pretty much it for the Sumatra road trip.
I stopped in another location, Kiluan Negeri, but it was quite dissapinting. I arrived late and left early the next day, the vibes were very off, it was quite dirty and I was a bit tired. I decided to just be done with the trip.
The next day I got on the ferry and crossed to Java, the plan was to get to Jakarta and sell the motorcycle out there. It’s not ideal to sell a vehicle in a different province than where you bought it, because of the plate being in a different province and more annoying to renew. But I sure wasn’t riding back to Medan!
After a stop Cilegon the next day I arriced in Jakarta.
I tought about visiting West Java before going to Jakarta, but I was tight on time (Visa wise) and I still had to sell the bike, I wasn’t sure how quick that would happen.
In the end it took less than 24 hours to sell the bike. I guess I had a good price!
I rode for 7500km according to the speedometer (probably closer to 7000 real kilometers), from Medan to Jakarta.
Sumatra was amazing, the only “downside” is that in some area it’s not easy top find a decent place to sleep, especially between “touristic” areas. You can ride for hours without a good place to stay.
But in general Sumatra was one of the most organised and efficient places I visited in Indonesia, especially the ferries.
Don’t hesited to DM me on IG in you need advice.
Here’s a map of the route I took. You can also see the variation in elevation.
