April 20th, 2011
Days Left to Journey: 39 Days
Training Kilometers Cycled: 635 km
Bright and Early.
One last shot before I departed with the medical crew back home. The crew found me hilarious, which I find odd for one primary reason - I'm not. Those pictured who I have yet to mention from left to right: Lilik, the support truck driver in a light brown shirt, a man of particular seriousness and introspection, friendly nonetheless. Kodir, standing, in the white shirt, a nice enough guy who gave me a ride from Jakarta back to my school. I had this nagging feeling like he is a man, who in his younger days had a rough upbringing and then went straight arrow, maybe it was his plain white T, black jeans, and slightly "rebel without a cause" pompadour hair style. In the red shirt is Poetoet, essentially the Bike2Work ambassador - a guy easy to like. Kneeling is Mak (I think that's how his name is spelled), the ambulance driver also in a plain white T, but with a gnarly mustache. He loves eating. At one point on the journey home he had a bakso (meat ball) tofu in one hand and lontong stuffed with shredded chicken in the other, while driving and shifting gears - a hungry, gruff but friendly man. Standing behind him in the jilbab is Bu Fina and Doctor Mala in the collared shirt and glasses - both also friendly and were constantly shopping for friends and family back home.
They told me we'd be back in Jakarta by 10pm that night. I was shocked. I know it took us 6 days by bike, but by car I thought it would be much less. Someone, who will remained unnamed, told me not to worry and then proceeded to make a siren sound while spinning both index fingers in the air.
After a nice nap in the stretcher (you don't know how comfortable those can be on a long trip, especially if you're not a patient) I realized why the trip would take so long. We stopped 3 times to buy oleh-oleh (food from travel destinations); for wingko and otak-otak (jokingly called brain-brain as a direct translation), salty duck eggs, and red onion (the smaller cousin of the onion usually seen in stores in the US). The ambulance stretcher only supported oleh-oleh by the end of the trip. We also stopped 3 times to eat as well.
I finally reached home, shoved a ton of laundry into a basket, brushed my teeth, and passed out.
I leave you with a peaceful image of the town of Jepara from the ambulance. Now that's a quaint and peaceful Indonesian town.
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