6.5 Week Indonesia Trip. Flores + North and West Sumatra. June/July 2024

[Dale164]

My father and I spent 6.5 weeks in Indonesia in June/July 2024. We spent 14 days in Flores, 10 days in West Sumatra and 20 days and North Sumatra. I have written a few notes about the Flores section below. I will have some notes about Sumatra to follow:

PART 1 FLORES

My father and I visited Flores for the first time, for 14 days, in June 2024.
We each rented a motorbike for 12 days from Motor Adventure Bali in Labuan Bajo. We had a Honda CB150 and a Honda ADV160 motor scooter. We returned the bikes at their second office in Maumere. We arranged the motorbike rental before leaving home. Their prices are higher than local rentals, but the bikes are kept in good mechanical condition. The staff speak English and you can communicate easily by email. We had a good experience with this company.
They have many different bikes and prices, have a look at their website. All bikes come with a rear luggage rack.


We mainly stayed on the main highway, riding from Labuan Bajo to Larantuka in the far east. Its not really a highway as you may expect. It’s a windy country road in very good condition. Most vehicles travel no faster than 40-50km/hr. There are very few large trucks. There seems to be a lot of small Suzuki trucks carrying freight. It is a fairly safe, easy place to ride a motorcycle. It’s a lot easier if you have google maps on your phone.
My father and I ride a motorbike at home in Australia, and in other countries in Asia. We felt fairly comfortable riding in Flores.


We had fine grey ash falling on us over a distance of 20-30km riding between Maumere and Larantuka, from the nearby Lewatobi Volcano. We were fortunate that our flight from Maumere to Labuan Bajo was still running. That flight seems to be regularly cancelled at the present time due to ash from the volcano.


Flores is a special place. Everything moves more slowly than the frenetic pace in so much of Indonesia. We enjoyed riding our motorbike, great scenery, nice food and meeting and talking to local people every day.


I have made a list of the hotels we stayed in, restaurants and other random notes.
Apart from Labuan Bajo, we did not book any hotels in advance. We found a hotel when we arrived in each town from google maps.


Labuan Bajo
Komodo Lodge – 550,000 inc breakfast. Probably a little bit expensive. Nice room with balcony, Great view from rooftop terrace / breakfast area.
We had a very nice charcoal grilled snapper for dinner one night at the fish stalls at the northern end of town. Probably best to book hotel in advance in LBJ


Ruteng
Sky Flores Hotel – 325,000 inc breakfast. We arrived in the dark and ended up here after checking another place that was full. Basic room but clean and okay for a couple of nights. Nice view from the rooftop terrace / breakfast area.
Had a couple of nice meals at Kopi Mane café nearby.
Nice ride through the countryside / villages to visit the hobbit cave.


Bajawa
Hotel Edelweis 2 – 300,000 inc breakfast. Do not confuse with other similarly named Edelweis hotels. Not a hotel, more like a homestay. Two very friendly, polite young ladies, who speak good English, manage it for their family. Nice clean, sunny room, comfortable bed. Down a quiet lane away from the main road. Had a couple of evening meals at Milonari restaurant nearby.
Nice ride south of the city to visit traditional villages and countryside.


Ende
LCR Hotel – 425,000 inc breakfast. Nice modern hotel. Very clean and good A/C. The security guards were pretty active, don’t park here, don’t park there, park over here ha ha! Not many restaurants nearby. I believe the hotel can serve dinner. Ende is a gritty port town, but a sensible place to stop for the night.
Nice lunch and swim at Blue Stone Beach on the way to Ende.


Moni
Farila Lodge – 300,000 inc breakfast. A small guesthouse with two rooms, on the hill at the top of the village. Amazing view from the balcony. Very nice clean room, comfortable bed and hot shower. Very nice owner Pieter and his wife.
We had meals at Good Moni, Mopi’s Place and Moon Café.
When riding to Moni, stop at Detusoko village for a coffee overlooking the rice paddies. We liked Lepa Lio Café.
Nice visit to Kelimutu National Park, open 6am-12pm, 150,000 entry per person, nice walk (2km) to visit the coloured crater lakes.
Moni is a beautiful small town with cool weather.


Maumere
Pelita Hotel – 350,000 inc breakfast. On the eastern side of the city right on the waterfront. An older hotel but clean rooms, good A/C and good shower. Nice swimming pool also.

Go Hotel – 395,000 inc breakfast. Nice modern hotel, good shower and A/C. Nice swimming pool. Friendly staff. Free transport to airport. Not many restaurants nearby, but hotel restaurant had nice food.


Larantuka
ASA Hotel – 500,000 inc breakfast. Right on the waterfront/beach. Nice room, good shower and A/C. Nice swimming pool.
Resto Bu Ayu – 2km south of the hotel on main road. A very clean, small restaurant with A/C, good menu and fair prices.
Had a nice swim / snorkel one day at Roga Beach, 25km east of Larantuka, over the other side of the peninsula.


*Ruteng, Bajawa and Moni are higher elevation (~1000m), much cooler and hotels generally don’t have A/C, you really don’t need it.

 

[2wheels]

Welcome to Ride Asia Dale and thank you for a very informative report.

 

[2wheels]

And riding Tassie is excellent too!

 

[merantau]

Many thanks for a great report Dale. There's a Canadian rider who's been resident in Surabaya fir 23 years riding in Flores at the moment. Lewotobi is still erupting and he was riding through ash on the north coast road from Maumere to Larantuka. He has a YouTube channel called "Jekyll's Ride" with about 20 episodes up now. It's really well done and worth a look. He's heading to Timor.

Most of those venues you mentioned, apart from Milonari and Mopi's are unfamiliar to me so will definitely check them out on my next trip.

 

[Dale164]

PART 2 WEST SUMATRA

After our motorbike ride in Flores, we flew from Labuan Bajo to Jakarta with Garuda, stayed overnight near Jakarta Airport, then flew to Padang the following day with Citilink.
We travelled from Padang Airport to Bukittinggi (90km) with a car and driver, which cost 550,000 and took 2.5 hrs.
Bukittinggi is a sensible place to be based. It is a small city of 100,000 people at an elevation of 900m and cooler at around 22-25 degrees. There are a range of hotels, guesthouses and restaurants.

It is the third time I have been to West Sumatra. It is an area of great natural beauty, yet it seems to attract very few foreign tourists.

We rented a 125 and 155cc motor scooter for 8 days from our guesthouse in Bukittinggi.
We spent 3 nights in Lake Maninjau, 2 nights in Solok and 2 nights in Payakumbuh.

Lake Maninjau is a large crater lake about 40km ride east of Bukittinggi. You descend down 44 hairpin bends to reach the lakeshore. At the bottom of the hairpin bends is Maninjau town, the biggest settlement on the lake, where you find a small selection of hotels, guesthouses and restaurants. It is about 50km around the perimeter of the lake on a good quality paved road. It is a really relaxing half day ride around the lake passing by small villages, fish ponds, rice paddies, various crops such as coffee, cloves and cinnamon and many floating fish farm cages in the lake.
I have some friends who live at the southern end of the lake. They earn a meagre income from a small roadside restaurant, but supplement their income by also working on surf tour boats out of Padang.

We had a great ride of 110km from Lake Maninjau south to the small city of Solok. About 5km past the centre of Padang Panjang, you can turn right off the main road and follow a small road south through beautiful rice paddies and small villages until you reach the village of Malalo at northern end of Lake Singkarak, another large lake of similar size to Maninjau. It is really nice riding along the western shore of Lake Singkarak, past rice paddies, small villages, palm trees and mosques.

It was quite hot in Solok and we were glad to have A/C in our room. We had a great ride to the twin lakes of Lake Dibawah and Diatas, 45km south of Solok at an elevation of 1450m and much cooler. Solok is a vibrant small city that receives very few foreign tourists. The local people are literally falling off their motorbikes to wave and say hello.

We rode 110km north west from Solok to Payakumbuh, via Taluk. The first 95km was a good quality, windy road, passing rice paddies, vegetable fields, small towns and patches of thick jungle. The last 15km was a badly broken paved road with huge potholes and was very dusty. Payakumbuh feels bigger and busier than Solok, and everything moves faster, but also has less charm than Solok for some reason. We spent one day in the Harau Valley and also visited the Kelok Sembilan “Giant Figure Eight Bridge” on the highway.

Riding 45km from Payakumbuh back to Bukittinggi, we stopped to have our motorbikes washed at Cuci Motor 88 and while waiting had a haircut at Rofiano Barbershop 88 next door. 20,000 for a thorough motorbike wash and 20,000 for a haircut seems to be a common price in Indonesia.

A few notes about hotels and restaurants:

Bukittinggi
Orchid Hotel – 250,000. I have stayed three times at this old backpacker place that has probably been running for 50 years. The rooms are small and the bathrooms are a bit dirty but it is centrally located and is okay for a couple of nights. Hello Guesthouse is another budget place in the same street that is popular with foreigners.

Pical Ayang – My favourite restaurant in all of Indonesia and a 300m walk from the guesthouse. It is open from 6am-2pm. It is enormously popular with Indonesian people. The main dishes are Lontong Pical, Noodle Soup, Bubur Kampium (a delicious sweet dish of mung beans, coconut milk, glutinous rice balls and palm sugar) and Coffee. Everything on the menu costs around 10,000. You can have a great breakfast or lunch for 30,000.
The main street in Bukittinggi, a short walk from the guesthouse, has many food tents that set up each evening, selling fried rice, fried noodles, fried chicken and sate etc.

Lake Maninjau
Hotel Tan Dirih – 300,000 inc breakfast. More like a homestay with 4-5 rooms, in a great location right on the waterfront. Run by a friendly couple who speak English. They serve a nice banana pancake and Kopi Susu for breakfast each morning on the balcony overlooking the lake. The daytime temp was around 25 degrees and you did not need A/C in your room.
We had a couple of evening meals next door at Zalino Restaurant – for a treat try the sweet and sour wild crayfish from the lake.

Solok
Solok Premier Hotel – 450,000 inc breakfast. We checked a couple of cheaper places that were both a bit dodgy and felt this large modern hotel was a better option. Friendly English speaking staff and secure motorbike parking at the rear.
We had a couple of nice evening meals at Este Corner Café. The owner Mr Putra speaks English and is a friendly guy.

Payakumbuh
Annisa Hotel – 450,000 inc breakfast. A modern small hotel on a busy main road in the centre of the city. Staff speak very little English, but can communicate with translate app.
We had one nice evening meal at Petto Resto and Café. There are many small restaurants along the main road.

Jakarta Airport
Zest Airport Hotel – 450-500,000 inc breakfast. I have stayed here a few times over the years. A reliable budget option if you need to stay overnight near the airport in between flights. Clean room and good A/C. Several budget restaurants and warungs nearby.
They have a free shuttle bus to the airport every hour. I have never worked out how to catch the shuttle from the airport, so I catch a bluebird taxi that costs around 55,000.
Bluebird seems to be the only taxi company at the airport that is honest doesn’t try to rip you off.

 

[Adam Davey]

My father and I spent 6.5 weeks in Indonesia in June/July 2024. We spent 14 days in Flores, 10 days in West Sumatra and 20 days and North Sumatra. I have written a few about the Flores section below. I will have some notes about Sumatra to follow:

PART 1 FLORES

My father and I visited Flores for the first time, for 14 days, in June 2024.
We each rented a motorbike for 12 days from Motor Adventure Bali in Labuan Bajo. We had a Honda CB150 and a Honda ADV160 motor scooter. We returned the bikes at their second office in Maumere. We arranged the motorbike rental before leaving home. Their prices are higher than local rentals, but the bikes are kept in good mechanical condition. The staff speak English and you can communicate easily by email. We had a good experience with this company.
They have many different bikes and prices, have a look at their website. All bikes come with a rear luggage rack.


We mainly stayed on the main highway, riding from Labuan Bajo to Larantuka in the far east. Its not really a highway as you may expect. It’s a windy country road in very good condition. Most vehicles travel no faster than 40-50km/hr. There are very few large trucks. There seems to be a lot of small Suzuki trucks carrying freight. It is a fairly safe, easy place to ride a motorcycle. It’s a lot easier if you have google maps on your phone.
My father and I ride a motorbike at home in Australia, and in other countries in Asia. We felt fairly comfortable riding in Flores.


We had fine grey ash falling on us over a distance of 20-30km riding between Maumere and Larantuka, from the nearby Lewatobi Volcano. We were fortunate that our flight from Maumere to Labuan Bajo was still running. That flight seems to be regularly cancelled at the present time due to ash from the volcano.


Flores is a special place. Everything moves more slowly than the frenetic pace in so much of Indonesia. We enjoyed riding our motorbike, great scenery, nice food and meeting and talking to local people every day.


I have made a list of the hotels we stayed in, restaurants and other random notes.
Apart from Labuan Bajo, we did not book any hotels in advance. We found a hotel when we arrived in each town from google maps.


Labuan Bajo
Komodo Lodge – 550,000 inc breakfast. Probably a little bit expensive. Nice room with balcony, Great view from rooftop terrace / breakfast area.
We had a very nice charcoal grilled snapper for dinner one night at the fish stalls at the northern end of town. Probably best to book hotel in advance in LBJ


Ruteng
Sky Flores Hotel – 325,000 inc breakfast. We arrived in the dark and ended up here after checking another place that was full. Basic room but clean and okay for a couple of nights. Nice view from the rooftop terrace / breakfast area.
Had a couple of nice meals at Kopi Mane café nearby.
Nice ride through the countryside / villages to visit the hobbit cave.


Bajawa
Hotel Edelweis 2 – 300,000 inc breakfast. Do not confuse with other similarly named Edelweis hotels. Not a hotel, more like a homestay. Two very friendly, polite young ladies, who speak good English, manage it for their family. Nice clean, sunny room, comfortable bed. Down a quiet lane away from the main road. Had a couple of evening meals at Milonari restaurant nearby.
Nice ride south of the city to visit traditional villages and countryside.


Ende
LCR Hotel – 425,000 inc breakfast. Nice modern hotel. Very clean and good A/C. The security guards were pretty active, don’t park here, don’t park there, park over here ha ha! Not many restaurants nearby. I believe the hotel can serve dinner. Ende is a gritty port town, but a sensible place to stop for the night.
Nice lunch and swim at Blue Stone Beach on the way to Ende.


Moni
Farila Lodge – 300,000 inc breakfast. A small guesthouse with two rooms, on the hill at the top of the village. Amazing view from the balcony. Very nice clean room, comfortable bed and hot shower. Very nice owner Pieter and his wife.
We had meals at Good Moni, Mopi’s Place and Moon Café.
When riding to Moni, stop at Detusoko village for a coffee overlooking the rice paddies. We liked Lepa Lio Café.
Nice visit to Kelimutu National Park, open 6am-12pm, 150,000 entry per person, nice walk (2km) to visit the coloured crater lakes.
Moni is a beautiful small town with cool weather.


Maumere
Pelita Hotel – 350,000 inc breakfast. On the eastern side of the city right on the waterfront. An older hotel but clean rooms, good A/C and good shower. Nice swimming pool also.

Go Hotel – 395,000 inc breakfast. Nice modern hotel, good shower and A/C. Nice swimming pool. Friendly staff. Free transport to airport. Not many restaurants nearby, but hotel restaurant had nice food.


Larantuka
ASA Hotel – 500,000 inc breakfast. Right on the waterfront/beach. Nice room, good shower and A/C. Nice swimming pool.
Resto Bu Ayu – 2km south of the hotel on main road. A very clean, small restaurant with A/C, good menu and fair prices.
Had a nice swim / snorkel one day at Roga Beach, 25km east of Larantuka, over the other side of the peninsula.


*Ruteng, Bajawa and Moni are higher elevation (~1000m), much cooler and hotels generally don’t have A/C, you really don’t need it.

G'day Dale.
Im planning a similar trip this coming May. What protective gear did you wear? I guess my revit jacket i wear in Tassie would be too hot even with stuff removed. Cheers Adam

 

[Dale164]

Hi Adam,
My father and I bring our own helmet, gloves and riding boots from home. My father wears his kevlar riding jeans. I don't have these and just wear normal denim jeans. We both wear a normal long sleeve synthetic shirt. We also take a lightweight raincoat for cooler days. We have both ridden in a few countries in SE Asia and North India in the last 5 years and have taken the same gear each time. It would be nice to have a lightweight protective jacket to wear. We each wear a normal "dririder" style textile jacket at home in Tasmania with the zip out thermal liner. I think even without the liner it would be pretty hot most of the time in most of SE Asia. We each use a 65-70 Litre duffel bag and find we can just fit our helmet, gloves and boots inside it along with our normal luggage.
You can buy long sleeve shirts with a kevlar lining, but I have not seen them in any Tasmanian shops.

 

[Adam Davey]

Hi Adam,
My father and I bring our own helmet, gloves and riding boots from home. My father wears his kevlar riding jeans. I don't have these and just wear normal denim jeans. We both wear a normal long sleeve synthetic shirt. We also take a lightweight raincoat for cooler days. We have both ridden in a few countries in SE Asia and North India in the last 5 years and have taken the same gear each time. It would be nice to have a lightweight protective jacket to wear. We each wear a normal "dririder" style textile jacket at home in Tasmania with the zip out thermal liner. I think even without the liner it would be pretty hot most of the time in most of SE Asia. We each use a 65-70 Litre duffel bag and find we can just fit our helmet, gloves and boots inside it along with our normal luggage.
You can buy long sleeve shirts with a kevlar lining, but I have not seen them in any Tasmanian shops.

Thanks Dale. Sounds sensible.

 

[Dale164]

PART 3 NORTH SUMATRA

After 10 days in West Sumatra, we flew from Padang to Medan with Super Air Jet.
We caught the Airport Train from the airport into Medan City. The price was 40,000 per person and the travel time was 40 mins.
We stayed one night at D’Prima Hotel which was attached to the train station.

My father and I had arranged to rent a motorbike each (Honda cb150x) for 18 days from Ganda Motor Rental in Medan. Mr Ganda was a friendly guy and we had a great experience renting from him.

I had originally planned to ride from Medan through Aceh to Takengon, to Banda Aceh and then back down the west coast. Within a few days of starting, we decided to shorten the route and not go to Banda Aceh, going straight to the west coast from Takengon: Medan - Berastagi – Kutacane – Ketambe – Blankejeren – Takengon – Meulaboh – Blangpidie – Tapaktuan – Subulussalam – Sidikalang – Lake Toba – Berastagi – Medan. This route including side trips ended up being about 1750km.

Riding from Medan to Berastagi on a Sunday, the first 55km was a smooth ride until we encountered an enormous traffic jam, in both directions, starting 10km south of Berastagi. The traffic was stationary for hours. Fortunately, we were able to ride 10km along the edge of the road, past the stationary cars to reach our guesthouse.

Berastagi to Kutacane was a windy, scenic road of 150km. The second half was quite hot riding through the valley. We spent 2 nights in Kutacane. The Masjid Agung At-Tawa is one of the biggest and most beautiful mosques I have seen in Indonesia.

Riding north from Kutacane, the first 30km follows the scenic river valley to Ketambe. The next 70km is very windy over a large mountain range to Blangkejeren. We enjoyed a one-night stay in Blankejeren and found the local people to be very friendly.

From Blankejeren, it is a very mountainous, windy journey of about 160km to Takengon. After 35km, there are several coffee shops with great views, at the top of the first mountain.

I had wanted to visit Takengon for many years, knowing that it was a higher altitude town, on a large lake and the centre of the coffee industry. I have to say it was a bit disappointing. It was a fairly scrappy, dusty town and it was hard to visit any coffee farms despite making a number of enquiries. We did have a nice ride around Lake Tawa one day (50km).

I had a read about a new road that was built 12-14 years ago from Takengon to Meulaboh on the west coast. This was a superb quality, extremely windy paved road over two large mountain ranges. It was very scenic, passing through thick jungle with many steep up and down sections. This road was one of the highlights of the trip. It is about 175km from Takengon to Meulaboh. As we were travelling south, we did not need to go into Meulaboh, staying 25km south of this city at the Grand Ngan Hotel.

The following two nights were spent in Blang Pidie and Tapaktuan. We visited a number of small fishing ports along this stretch of coast. Blang Pidie town is a few km inland from the coast. However, at the fishing port there is a nice area on the beach under shady trees with a kiosk serving drinks and snacks.

Moving on from Tapaktuan, the road follows the coast, then moves inland through vast palm oil plantations to Subulussalam. This is a fairly scrappy town that has a few hotels and restaurants and is okay for a night.

Until this point we had encountered very little other traffic. However, riding north from Subulussalam, we found an endless line of slow moving palm oil tanker trucks. It was a shame as it was an otherwise good quality, windy road, climbing out of the valley up the mountain for 50km. Fortunately these trucks went west at Sidikalang and we continued east towards Lake Toba.

It was a superb ride across the high plateau east of Sidikalang, to the crater rim of Lake Toba, a view of the white Jesus statue, then down the many bends to the lake shore and across the bridge to Palau Samosir.

We enjoyed 4 nights relaxing in Tuk Tuk / Lake Toba which included some swimming and motorbike rides around the southern half of Palau Samosir.

Moving on from Lake Toba, we caught the vehicle ferry across to Parapat. We had a superb ride along the north eastern side of the lake and then onwards to Berastagi.

The last full day in Berastagi was spent in the town centre, visiting the Karo ethnic museum, followed by a swim in the hot springs and visiting the golden Buddhist pagoda, Taman Alam Lumbini.

Riding back to Medan on the last day, we were able to turn east off the main highway 30km north of Berastagi, onto a small paved road which passed through small villages, for the last 35km into Medan.

Hotels and Restaurants:

Medan
D’Prima Hotel. Attached to the central train station where the airport train arrives.
280 - 380,000/night, no breakfast, an older hotel but clean, small rooms with a good hot shower and A/C.

Berastagi
Mountain View Homestay and Pizza, 250-300,000/night, friendly owner and staff, in a quiet location off the main road surrounded by vegetable gardens. Very clean room and good hot shower. Pizza and some Indonesian dishes available for dinner, banana pancake and coffee for breakfast.

Kutacane
Maroon Hotel, 250,000, an old dirty hotel, barely okay for one night. Stayed the following night at Bru Dihe Hotel around the corner, 375,000, no breakfast, very clean room, good shower and A/C. Motorbike parking off the street.
Had a few meals at Om Café and Quality Fried Chicken.

Blangkejeren
Mulia Hotel, 350,000 inc breakfast, nice room, hot shower and A/C. Motorbike parking at the rear.

Takengon
Fairuz Hotel, 350 – 400,000 inc breakfast. Nice room and hot shower. Nice view from rooftop breakfast area. Had a couple of evening meals at Tootor Café.

Meulaboh
Grand Ngan Hotel, 25km south of the city, 400,000 inc breakfast, good shower and A/C
Little fried chicken place 200m walk along the road.

Blang Pidie
Grand Leseur Hotel, 350 – 400,000 inc breakfast. Modern exterior and lobby, but rooms are old and need repainting. Very friendly staff, good shower and A/C. Dinner at café next door.

Tapak Tuan
Chandiku Hotel, 350,000 inc breakfast, a brand new small hotel at the southern end of town. Very clean and good A/C. Nice dinner of beef sate at Sawang Koki Aceh Café, on the waterfront at the northern end of town.

Subulussalam
Hermes One Hotel, 400,000 inc breakfast. A large impressive looking hotel from the outside, however the rooms were old and the bathroom dirty. Friendly staff and good A/C. Nice dinner along the road at the slightly modern / trendy Penang Café with friendly owners.

Tuk Tuk / Lake Toba
Carolina Cottages, 365,000 inc breakfast. We had an upper standard room without A/C with a balcony with nice views and surrounded by trees. The daytime temperature in July was pleasant and we didn’t need A/C. Had most meals at either Today Café or Ebikel Pizza.

 

[Snakeboy]

Great write up mate! Now you made me want to go back to Sumatra and do some more riding there….