Wednesday, February 8, 2023
5:10 a.m. Room 12, Wisma DU
Pangkalan, Sumatra, Indonesia
There should be three or four interesting aspects to today. The first is that I will likely be climbing a lot and will finally ascend to somewhere close to the levels of Bukittinggi itself. In hotel reviews for that area, people talk a lot about how cold it is and how they don’t need an air conditioner. Where I am now, here in Pangkalan, I still feel like an air conditioner is a necessity. The sun yesterday was a brutal force in the sky. To change from this state to the presumably cold state of Bukittinggi must require a lot of climbing. We shall see just how challenging this climbing is. I’ve made sure to wake up a bit early this morning so that I can be on the road at sunrise. According to the wisdom of the Internet, sunrise will take place at 6:28 a.m. And I would like to cycle a little bit in a world without sun to start this day.
The second interesting aspect is that I will be passing by the equator. I will be moving from the northern hemisphere to the southern. That spot is only twelve kilometers from where I am now. It will be the first place of note that I pass by today. I read yesterday that the equator line is 40,075.16 kilometers long as it goes around the fattest part of the world. It is also the spot on the earth that is moving around in a circle the fastest. And it passes through only 13 countries: Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Sao Tome and Principe, Maldives, Kiribati, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil.
The third interesting aspect is that I will be passing by a place on the road called Kelok 9. Kelok 9 consists of a raised portion of the highway that curves back on itself to climb from one elevation to another across a valley floor. From Google Maps, I can’t quite figure out how it works, but apparently there are nine bends. And there is also an old road in addition to the new road. Kelok 9 is twenty-six kilometers from where I am now.
Finally, and the fourth interesting aspect to today, is that there will likely be lots of monkeys at the side of the road. I saw a YouTube video of this, and the number of monkeys and their size was intimidating. Cars drove by and people in the cars took video of the monkeys as they sat and walked at the side of the highway. Apparently, you have to be careful of items like smartphones and cameras, as the monkeys will snatch them from you. I’m not quite sure what that means for me. I should at least make sure that my GoPros are firmly mounted and perhaps I should remove anything like the Rode Wireless Go microphone. That microphone could be pulled off the camera easily if a monkey got hold of it. I wonder if the monkeys are brazen enough to climb onto a slow-moving bicycle as it passes by and try to rummage for removable items.
I didn’t do anything of note yesterday here in Pangkalan. I never once got on the bike. And the most exploring I did was to walk from my hotel room to the mie ayam bakso stall and back again. I did that twice and had mie ayam bakso for lunch and for dinner. I spent most of the day editing a video, but I didn’t get very far. There seemed to be no time in the day at all. It sped by and was over almost before I noticed it had begun. I was very tired, I must say, and it became clear that spending a recovery day here was a wise choice. Hopefully, the energy reserves I built up will be enough to power me through today without too much of a problem. And, hopefully, leaving early will be a winning strategy in terms of having an enjoyable day on the road. I also have been developing plans to use the 360 camera a little bit. I will continue to record my main vlog portions with a GoPro. I simply don’t have the time to reframe 360 video. But a bit of 360 video will be nice to have, I think, as I pass by Kekok 9 and places like that. If there is nice scenery to be had, I will use that camera.
And that’s it for my thoughts this morning. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this laptop right now. I need to focus on getting packed and on the road. I just spent some time looking at elevation data for the road ahead, and it is actually quite a bit more challenging than I had anticipated. I’m currently at 100 meters of altitude. And even if I ride only forty kilometers, I will still be climbing up from 100 meters to 900 meters and then down to 500 meters. I’m not sure if I will be able to manage that. I might have to adjust my plans to be even less ambitious than that. I’ve started thinking that I could attempt to ride to Kelok 9 and spend the night there. That might be enough for today.