Day 82

20/09/2009

The standard of driving in Indonesia is not vastly different to that in China where as soon as a queue of traffic forms due to some hold-up, lots of drivers will try to jump the queue by using the other side of the road or drive along the verge on the nearside. Road rage doesn't seem to have arrived here yet otherwise there would be a blood bath most days.

The most frustrating part of this is the total disrespect for the police in both countries, where they can be stood at the road-side while this is going on but seem powerless to stop it.

Driving today was a bit better than yesterday as the Cirebon to Semarang road along the north coast of Java has 2 lanes in each direction. After Semarang it is a mixture of 1 and 2 lane and we covered a little over 300km in total.

Took a detour from the best route across Java this evening so we could see the temple complex at Prambanan early tomorrow and stay in a nice hotel where each room is in it's own block and has an outside bath and shower.

There have been a fair number of older VWs around in Indonesia, exclusively beetles and bay window vans. Some wave to us, others are oblivious to seeing a later version of their vehicle. We did see two bay windows travelling together to the south of Bandar Lampung (Sumatra) as we were waiting at traffic lights and they stopped and waved to us but we were trying to reach the Java ferry in daylight so didn't stop. I hope they understood.

Lat 7 44.93 S
Long 110 29.28 E
Town Prambanan