Sunday 10 June 2012

Bicycle versus motor cycle (around Lake Toba)

We decided to hire a small moped to tour around the island.  It was 130km so we didn't feel like riding and we thought it would be a nice change.

I thought I list some of the difference between the  two, not dissimilar, modes of travel.

- Motorbikes are faster, especially up hill.

- When you get a flat with a pedal cycle you can fix it, on a motor bikes you cannot.  When you get a  flat on a motorbike you have to ask 10 people which way to go to get someone to fix it, they all give you a different opinion then you go for the consensus.  This led to me running 2kms down the hill. We then got the tire fixed, met an englishman in a small village, had a few beers and motored home two hours later..

- Motorbikes allow you to travel further but in traveling further you don't have the same interactions as when cycling, you seem to whizz by before the Indonesians have raised the 'alarm' to yell HELLO MISTER!

- You get far more sunburn when riding a motorbikes. Luckily the motor was hot pink as well.



- Finally if you ever make it to toba, motor the south side to the top as the roads (apart from the first 4kms) is one the the nicest roads I've been on.  Smooth, bendy, swithchbacks and no traffic. awesome.






1 comment:

  1. Hey Will
    Angie just passed this on to me. Looks awesome! I think she did this cos I just started a blog too - http://janemoran.blogspot.com.au/

    Will you be back in London at all??

    ReplyDelete