Final report of the trip in Indonesia

History:
The outstanding facts are presented briefly. The matter is not to write a guide but a summary. To try to apprehend the reality of Malaysia I briefly recall its remote and close origins before approaching the report and its future.

I Origins:
--Before 106 years BC the Java Man, Pithecanthropus erectus, appeared by traversing the terrestrial passages. Then it disappeared.
--Around 12000 BC the skeleton of the Flora Man, Homo floresiensis, was discovered in a cave of Liang Bua in the island of Flora. According to archaeologists, it was one meter high. Other skeletons were found in 2003.
--By 4000 BC the proto-Malay, ancestors of the Indonesians, Malaysians and Filippinos, settled in the area.
--By 1000 BC Dongson civilization coming from the Vietnam and the south of China brought culture of rice in rice paddies, bronze cast and weaving. Villages were organized for the drainage of the paddy fields.
--As of the 1st century the first kingdoms were organized to develop the culture of rice in paddy fields.
--As of 2nd century AD, the Indian tradesmen of Nadu Tamil attracted by gold and tin brought their culture, Hinduism and Sanskrit.
--About the 3rd century the empire of Funan originating in the centre of Cambodia dominated the north of the peninsula.
--From 7th century to the 13th century, the empire of Srivijaya originating in Sumatra controlled the Strait of Malacca.
--From 8th century to the 10th century, the Buddhist dynasty of Sailendra, Borobodur, and the Hindu dynasty of Mataram, Prambanan, controlled the centre of the island of Java.
--In 1294 the kingdom of Majapahit made the synthesis of Buddhism and Hinduism developing the Javanese culture.
--At the 14th century prince Hindu founded the empire of Melaka. During nearly fourteen centuries Indian civilization reigned and left an indelible print up to Indo-China, Cham culture.
--From 11th to the 13th century Arab tradesmen settled in the north of Sumatra.
--From the 15th century the Indonesian rulers converted with the Islam which became religion of State.
--As of 15th century Europe was interested in the area for its spices and its metals. In 1511 the Portuguese approached the Strait of Malacca for “God, Glory and Gold” then Maluku. --In 1596 the Dutchmen pared the Portuguese while being interested only in Gold.
--At the end of the 18th century the British with East India Company, IEC, settled in the area which they gradually extremely dominated of their Indian experiment and which they shared with the Dutchmen; the Malayan peninsula, Singapore, Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah in the island of Borneo to the English, south of Borneo, Kalimantan, and the archipelago of Indonesia to the Dutchmen. Thus the borders of the States of Malaysia and Indonesia were fixed durably in spite of some dispute after independence at the 20th century.
--From 1941 to 1945 the area was occupied by Japanese.
--August 17, 1945 Soekarno proclaimed the independence of the Republic of Indonesia.
--From 1945 to 1949 Dutch tried to restore their colonial power.
--December 27, 1949 the Indonesian flag was raised on the Freedom Palace.
--From 1949 to 1968 the Soekarno’s years were remembered by the territorial consolidation of Indonesia with the fastening of New Guinea and the ousting of the Communist Party. More than 500000 Indonesians were imprisoned.
--March 27, 1968 Suharto was elected president of the republic.
--From 1968 to 1998 the Suharto years were also remembered by the bloody rebellion of various factions. --May 21, 1998 Habibie became the third president of Indonesia. The conflict between the communities’ Muslims and Christians revived inclinations of independence of Maluku and East Timor.
--June 1999 the elections were a success of democratic in Indonesia.
--October 20 A. Wahid was the fourth president and on July 23, 2001 Mr. Soekarnoputri became the fifth president of Indonesia.
--May 20, 2002 independence of East Timor was proclaimed under the aegis of UN.

II Facts:
Indonesia has nearly 18000 islands along the equator on more than 5000 kilometres from the north of Sumatra to Sabang. The landscape is dominated by mountains cut by valleys. There would be at least 130 active volcanoes. Although made up mainly Malayan Indonesia is a multicultural society consequence of the multitude of islands.
--Population of Indonesia is of approximately 245 million including 130 million in the only island of Java reaching a density of 1000 inhabitants per square kilometre.
--The Indonesians are Muslim Sunnites, the 3% of Chinese are a melting of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism and the remainder is animist and Christian.
--In addition at the end of a trip in an island I write a brief report of its particular history.

GPS tracklog of the trip in Indonesia

I Team:
No change, MAN truck and its Guy's driver.
II Journey:
The journey consisted by heading from Jakarta, Java Island, to Dili, East Timor, Timor Island, with an objective to send my truck in Australia. The travelled islands from west to east form an arc of circle between the parallels S07° and S08°.
2.1 the trip:
The road plan studied in Rawang is put in prospect with lived reality. The trip evolved little, only the harbour of loading in Flores Island to Kupang, Timor Island, changed; it was Larantuka in Cabo das Flores. On the other hand the planning was several times adapted due to waiting for my truck in Jakarta, the forbidden to climb the Mt Rinjani, waiting in Labuhan Sape and Nagakeo, and the frequency of ferries in Larantuka. I drove 4000 kilometres that is on average 76 kilometres per day.
2.2 The road network:
In Java the road network is dense, of good quality with some exceptions and the roadway is wide. On the other hand in the other islands the roads are of poor quality, narrow and bordered by trees with low branches on the sides. The vertical clearance in the centre is approximately 3.8 meters, height maximum to load on a ferry. Out the main roads the secondary roads are often single lane use only in the motorbike, making the access impossible to some sites with a camper. Vertical indication in cities and at intersections was informative; I did not encounter any difficulty to travel.
2.3 Indonesian drivers:
I never had to feel sorry for me of the Indonesian drivers. On the move motor drivers respected the lanes, car drivers had patience behind my truck and at crossing of other trucks, and each one slowed down and was off-set on the low side. The only difficulty was at the entry and the exit of cities where the multitude of the motor bikes was dreadful. But police formed a hedge obliging the motor bikes to remain in the left lane. On the four-lane roads traffic is done on the right-hand lane leaving the left lane for motor bikes and for overtaking a vehicle.
2.4 The insurance of the vehicle:
I did not have insurance for my truck.
III bivouacs:
It was as in all Asia a daily problem, fields were enclosed and roads bordered with rice paddies, no rest area. I especially practiced carpark in the visited monuments deserted in the evening and some times the Pertamina stations, campsite position.
IV Supply of food:
No problem I lunched in the food stalls, markets abounded in fruits and vegetables. In Java there were mini-markets and supermarkets in cities; Carrefour was present in Java and Bali. The purchase of bread was sometimes a true play of track to find a shop.
IV Fluids:
Only the Pertamina State company distributes fuels, Premium, gasoline, and Solar, diesel, were at the same price, 4500 IDR the litre. The LPG is common. All Pertamina stations had a water tap but the pressure was sometimes insufficient to put up water to the opening of the tanks.
VI Money:
HSBC Bank was present in Jakarta, Semarang and Surabaya in Java Island only. All banks in all great cities in the islands have ATM’s accepting the Visa and Master cards, never Amex. The average exchange rate with HSBC was at 14082 IDR for one euro. The Information page give some prices
VII Guides:
As before I used Lonely Planet, Lp, with a critical eye due to its thoughtless tendency to panegyric.
VIII Passport, visa, border crossing:
The only 60-day visa was obtained without difficulty in Kuala Lumpur with a bank statement. Its duration was too short for the distance to travel with a poor state of roads. The recovery of my truck was not difficult but I have to be patient! As elsewhere in other islands I noticed the inefficiency and plethora of the civil servants, the former is the consequence of the latter. Border crossing is reported by the Information page.
I was sometimes controlled by the police at entry or exit of the ferry harbour. Whereas I walked in Bima, Sumbawa Island, four policemen in plain clothes, required successively my documents, in approximate English; I refused to show them by explaining that if I had entered Indonesia, I had my documents in rule. One of them, much sheepish, said me by apologizing: "It's my job" As I was looking for some bread it led me to a supermarket.
IX My appreciation:
9.1 I liked:
-- The Indonesian welcome and particularly of the TO in Surabaya, Java Island, and inf Mataram, Lombok Island as well as truck drivers in Labuhan Sape.
-- I discovered, superficially, the multiethnic and multireligious civilisation of Indonesia. The oral communication is almost impossible, few English-speaking people.
-- In spite of the sudden starts of terrorism coming from abroad, Indonesia is very tolerant and the safety did not pose any problem to me.
-- I discovered architecture of Hindu temples developed by the Majapahit kingdom in the 13th century.
9.2 I hated:
--I abhorred the Indonesian road equipment for the road narrowness, the poor quality of the roadway and the not pruned trees, in fact trucks create the vertical clearance at 3.8 meters high.
X Relevance of this trip by camper:
Any camper can travel in Indonesia, no special equipment is necessary. However warning the maximal height is 3.8m, vertical clearance for ferry.

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