THE MOST DIFFICULT HITCHHIKING EXPERIENCE
Traveling across Sumatra, Java and Bali islands was a part of our 11 months journey. The distance between Dumai in Sumatra to Denpasar in Bali was 2500 kilometers. @Kamile and I had a month to do that.
In order to save money and experience some more adventures we decided to try hitchhiking across Sumatra. All the travel bloggers wrote that hitchhiking in Indonesia is not for amateurs. Now we can say that it was complete truth.
REASONS WHY IT WASN'T EASY
Firs of all, they don't know what hitchhiking means. They don't have a word for that and it is very uncommon. At least in Sumatra. I can't say anything about Java, because we traveled by trains there.
Indonesians are very surprised when they see Europeans stopping cars and asking to give a lift. Some of them try to explain you how to get to the bus station, while others see a good opportunity to earn some easy money by offering TAXI services. :DDD Once you ask is it gratis (for free) they drive away quickly. One woman asked if we are not afraid that police might arrest us. :DDD
GOOD EXPERIENCES WE HAD
This kind of hitchhiking was quite exhausting. However, we had some great experiences too. For example, when we were traveling from Dumai to Pekanbaru one couple denied giving us a lift, but later turned around and came back for us. :DDD Then they took us all the way to Pekanbaru. Then they had to take the same road again to get back home, because they lived somewhere between those two cities.
At one time we decided to pay the drivers if their price was better than traveling by bus. On our way to Bukittinggi we met two friendly guys, who agreed to give us a lift for a reasonable price. When we told them about our journey and they saw all the Instagram pictures and Youtube videos they refused to take money from us and just wanted to become a part of our story... :DDD
Another great experience happened on our way to Bukitingi. After standing on the road for two hours one local teacher stopped. That day we ended up at his hame. The next day we visited his school.
As I mentioned before, hitchhiking in Indonesia was not easy. For us it was mentaly exhausting. However, it was worth it because of those these good experiences we had.