White Water Rafting In Indonesia

I’m in Jakarta to attend Delcam’s Asian Technical Summit 2012. Since this is my first time in Indonesia I decided to come in a couple of days early so that I could spend the weekend roaming about the country. Today I made my white water rafting debut in a river about a hundred kilometers from Jakarta city. It was absolutely awesome. Here are some pictures.

It lasted for almost an hour and by the end of it I was completely exhausted. The two experts with me did most of the rowing. Or whatever it they were doing. I basically helped them in any way I could while trying to keep my sorry ass in the raft. The briefing before the ride was short and sweet, “When I say forward, you row forward. When I say backward you row backward. When I say bend get your paddle in and bend forward into the raft. If you fall into the river swim with your chest upwards and legs in front of you. Let’s go.”

Now when someone says that they are “up shit creek without a paddle” I think I have a pretty good idea of what they mean. 😉

The drive to the river was quite interesting as well. I got to see a very different side of Indonesia. Way different than the malls and shopping centers of Jakarta.

After we got off the expressway the road turned into a biker’s dream. Winding roads that climb up and down beautiful hills. I wished I had my Royal Enfield with me. Today being a Sunday I passed many biker groups take their machines for a ride.

Along the way I came across some weird contraptions as well.

Indonesians love their scooters. Or whatever it is they make out of them.

Some like to remove the side covers, and expose the engine.

They lower them so they almost seem to drag on the road.

In fact this one has been lowered to a point that it doesn’t need a stand. Really. This dude parked his scooter like this and went into the store.

I have no idea about the history the picture below. But this has got to be one of the most effective “Go Slow” signs ever.

Tomorrow the plan is to drive to edge of the crater of an active volcano. I know, how bad can that get, right? 😉