Hitchhiking in Indonesia: Situbondo
11th of February, 2025.
As I still have a few hours of day light, I decide to start hitchhiking towards my next destination, which is a small town called Ketapang, from where the ferries depart to Bali. But I’m not trying to go there today, as it’s about 3 hours from here; I’m only trying to be somewhere where I can, tomorrow, get a straight lift to there. Loki knows that, when you are hitchhiking from a tourist spot, and not simply the highway, it takes time to arrive from point A to point B, and there’s normally some extra points in between. Better use my two hours of daylight to be in a good point for starting tomorrow.
I get a lift in a motorbike until a highway which I think I can use to hitchhike. I cannot. The highway is not accessible from the ground. Now I must get a lift to Probolingo, hopefully to outside of it, so I don’t need to cross the town by walking, and there I can camp tonight. After a few cars telling me to be going only to a “bus terminal” before the town, I finally surrender and take one of these cars. Luckily, they are absolutely lovely people, and drive me until almost outside the town. Yay! And they also give me a small chocolate and cheese cake, which saves me from my almost starvation, as I’ve been eating only sweet crackers since morning.
As I start walking, holding my sign which reads Besuki, a nearby town, circa of 1 hour driving, a car stops. I can’t really understand where they are going, but I get that it’s after Besuki. Once I get in the car and we start talking, I get to know that they are actually going to a town called Situbondo, half way to the ferry departure, Ketapang. Unbelievable!
They are a senior couple, and they phone their daughter on the way. It shouldn’t be a long drive but as the roads become terrible, it takes us about 3 hours to arrive to Situbondo. We have dinner on the way, and even though the couple is nice and all, there’s something about them which is a bit odd. In anyhow, as they are about to drop me off a little bit outside Situbondo. I ask them if I could camp outside their house, but the answer is no, so I start walking.
I ask in a noodle shop, for whatever reason, and a lovely family starts to help me. The parents cannot speak English but they are very kind and generous. The mother already serves me a bowl of her delicious noodles, while I am talking with her son and her daughter-in-law, Lia. They understand my request and now must talk with the RT of this region. Not again! Some family members come over, like the lovely Indri, of only 12 years old, but who is very happy to chat with me.
The RT comes over and they spend a lot of time talking. Suddenly, Indri’s father comes and introduce himself, following by an offer of paying for a homestay for me. I kindly refuse, and explain my reasons. Lia and Indri insist a little bit, saying that would be there pleasure to share the costs, so I could have a comfortable place to stay, where I could bath with hot shower and all that. But I reafirm my position, which they kindly understand and respect. So Lia’s parents-in-law fight for me, until they convince the RT to let me camp inside their noodle shop. Lia explains to me that the reasons for all that were basically two: my safety (dear Loki, what’s it with that? I’ve camped in the streets before, and I’m sure that the heavy and strong gates of the noodle shop are safer than that); and a very strict principal of a Muslin boarding school nearby. Of course.
We move the tables away, to what I think a space for my tent, but then they give me a kind of mattress / thick blanket, which is great, so I don’t need to put up my tent. There’s a toilet at the shop, which is great for me. And I can even have a bath there. Perfect!
Next morning I’m up early, as so are they. I have a cup of tea with some delicious rice crackers. Then I have a delicious breakfast, prepared by Lia’s grandmother. It’s massive! An amazing tofu stew, steamed vegetables, fried chicken, and rice. As there’s so much tofu, I explain to Lia that I am vegetarian, so they can eat the chicken.
We take some photos before I leave, and they all seem happy that they could help me, just as I am super happy with all their help!
I struggle to find a good place for hitchhiking. I finally quit and stay at an “OK” one. A nice man stops a bit away from me and walk his way back, telling me that he’s going about 20 km from here. As I am waiting for quite a while already, I decide to take it.
I’m glad I did as the place where he drops me off is great and with a lot of shade. I am even more grateful because, soon enough, a much unexpected surprise lift would stop for me, Andri and his friend Izra, going all the way from Jakarta to… Bali. I could not believe in how lucky I was about to get…
10 Years Around the World 