We chilled out till about 7pm and it started to rain. I mean, heavy rain.
After weathering out the showers, we walked down to Pondok Saiyo.
The shop was closed.
The back up plan was to walk around, searching for some good makan.
Then, we saw this Pecel Lele shop (fried catfish) and decided to grab a meal there..
After a good meal, we waited for the rain to die down.
Then, it was a trip to the local convenience store.
We grabbed some snacks and drinks before heading back to our room.
I was tired and am looking forward for the road trip back to Dumai the next day.
We had made arrangements for a 10am pick-up, that leaves us plenty of time to have breakfast and some last-minute shopping..
We packed up our gear, folded the bikes and waited.
And it was one helluva wait.
The time was set at 10:30am, we were still waiting.
I have a back-up plan, but we are holding on to the words of the man whom we paid IDR 50,000 two days earlier.
A phonecall from our driver sealed the deal.
We loaded up the bikes, and drove to the outskirts of Pekanbaru.
Just 10km into the journey, the driver stopped, rushed into a bush.
He took a dump and told us that he had been having tummy ache.
Seriously?
Well, when you have to go, you have to go!
We have about 210km to cover and each time we pass a small town, I was amazed that we actually rode past them.
Little by little we found ourselves past Minas and Kandis.
The plan was to take a break at Duri.
If we would have cycled back to Dumai, we had to leave really early.
Sunrise is at 06:00am and we only have about eight hours or so to cover this distance and break our journey in Duri.
That's 110km and roughly about 11hours or more on the road with an average speed of 10km/h barring any delays on the road.
Give and take, the 110km ride would chalk up even more time.
But, we have to be in Dumai on Thursday no matter what.
So, the cycling part was off.
Mohd Radzi felt that it was best to head straight to Dumai without stopping. And do the rest of the cycling there.
By 02:00pm, we reached Duri.
The driver pulled along at a Rumah Makan and we had a decent lunch...
OPPOSITE PAGE: LEFT: At a War memorial in Pekanbaru. RIGHT: Traditional costumes from Sumatera. BELOW: A happy camper! TOP PAGE: A map of Pekanbaru.