This was our first meeting and at the same time the first drive in Indonesia.
After finishing up the last things on the bus, we hit the road, minutes before the rush hour from Bandung.
The night fell as usual around 6pm and Filip drove through the night to about 1am to make some distance, while Elios and Augusta slept. The night was much cooler , but also many unexpected obstacles. The mountain roads are a bit tight, and the express itercity passenger buses seem have the absolute priority, passing and simply honking to make things clear. In Indonesia there is no insureance for vehicules older than 8 years! This means that the bus is uninsuared, so are other vehicules around, making it a huge risque factor. It is why everyone learns to simply AVOID accidents, and it seems to be working well. Alot of scooters though everywhere, passing from any side, make it hard to turn suddenly. Driver must have his eyes around his head. Finally we reach Yogjakarta after 24hr drive. About 550km for a price of abot 14e worth of fuel. The meeting is in the fevor of preperaton. We meet the organisors an find a spot in a relative shade. Slowly some teams trickle in, but not like in Europe. The real flow of vws starts in the early morning hours before the sun rise. The organisors open the registration at 8 and already about 200 teams await registration. The participation fee is NOTHING, as the whole event is payed for by sponsors = a ciggaret company. Here smoking advertisement is legal. On saturday there is a sceeninc drive to the Volcano that blew up just last may! A convoy of about 30 vw buses tackles the lava, you could see it on this short film. There are alot of vendors too. Selling all kinds of gadgets, from traditional Batik shirts to rare in europe Airconditioning systems for bus, and stainles steel roof racks. Clubs from all over Indonesa come to this the "central" meeting, where its closer for all Indonesians to arrive. In tottal 789 teams are registered, so without counting 200 cars from Yojgja Club there was nearly a 1000 vws at the show! Prizes are given to people from as far as Papua, and Sumatra as well to us. Journalists interview us, and the article shows up in the sunday paper. We have warm invitations from alot of vw fans around Indonesia. Inviting us to stay at their homes, to see their islands ect. We slowly say good bye as we make our way to the next vw meeting , this time in Bali. On sunday night we stay at Purbas, another vw friend met at Bad Caberg 4 years ago.
For more photos of the vw show, please click HERE
After finishing up the last things on the bus, we hit the road, minutes before the rush hour from Bandung.
The night fell as usual around 6pm and Filip drove through the night to about 1am to make some distance, while Elios and Augusta slept. The night was much cooler , but also many unexpected obstacles. The mountain roads are a bit tight, and the express itercity passenger buses seem have the absolute priority, passing and simply honking to make things clear. In Indonesia there is no insureance for vehicules older than 8 years! This means that the bus is uninsuared, so are other vehicules around, making it a huge risque factor. It is why everyone learns to simply AVOID accidents, and it seems to be working well. Alot of scooters though everywhere, passing from any side, make it hard to turn suddenly. Driver must have his eyes around his head. Finally we reach Yogjakarta after 24hr drive. About 550km for a price of abot 14e worth of fuel. The meeting is in the fevor of preperaton. We meet the organisors an find a spot in a relative shade. Slowly some teams trickle in, but not like in Europe. The real flow of vws starts in the early morning hours before the sun rise. The organisors open the registration at 8 and already about 200 teams await registration. The participation fee is NOTHING, as the whole event is payed for by sponsors = a ciggaret company. Here smoking advertisement is legal. On saturday there is a sceeninc drive to the Volcano that blew up just last may! A convoy of about 30 vw buses tackles the lava, you could see it on this short film. There are alot of vendors too. Selling all kinds of gadgets, from traditional Batik shirts to rare in europe Airconditioning systems for bus, and stainles steel roof racks. Clubs from all over Indonesa come to this the "central" meeting, where its closer for all Indonesians to arrive. In tottal 789 teams are registered, so without counting 200 cars from Yojgja Club there was nearly a 1000 vws at the show! Prizes are given to people from as far as Papua, and Sumatra as well to us. Journalists interview us, and the article shows up in the sunday paper. We have warm invitations from alot of vw fans around Indonesia. Inviting us to stay at their homes, to see their islands ect. We slowly say good bye as we make our way to the next vw meeting , this time in Bali. On sunday night we stay at Purbas, another vw friend met at Bad Caberg 4 years ago.
For more photos of the vw show, please click HERE
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