Born to be wild, Indonesians hit the road for Eid

Photo: AFP


Monday September 29, 12:17 PM

JAKARTA (AFP) - With their daughter perched at the front of the motorbike and their son squashed between them, Purwanto and his wife set off from Jakarta for the 15-hour overnight ride home for their holidays.

It's the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and millions of Indonesians pack their children -- and whatever else they can -- onto their motorcycles and hit the road to spend the Eid al-Fitr holidays in their home villages.

Long journeys along dangerous roads in stifling heat and dust are no obstacle in a country where about 70 million people earn less than two dollars a day and the price of a bus or train ticket is just too much to bear.

"It's tiring but cheap," Purwanto told AFP as he packed his Yamaha 225cc motorbike for the 560-kilometre (350-mile) trip from the capital Jakarta, where he works in a paper factory, to his hometown of Madiun in East Java.

As the sun sinks into the smog over the traffic-choked city, Purwanto's seven-year-old daughter dons her oversized helmet and takes up the front position on the seat between her father's legs.

Wrapped in a jacket to protect her from the wind, she will bear the brunt of the grit and grime which the road will throw up as the family drives through the night to avoid the blazing tropical sun.

"The cost is very high if we take a bus. I have to buy four tickets that will cost me 800,000 rupiah (85.60 dollars). With a motorcycle, I only spend about 90,000 rupiah on fuel," Purwanto explained.




Bus and train fares sometimes double or even triple ahead of Eid al-Fitr due to demand, and the crowds are horrendous.

"Another benefit is that we can visit relatives in the village with the motorcycle. That also saves me money," added Purwanto, who earns a little more than three dollars a day in the paper mill.

Millions of people in the world's most populous Muslim country have taken advantage of cheap credit in recent years to buy motorcycles for the first time.

Transport ministry figures show that the number of Indonesians driving motorcycles home for Eid has more than tripled over the past five years.

"We recorded 2.1 million motorcycles leaving Jakarta and its surrounding areas last year and we predict that will increase to 2.5 million this year," transport official Ahmad Wahyudi said.

Hundreds of people will never make it home. According to police figures, three-quarters of the 789 people killed in road accidents in Indonesia last Eid were riding motorcycles.

National police traffic director Yudi Sushariyanto said the scooter-style motorcycles favoured by Indonesian workers were not designed for long journeys and were no match for the buses and trucks on the nation's highways.

"It's their right to ride motorcycles, we can't ban them from doing so. We only give them some recommendations for safe riding," he said, adding that driver fatigue on long journeys was a major cause of fatal accidents.

Father-of-two Firdaus said his wife left him no choice but to pack his family on his 125cc Honda scooter for the 12-hour Eid odyssey from south Jakarta to her home village near Palembang on Sumatra island -- even when his youngest son was only three months old.

"We don't have any choice. Everything is expensive and it's a must for my wife to spend Lebaran (Eid) with her family," said the 34-year-old Jakarta native who works with a cleaning service.

"Thank God everything has gone well. My baby was so quiet during the journey last year, he only cried when the heat was intolerable. My kids have never been sick because of the long journey."

From south Jakarta, Firdaus first drives two-and-a-half hours to the westernmost part of Java island, where the family boards a ferry across the Sunda Strait to the southern part of Sumatra.

They then continue for another seven hours to his wife's family home.

Purwanto said he understood the risks of the long road trip, but he felt they were worth taking to give his children time with their grandparents.

"I never drive at high speed and I'm always extra careful. I usually stop every three hours for a break," he said.

"I realise that it won't be easy for my children but we have to go home to see my parents and relatives. It's only once a year."