Bicycle touring in Indonesia – hills?

• Cross-posted in the Indonesian forum!

My partner and I are starting to plan a 3-4 week trip in Indonesia, most likely starting in Jakarta, where we will buy two local 1-speed or 3-speed bikes and use those to ride around the country. We have actually done this many times before in several countries (India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Tanzania) and it's worked out pretty well, as we usually only ride 40-90km/day and have very little belongings.

I have been reading through many blogs and posts about cycle touring and I have what probably sounds like a stupid question... is it possible to avoid hills bicycling in Indonesia? I don't mind them so much but my partner's knees can't do them. I know Indonesia is in general an extremely hilly country, but then again we have traveled through lots of different terrain and so far have managed to avoid hills by sticking to coastal routes or just being very careful in planning which roads to take. Asking advice from other people that have direct experience (especially bicycling experience) in the region has also been so helpful.

Hopping on an occasional bus/boat/train to skip ahead is fine, but we would like to use our bicycles as transportation as much as possible. For a start, bicycling from Jakarta to the eastern tip of the island, and then over and through Bali sounds great. But is there a way to get there that avoids hills, and then, after that, does anyone have any suggestions on potential routes?

Thank you in advance!

Have a look at Google maps. For many countries they now show contours so you can see if there are any hills on a road.

Going west from Jakarta it is perfectly flat to the ferry to cross to Sumatera. You can avoid a lot of hills by following the west coast until Padang. After Padang there are hills.

On Java, the road along the north coast is reasonably flat, but is full of trucks and buses, which have NO rezpect for each other let alone cyclists. Conseque9ntly head on collisions are a major hazard.

If you happen to get to the south coast of Java by train to Banjar or bus, Pangandaran has a safe beach and other tourist atttactions. Cycle a few shorts kms to Kali Pucang, catch the ferry to Cilacap, and from there cycle over quite flat terrain to Jogjakarta. Around Jogja, cycle to Borobudur and Prambanan temples, Pangantritis beach, and then on to Malang and Bali. North Bali is flat, but then you must go over the hump to get to south and east Bali. From east Bali you catch a ferry to Lombok.

Thank you so much for the advice so far!

If you are really interested in frequent cycling trips, always cycle together and your partner's knees don't always like the bikes you have been finding, may I offer a suggestion? Perhaps it is time to consider a second hand recumbent bicycle, possibly even a tandem recumbent. These are not always cheap but many people swear by them for knee and other issues.

The road along northern Bali is pretty flat. We motorbiked it a few years back.

Everywhere else we went was mountainous or we skipped the scenery (sleeper train from Bali-end of Java to Surabaya). Surabaya is awesome. Go to Surabaya!

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