Touring Indonesia Harmoni #23: A 15,000-Rupiah Rest at Pulo Gebang and the Old Bus to Medan

We climbed off the bus while looking for a place to rest. This was my first time at Pulo Gebang Terminal, claimed to be the largest bus terminal in Southeast Asia. Security operated around the clock. The staff were busy asking passengers to wear masks. There was a mosque on the lower floor. The canteen prices were quite friendly to a traveler’s wallet. In short, we were very fortunate to have transited through this terminal. Toward morning, we began hunting for the ticket counter of Putra Pelangi, the company heading to Medan. After breakfast, we found the Putra Pelangi counter tucked into the corner reserved for buses bound for Sumatra. As it turned out, the counter had not yet opened. But an attendant told us it would open a little later in the day, and invited us to leave our belongings in front of the counter.

That attendant informed us there was a comfortable transit room for prospective passengers in the building next to the terminal. We decided to search for the room he mentioned. After asking several staff members, we finally found a hall partitioned off by walls. Inside each cubicle was a mattress. The security officer said the price for one room for 24 hours was only 15,000 rupiah. We were astonished that such a good facility was priced at just Rp. 15,000. However, women and men had to be separated into blocks reserved specifically for men and for women. Even though we were a lawfully married couple, the rules at this lodging required us to enter separate rooms for women and men. In the end, we paid for two rooms.

A rest room at Pulo Gebang Terminal, only Rp. 15,000.

This room was truly only for resting. The mattress and sheets were reasonably clean. Because our bus departed at 2 p.m., we had half a day to lie down. This was the first time we had found such a super-cheap room rate throughout Touring Indonesia Harmoni. The hall had central air conditioning, so the temperature and humidity were well maintained. The bathroom was clean enough and its facilities were on par with an ordinary guesthouse. So we kept enjoying the amenities of this room priced no more than a packet of rice. Inside the room there was also a spot to charging an Android phone.

While we were resting, a phone call suddenly came in from the Putra Pelangi counter staff, saying that we had to check in and confirm that we had already taken an
Antigen Swab, as a requirement for the Merak–Bakauheni crossing. We completed all of these requirements for the sake of a smooth return to Aceh. Toward 3 p.m., we set off aboard the Putra Pelangi bus. My wife was quite shocked when she saw the Putra Pelangi bus, so far removed from the picture she had seen in the app compared with the one she was actually boarding. I was not surprised. Aceh buses bound for Java are indeed not like the Aceh buses that run the Banda Aceh–Medan or Takengon–Medan routes. The “older” buses are usually the ones the companies deploy to crawl along the Trans-Sumatra Highway.

Once the bus departed, we resigned ourselves to its condition. As it turned out, our fate was the same as when we rode Sinar Jaya. The bus air conditioning was not cold at all. The passengers were busy grumbling. The hot air outside kept the bus corridor from cooling down. Because we sat in the second row, we did not feel the heat too badly, even though my wife was already complaining about the state of the bus. She had been dreaming that the bus she would ride to Medan would be one of the luxury Aceh coaches she had once traveled on between Banda Aceh and Medan. The journey began with a round of picking up several passengers at the Putra Pelangi agents.

About The Author

Kamaruzzaman Bustamam Ahmad

Prof. Kamaruzzaman Bustamam Ahmad (KBA) has followed his curiosity throughout life, which has carried him into the fields of Sociology of Anthropology of Religion in Southeast Asia, Islamic Studies, Sufism, Cosmology, and Security, Geostrategy, Terrorism, and Geopolitics. Prof. KBA is the author of over 30 books and 50 academic and professional journal articles and book chapters. His academic training is in social anthropology at La Trobe University, Islamic Political Science at the University of Malaya, and Islamic Legal Studies at UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta. He received many fellowships: Asian Public Intellectual (The Nippon Foundation), IVLP (American Government), Young Muslim Intellectual (Japan Foundation), and Islamic Studies from Within (Rockefeller Foundation). Currently, he is Dean of Faculty and Shariah, Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Ar-Raniry, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

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