So concludes the story of Touring Indonesia Harmoni across the island of Sumatra. It must be admitted that this route did not present any truly significant obstacles. But it should be added that we also once traveled by bus, from Java back to our hometown of Krueng Mane, and by bus again from Padang to Surabaya. Here is how that came about.
Throughout Touring Indonesia Harmoni, two things always turned my thoughts toward Aceh: our children and the news of the grave illness of my older brother, Syamsul Akmal. These two things meant that whenever I opened the throttle on Nyak Ver, they were always present in my two mirrors. We had indeed left the children in the care of our extended family in Banda Aceh. Even so, they kept asking when we would come home, because they missed the presence of both their parents so deeply. As it turned out, a Video Call could not cure the depth of my longing for the children. Still, I told them that their father was on the route home, after reaching Merauke on 10 October 2021.
Even so, the news of Brother Syamsul’s grave illness truly kept me thinking about going home to visit him in our hometown. While I was still on the way to Merauke, he was already in and out of the hospital. Twice he managed to call me to say that he already knew his time would be taken by the Angel of Death. I then tried my hardest to ensure that Brother Syamsul received the best possible medical care. I reached out to several friends in Lhokseumawe to make certain that health services were arranged for him.
As soon as we reached Surabaya on 18 October 2021, I received word that he had been taken to Zainal Abidin Hospital in Banda Aceh. We discussed heading home right away. Because my wife is traumatized by flying, we decided we would take the bus to Aceh. That was the very quick decision at that moment. I then announced our return to Banda Aceh. When we arrived in Surabaya, Nyak Ver was in fact still in Merauke, being shipped aboard the cargo vessel Tanto Selalu. So if we decided to head home to Aceh, it would not affect our touring schedule for the ride home to Aceh.
On 20 October 2021, we set off from Surabaya aboard a Sinar Jaya bus. We decided to get off at Pulo Gebang Terminal in order to connect with the Pelangi bus to Aceh. We bought the tickets through an online booking app. Riding buses was nothing new to me, because during my student days in Yogyakarta I had already experienced the Aceh–Yogyakarta route. With that, one can already imagine everything that awaited us on a long-distance journey by intercity, inter-province (AKAP) bus.
In the late afternoon we departed on the Sinar Jaya bus, which was of the double deckerspecification. My wife was very happy riding the bus, because flying leaves her feeling faint. She wanted to try out every passenger facility on the bus, even though it was already certain that amenities like Wi-Fi would never actually work on an AKAP bus, regardless of what was printed on the bus walls. That night, Sinar Jaya cruised along the Trans-Java toll road. We made use of the time on the bus to rest. The only issue was that the first problem began to surface: the bus air conditioning did not cool the cabin. So riding an air-conditioned bus felt like riding an economy bus with an electric fan. Fortunately, at night the temperature inside the bus was not too hot. Right before dawn, Sinar Jaya arrived at Pulo Gebang Terminal.
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