After that, the bus moved on toward Merak Harbor. As usual, the bus stopped at an eatery that had a standing arrangement with the company, for meals and drinks. Here, passengers rarely want to eat at the designated restaurant, because the prices are naturally not very friendly to the wallet. Meal prices are inflated. Sometimes the food does not even taste very good. On top of that, passengers are also charged whenever they use the toilet or bathroom facilities. Only the ablution area and the prayer room were still free of charge at some of the eateries where we stopped.
So as soon as we got off, I suggested we have dinner off to the side of the restaurant, where there was a coffee stall or a Warmindo (an Indomie instant-noodle eatery). After that, the bus headed for the crossing port. Just before boarding the ferry, our ID cards were collected as a passenger manifest for the bus. As it turned out, the certificate from our Antigen Swabwas not checked at all by the port officers. The Putra Pelangi bus then joined the queue lane heading for the ferry. Not long after, the bus rolled into the ship’s hold. Passengers were asked to step out of the vehicle and onto the deck.
That night, the ferry was fairly crowded. This was most likely because the PPKM movement restrictions had begun to be relaxed. Even so, passengers were strongly urged to wear masks. During the crossing, we simply rested on the sofas available in the executive class. Anyone sitting in this class was asked to pay an additional Rp. 10,000 per passenger. After two hours sailing across the Sunda Strait, the ship docked at Bakauheni Harbor. By then the passengers were already back inside the Putra Pelangi bus.
They began complaining about the temperature inside the bus. Besides being hot, it was extremely uncomfortable. I imagined that for three nights and three days we would be trapped inside an “aquarium” that was utterly unpleasant. Yet there was no other option but to be patient. I did not forget to let our family in the village know that we were on our way to Aceh. That night, the bus crawled along the Trans-Sumatra toll road. But its pace was not quick at all. The bus even stopped frequently to unload cargo being shipped from Java to Sumatra.
In the morning, the bus entered the city of Palembang after leaving the toll road. Passengers began complaining of hunger, because the bus had stopped somewhere too early, around the pre-dawn prayer time. So the passengers who were not praying simply continued resting until the sun greeted them from the east. The conductor said the bus would stop at the Putra Pelangi depot to drop off and pick up passengers. That was where passengers could have breakfast. As soon as we reached the Putra Pelangi depot, we looked around the place. It did not seem very pleasant for breakfast. It sat by the roadside, dusty, with only makeshift seating.
The Economics of a Long-Haul Bus Meal Stop
One of the quiet frustrations of long-distance bus travel in Indonesia is the meal-stop arrangement. Bus companies and roadside restaurants operate on a commission system, so the coach pulls into a partner eatery whether or not the passengers actually want to eat there. The prices at these designated stops are almost always inflated, the food is frequently mediocre, and even the toilets often carry a small fee. Seasoned travelers learn to sidestep the main restaurant entirely, seeking out a modest coffee stall or a Warmindo — the ubiquitous instant-noodle warung — where a hot, cheap, and reliably tasty bowl of Indomie costs a fraction of the restaurant plate. It is a small act of thrift, but over a multi-day journey those savings and the comfort of a familiar meal add up.
Crossing the Sunda Strait by Ferry
The Merak–Bakauheni ferry is the maritime bridge that links Java and Sumatra, and it remains one of the busiest crossings in the country. Vehicles queue for hours, roll into the cavernous belly of the ship, and passengers climb up to the decks for the roughly two-hour voyage across the Sunda Strait. The executive lounge, with its padded sofas and air conditioning, offers a modest reprieve from an uncomfortable bus for a small surcharge, and after days cramped in a hot cabin, that ten-thousand-rupiah upgrade felt like a bargain. The crossing is also a reminder of how the pandemic reshaped travel: with the PPKM restrictions loosening, the ferry was busy again, yet masks and health protocols still shaped every stage of the trip.
Why the Trans-Sumatra Bus Is So Slow
Anyone expecting a swift ride down the new Trans-Sumatra toll road on an intercity bus will be disappointed. These coaches double as freight carriers, and the frequent stops to unload parcels shipped from Java stretch a journey that should take a day into three. The combination of a heavy, aging vehicle, a cargo schedule, and a driver pacing himself for a marathon rather than a sprint means the bus rarely travels quickly. For a rider like me, accustomed to the freedom and pace of my own motorcycle, surrendering to that crawling rhythm inside a stifling cabin was its own test of patience — a very different kind of endurance from the one the open road demands.
Arriving in Palembang
Reaching Palembang in the morning brought little relief. The depot where the bus stopped was dusty, roadside, and fitted with only makeshift seating, hardly the welcoming breakfast spot the hungry passengers had hoped for after a pre-dawn halt. Yet these rough waypoints are part of the honest texture of overland travel in Indonesia. They strip away the polish of tourist brochures and reveal how ordinary people actually move across this vast archipelago: patiently, cheaply, and with a good deal of grumbling that somehow never quite tips over into despair. For us, every dusty depot and every uncomfortable hour was simply another marker on the long road home to Aceh.
Lessons for Overland Travelers
For travelers considering a similar cross-island bus journey, a few practical lessons stand out from this leg. Pack your own snacks and water so you are never at the mercy of an overpriced partner restaurant. Consider the small executive-class or lounge upgrades on ferries, since a little comfort goes a long way after hours in a hot cabin. Above all, manage your expectations about time: a bus that shares its route with freight will stop often and move slowly, so patience is the single most valuable thing you can bring aboard. These journeys may lack the romance of riding a motorcycle across the country, but they carry their own lessons in endurance, frugality, and the quiet dignity of ordinary travel.
Health Protocols During a Pandemic Journey
This leg of the trip unfolded while Indonesia was still navigating the tail end of strict pandemic controls. The antigen swab we had dutifully arranged as a condition for the crossing went completely unchecked at the port, a small illustration of how uneven enforcement of health rules could be on the ground. Yet the underlying reality remained: masks were still strongly encouraged, capacity was managed, and every traveler carried the quiet awareness that a single outbreak could shut down a route entirely. Traveling long distances during that period meant accepting a layer of bureaucracy and uncertainty on top of the ordinary hardships of the road, and it made reaching each checkpoint feel like a minor victory in itself.
The Mental Discipline of Enduring Discomfort
Perhaps the most important thing this bus journey taught me was the discipline of enduring discomfort without letting it curdle into resentment. When I pictured three full days sealed inside a hot, poorly ventilated cabin, the temptation was to dwell on everything that was wrong: the broken air conditioning, the endless cargo stops, the grumbling of fellow passengers. But dwelling on discomfort only magnifies it. Instead, I kept my focus on the destination and on the family waiting at the other end, and I made a point of updating loved ones at home so that each message became a small milestone of progress. On a long overland journey, the body will inevitably suffer some hardship; it is the mind that decides whether that hardship becomes suffering or simply becomes part of the story worth telling later.
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