April 8th: Jatibarang to Cirebon – 45.28 km

Day 177

Cher took over as the social member of our team and accepted the invite to go on a tour of the property at the hotel we stayed at, while I was in a food coma after the breakfast buffet. The hotel was owned by a family of 6, and the 70-year old grandpa is a cyclist himself. The conversation was limited by the language barrier, but Cher was well-trained by me that she managed to mumble a monologue. After several pictures with various family members, she was free leave with a bag of banana chips and 2 ice-cold coffee drinks.

It was great that for once she got all the attention. Being a white guy I get a lot of stares while Cher just blends in. People yell regularly as we pass, “hey Mister!” with their exceptional ability to roll a long “r” at the end. Never did we get any “hey Misss!”

People also regularly request a picture with me. From what I’ve read, people see very few white foreigners and even call them bule, which means albino. Most curiosity is good-natured, but some days I just have to put on my imaginary blinders and ear muffs. If I were a celebrity, I would be the type that occasionally punch a camera man.

Today we had air, and fields and farming. For the first time we saw people harvesting and drying rice. However, as we approached Cirebon, we were once again in a scruffy area where the majority of shops are tire repair or mechanics. In the middle of this we saw an enormous new white hotel jutting out of the grey landscape. We knew we couldn’t afford it, but it had free wifi we can “borrow” to find a cheap place to stay. After explained our plans, I paid the wifi with many handshakes, group photos and fielding the same questions we get every time we stop. Where are you from? Where are you going? What’s your name? I can be a bit of a cynic, but even though I often enter into these conversations begrudgingly, they always end with me smiling. Indonesians really want to know about you and take the time to really listen. Not only are they genuine, but they are extremely polite which always makes me regret initial brusque responses. Needless to say we came out of the fancy hotel with hotel search results, along with recommendations based on our price range and directions on how to get there.

We stopped at another very nice hotel, and even though it was out of our price range I rationalized that we needed a good Wi-Fi connection to plan for the following days and to watch Game of Thorns. Cher was willing to go check out a cheap guesthouse, and even though I didn’t admit, I was spent and didn’t want to go another meter.