driving in indonesia?

[shirt]

morning all,

i'm trying to work out how to go about a business trip to indonesia next week. i need to visit padang, pekanbaru and lhokseumawe, all in sumatra fortunately!

i'm told the first two have their own airport but the nearest to lhokseumawe is 120miles away. how long is this likely to take? due to flight availibility, i may have to drive between padang and pekanbaru as well. looks to be a 200miles!

[XJSJohn]

landcruiser with bullbars and driver.

can always ask the driver to sit in the back if you fancy a play too!!

edit - how long ... no idea must read the question in the post ...

[shirt]

is a driver a must have? i wasn't allowed to drive in africa [company policy] but it's fine to do so in india. i can do maybe an hour as a passenger before i get cabin fever!

[XJSJohn]

shirt said:

is a driver a must have? i wasn't allowed to drive in africa [company policy] but it's fine to do so in india. i can do maybe an hour as a passenger before i get cabin fever!

a translater for the "coffee money" is handy, but not essential.

there is also a chance that they may know where they are going!! (slim but a chance)

[XJSJohn]

guess you are going to be flying into Medan and driving up the coast ... having a trusted local with you in that area would be a good idea i would say ... its pretty poor and still not recovered from the Boxing Day Tsunami in many places

[shirt]

coffee money?

and getting lost is part of the fun!

[XJSJohn]

shirt said:

coffee money?!

Payments, usually in USD, to the local rozzer (or equivalent of) for passage, due to an undetermined infringement of local bylaws. BAU in SEAsia

[shirt]

I assumed it'd be that! I'm taking an intern/scapegoat with me in case I can't afford the coffee

No idea where it'd be flying into. Pekan Baru and Padang have airports so I guess Singa or Jakarta and transfer to there. Waiting for the routes and schedules to come back so I can plan an itinary.

[XJSJohn]

I have never travelled to the Western end of Sumatra, so don't have any good local knowledge but i do know a few people who do go there regularly from Singapore so will ask them how they travel around.

I know that there are loads of small regional airfields / air strips serviced by local operators that your travel company will not even know exist - just check the status of your Travel / Health / Life insurance ......

[shirt]

I would imagine they do know, we have about a dozen sites in Sumatra alone and i doubt the directors are a inclined as i am to go mud plugging in a rental. The comprehensiveness of the insurance policies was qute daunting when I signed [as in, 'where the fk are they going to send me?!']

[shirt]

Hi John,

Do you happen to know of the names of any small airlines? lion air have pulled 2 flight routes for august leaving me fairly fecked. Alternatively, an airline doing a daily run to KL would be nice and I'll cut the business part short and have 48hrs there.

[XJSJohn]

Indonesia Air Asia or Air Asia X do a lot of shuttle services.

[shirt]

cheers for the info. john, all sorted now. looking forward to a 2hr jump in a 12seat cessna, not so much 8hrs as a passenger in a 4x4!