Palembang Day 3 - Jamselinas#9 The National Folding Bike Jamboree of Indonesia

Bravo ! Let's rock & roll for the 9 times. Last year it was held at Daeng City, Makasaar, South Sulawesi and this year in Palembang. I am truly happy to be able to witness this mega gathering of folding bikes in the southern part of Sumatra.

Good morning Palembang and Selamat Pagi Jamselinas 9. The event was scheduled to start at 7.30am we have to be at Jakabaring Sport City early. We took Grab cars from the hotel to the sport complex and breakfast was available by the time we reached the sport complex. 

Pak Datu, a friend of Andrew and his children were also taking part in the event. So nice to see so many friendly people in the Jamboree.

An estimate of nearly 1,800 participants were present with all kind of folding bicycles coming from all over the different regions in Indonesia. And there were a few like us from Malaysia and Singapore.

And the event began with the entire group slowly pacing out off the sport complex.

The ride went on smoothly with a lovely weather bestowed upon us and as usual armed with my trusted cameras I tried to capture as many moments as possible.

Everyone of the participants looking very cheerful and enjoying the long awaited moment. It was a great opportunity to meet new friends besides getting to know more of Palembang.

Then came the first bridge crossing at Jembatan Musi IV where we were heading northward coming from Jakabaring at the south of Palembang.

Surprisingly there were a lot of Brompton owners in the event and apparently the Indonesians are big fans of these awesome folding bicycles from England. No wonder Will Butler Adams was in Jakarta last June to ride with the Indonesians in the Sunday Ride Brompton.

The route was nicely laid out for the participants covering the various corners of Palembang with 2 check points and 2 water stations. It was a good opportunity to get a good feel of the road condition of the city and its nearby surroundings.

Palembang Day 2 - Registration & A Night Ride

Day 2 was a day we need to register ourselves for the jamboree and followed by a night ride. I have marked a location for a famous Lomie breakfast before we go to Jakabaring Sport City.

It was just a short ride to Demang Station for a LRT connection to Cinde Station where we will resume our food hunt with our bicycles.

The weather in the morning was good, cool, breezy with a temperature of 24°C and the traffic in Palembang city centre as usual was busy.

Somehow we overshot the lomie shop, we then sought help from a Chinese lady who was selling local cakes at the road side. We conversed in Hokkien with her and "kamsia" we found the shop eventually.

Lomie Taksam is popular for their Lomie it is something like Penang's Loh Mee. Our folded bicycles neatly tucked at the side of the passageway while we were happily enjoying our new found food.

The topping comprises of prawns, braised pork, fried shallot and garlic sauce. The starchy gravy is just like Penang style but not in dark colour sauce. One thing for sure is that the ingredients on top of the noodle is really generous.

Bakmi the dry version, looking like Wan Ton Mee in KL was also as yummy and good. We have actually tried it at Aloi's Bakmi the day before.

Let's enjoy the noodles and the verdict was unanimously in agreement that it is delicious and worth coming back here again.

The Brommie cum foodies in front of the famous Lomie Taksam. Ho Jiak Ho Jiak!

The ride continued and passing by a crowded market called Pasar Kuto.

A stop at mid span of Jembatan Musi IV as part of our alternative way to Jakabaring. We spent a while here enjoying the view and taking a couple of photos.

This bridge is not as famous and big as Ampera Bridge but it is still good enough to cycle along it.

One of the many mosques we came across and a red feeder bus.

Trishaws are commonly seen on the road with its peculiarly low roof top.

Another mosque along our way small yet colourful.

Slowly we were getting away from the busy area and going into a more outskirt setting with good road condition and also many bad bumpy stretches.

This road was about to finish off with a dead end at the fringe of a kampung with a fencing dividing the village and a huge development. We found an opening and lifted our bicycles onto a concrete pavement. 

I was worried as how are we going to across the lake to the other side. We saw a few kids trespassing through other openings at the fence and asked them whether it is possible to get to the sport complex. They nodded to a direction but it was not smooth we were halted by a gate that was closed and locked.

We were in big trouble again and had to figure out how to overcome it.

Thank goodness there is a gap at the side and it was big enough for us to go through. I think we were the only ones going to Jakabaring Sport City using this back route.

The weather started to get hot by the time we reached our destination I enjoyed the ride, seeing some the outskirts of Palembang. A distance of about 25km was achieved in this exploration. By the way this is the entrance to the Asian Games 2018 for rowing and canoeing events at Jakabaring (man-made) Lake.

Meeting some of the fellow foldies at the front of the Sport City and normally we would ask them where are they from, they would mention the name of their origin and most of the time I do not know the place are. Indonesia is such a huge country indeed.  

We were glad and excited to see fellow Malaysian at the registration centre. Good to meet again Brother Syahmi.

Another veteran cyclist from Malaysia none other than Moslim Othman and he was on a shopping spree. Together with us in red was the happy vendor. After the registration and a bit of shopping we headed back to the hotel. 

We were back again to the Sport City after a good rest in the hotel for the night ride.

We took a lot of photos with the several backdrops for our record and remembrance.

One more near the sport village.

I was lucky to meet Vidi Widyastomo one of the three Radonneurs of the 2019 Paris-Brest-Paris Audax from Indonesia who has successfully completed the event. Or also known as Vee Wee who was using a bamboo bicycle during the event in France. Well done Bro, it was nice knowing you.

The "contingent" from Malaysia with the colourful arches behind us, Moslim was missing in this picture.

Then came the time, the night ride was about to begin. This is the time I could see so many foldies in an event coming from all over Indonesia. Indonesia is a huge country in deed.

Some of them rode from far, as far as from Jakarta to Palembang. Some of them came in groups and some came in alone with pannier bags attached to their bicycles.

The few Malaysians among the nearly 1,800 foldies taking position to take off.

This famous bridge, Ampera Bridge is a must stop for a photo shot before continuing the ride.

The Indonesian foldies generally rode very fast and I was made to understand that is is the way they ride in most events. At last we reached the Governor's Residence for dinner. The place is known as Griya Agung.

We were privilege to be allocated a table to dine in a separate section, probably an honour for being foreign participants attending the event it was only 8 of us from Malaysia. Ribuan terima kasih for the superb hospitality shown by Jamselinas 9.

After dinner it was time to attend a session of speech by the host.

 While Andrew was seated
 among the VIP in the front row in we were sitting at the back with the rest of the crowd.

Governor H Herman Deru delivering his speech and supporting for the event. Well done Jamselinas 9.

One for the album in Griya Agung Palembang.

The night ride from Jakabaring Sport City to the Griya Agung for a dinner hosted by the Governor taking a distance of 13.5km. After dinner we just need to pedal another 1.5km to our hotel. Good night and see you tomorrow.