Meet Maahir, with double A in his name. He is known as a volunteer of Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) who finally decided to ride his bike around Indonesia. Exactly, around Indonesia.
I didn’t know this guy until Anggilang told me about his journey and he would arrive in Lampung as the 33th province he visited. He had spent almost 2 years and 8 months riding the bike around Indonesia started from Java island, Papua, Molucca, Celebes, Borneo, Sumatra, and back again to Java.
When he arrived in Bandar Lampung, he stayed in Indonesia Red Cross Headquarter for a few days, so we met him and he shared the experiences and insights during the journey, including building some reading corner in several rural and remote places in Papua that everyone can support by sharing the books.
He actually has a dream to ride the bike overland, but before he does it, there is one thing he should do. He decided to ride around Indonesia to know more about his country before he goes abroad reaching foreign country and the Seven Summits of the world.
Until this story has been written, he finally arrives in the city where he started the journey, Jakarta. He has traveled 34 provinces of Indonesia, climbed 30 mountains and the 7 summits, reached 21,799 kilometers in 973 days (2 years 8 months).
What a great experience and an honor to meet this eccentric and talkative man who easily shares anything with anyone he meets which is in his trip, he tells, “Don’t follow me because I’m lost, too” as we can read on his bike panniers.
Even in the farewell, he took some time tell us the stories from what he experienced by showing the pictures, like the goats that eat papers, the people who drink coffee in just a half of a glass, crying to see the snow of Carstensz, and he shared the tip how to differ between the one who just calls or invites you to her/his house.
