July 2026 in Sumatra, Indonesia
Hi internet friends,
Time for my July update, and a note about the future of these updates.
Meta-commentary about this update
First, to make this update make a bit more sense, a bit more context: In July we continued what we had been doing, which was cycling up the west coast of Sumatra. If you're the type of person that googles the place names I mention (love that), you'll maybe notice that Dumai is not on the west coast of Sumatra. From Padang, we took an overnight bus perpendicular across the island to reach the Strait of Malacca.
When you travel by bicycle it's hard to not feel an itch to rationalize every distance not covered by bicycle. A lot of the time I feel like I'm just rationalizing to one of my many selves, and besides, it's arbitrary, especially when the trip begins and ends by plane! I don't even know why I am typing this! I'm going to stop here. The bus was extremely comfortable and smooth, thank you bus company for keeping us safe and calm.
More meta-commentary: An update about these updates
I started these monthly updates as a 37th birthday present to myself. I have benefited a lot from sticking with it through the last year:
Writing these got me back into the groove of blogging. They were an approachable goal. One page per month felt manageable. I gained confidence in myself in setting a goal that moved me in the direction of the person I want to be, and forced me to take small steps to prove that to myself. I also think that having some sort of container is helpful for me. I'm the sort of person who feels like all my context and all my areas of life are all in a blender, all mixed together and all connected. I can't think about coffee without thinking about addiction about exploitation about travel about love about boundaries about money about privilege about introversion about IBS about my adolescence about my shame, and on and on and on. Just insert the starting noun and repeat the cycle. Everything is connected to everything else, all the time.
This is a superpower but it's also overwhelming and makes finishing something really hard. Having a container (one month, or one topic, or a word count) is essential for me if I want to complete something. (A container is essential but it's only half the battle. The other half is having some sort of suitable accountability mechanism that gets me calling something finished and submitting it to the internet void.)
But: Although all "containers" for writing are arbitrary to some degree, I'm finding this container (monthly updates) to be too arbitrary for my life chapter. Parsing a blog post by a calendar month when my life feels more segmented by borders or experiences or locations feels like trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
So I'm stopping. This is my 12th update, covering a year, August 2025 to July 2026 inclusive. I have fulfilled my birthday commitment to myself.
I am happy that I am not stopping with blogging, just with this monthly update container for my writing. I may experiment with another explicit and consistent container, or I may freestyle it for the rest of the year and check in with the process then.
Thanks for being here. Now, onto the last monthly update!
Previous monthly updates in this series:
June 2026
May 2026
April 2026
March 2026
February 2026
January 2026
December 2025
November 2025
October 2025
September 2025
August 2025
July 2026
Written: August 1st, 2026
Start: Bengkulu, Sumatra, Indonesia
End: Dumai (ditto)
Coincidentally, July 1-31 lines up really well with how life was actually organized: Bookended by stays in big cities, we had our last few weeks of cycling in Indonesia. Between Bengkulu and Padang, there were no big cities and basically no big-brand convenience stores! (Alfamart and Indomaret, we rely on them.) Instead, ~500 km of cycling through ribbon settlements, colourful with painted buildings, women's clothes, range of plant life, 2-wheeler colours. Feeling a lot of admiration for this "arrive a stranger, leave a friend, but all within 30 min" vibe that everyone seems skilled at cultivating. Like very warm but also nonchalant.
Palm plantations everywhere. Even palm fruit statues at roundabouts in a few places. Bell's automation with "around me" hyper-local news curation tells us prices are low, rough times, linked to U.S. - Iran war.
We stop for snacks at a shop and affable man tells me, because I asked, that he's missing his right forearm (and all his front teeth) because he got electrocuted 6 months ago while up a pole repairing it, and was 1 month in the hospital. He tells me he's not in pain but something about how he gets movements (his amputation twitches). I wish I had touched it, with consent, we turn away from missing limbs too much.
So many kind moments like this, but I have to mention Wati: A woman had waved at us (editorial note: Not Wati, her neighbour), I'd stopped to ask her if we could camp in this village, Bell rested her bike on a pole, the pole unearthed itself, Bell fell into the stream, it was funny (no harm), and that's how we came to stay at Wati's.
Caption: This is at the immigration office in Bengkulu, in the entrance room of the dedicated foreigners office for extending visas. One of the many examples of preferential treatment for foreigners. The thing on the screen is a quirky video made advertising the e-visa and self-service custom gates at the airport.
Caption: There are so many food carts in Indonesia. This man is pushing one along a road near the beach, and he has a special instrument that makes a particular sound, which I am told is to indicate the particular thing he is selling. How cool is that!
Caption: We went to a beach in Bengkulu on a date. I loved seeing all the people there, kids and adults, women and men, all in the water and playing in the sand.
Caption: This is Bell glowing after a particularly affirming moment: We had been sitting on the tiles outside a convenience store one morning, and a woman had come out of a car and had been so happy to see us. She asked for pictures with us, and kissed each of our cheeks in turn.
Caption: Cycling along the glistening Indian Ocean coastline, making steady northward progress in the heat and humidity, grateful for the breeze.
Caption: We were hosted at this 24-hour seaside restaurant near a construction site. One of the men working at the site decided the backhoe needed to be moved to allow us flat ground, and while moving it he decided to flatten out the spot for us. Once in a lifetime experience. Here we're pitching the tent with assistance.
Caption: We have not met a lot of bicycle travellers or travellers in general. We crossed paths with Nico one morning.
Caption: In one town where we stayed a few days to work, I would walk the kilometre to Aisa's family's restaurant every day to get kwetiau noodles. On the last day I missed her, and I got other food. Not longer after I came back to the hotel, she turned up, with our normal order, just amazing.
Caption: These chickens had been left out in the morning sun awaiting transport, likely to the butcher. I asked permission and then moved them to the shade. They were so docile, I expected them to peck at me especially because they were bound together by the feet and therefore vulnerable, but they just let me move them. There are so many opportunities like this each day along the road to intervene in an animal's existence, and this was one of those rare times where I plucked up the gumption to try.
Caption: I was not informed that north of Bengkulu the Alfamarts and Indomarets would peter out. Where are my espresso beverages and air conditioning?!! In their place, myriad independent convenience shops with similar names and branding.
Caption: The things that help me flourish are things I need lots of reminders for. I had to learn yet again that life is better with a dedicated midday meal instead of only eating snacks in the day. Even better when an avocado is purchased to be eaten with lunch.
Caption: This month I started to get a rash under my cycling shorts, the internet tells me that it is a thing that happens to middle aged woman and that it is also called golfer's rash.
Caption: I've been thinking about why I like all the texture and unpretentious fabrics and surfaces that I see, like this one. But if I were to ask the lady who ran this cafe what she thinks of it, I bet she would say it's just plain and modest. Maybe it is a grass is greener situation.
Caption: Papaya and oats and peanut breakfast.
Caption: If you know The Grinch, don't you think this cat is a lookalike?
Caption: I'm writing this July update so soon after July that Bell hasn't had time to do her normal photo ingestion process which means I am just going off of the photos I have on my phone. Which do not include any from Wati's house, except for this snap of the envelope containing the card and rupiah that I gave to her as a thank you.
Caption: These are jackfruits. The durian is smaller and spikier and more expensive. The jackfruit is in our lives multiple times a week in the form of (a) seeing it on trees (b) seeing it being transported © seeing it being sold, and best, (d) eating it in the form of nangka (jackfruit) curry, yum.
Caption: I know I am supposed to, like, have more pictures of the bicycles, or me on the bicycle, etc., for some reason I am really bad at this lately. Here is a picture of Caroline and Snowflake in the afternoon light.
Caption: Here is a picture of the display on my camera showing a Minangkabau roof which we see in this part of Sumatra a lot, I've never seen anything like this.
Caption: Something about this scene in Dumai, with the garbage containers out and people already out on their scooters and the light against the buildings across the road really appealed to me.