Tomas Belcik

Cycling Java Tomas Belcik

Compared to cycle touring on the mainland of Southeast Asia, bicycle travel in the Indonesian archipelago is unknown in the West. While a few tourists may pedal around Bali, only a handful of the most adventurous cyclists have ventured across any of the large Greater Sunda islands, not to mention the Lesser Sunda Islands east of Bali. Of the four large Greater Sunda Islands, Java is the smallest yet by far the most populous and dominates Indonesia's culture, economy, and politics.
Cycling Java recounts an epic bike tour of East Java, including the seldom visited Madura Island, a journey among towering volcanoes, abyss dropping waterfalls, and medieval temples of the Hindu Majapahit Empire, against the backdrop of the cultural landscape of Islam in contemporary Indonesia.
Cycling Java is a full-color travel pictorial, a photo-essay, a documentary, and a visual guidebook with pertinent info you can use to set out on much the same or similar journey around East Java as the author did.
Written by an avid cyclist and a photographer, with many cycling guides to his name, an adventure and cultural travel professional with an architectural background and four decades of travel throughout Asia and the rest of the world, Cycling Java provides an insightful introduction to a richer and more rewarding travel experience in this unique part of Indonesian archipelago.
Containing 424 photographs with informative narrative and captions, cycling details of route stages and distances, a list of accommodations, and the route-related GPX cycling tracks you can download, the book promises to entice any intrepid or armchair traveler.