Departing Bakauhueni port Onboard the ferry from Bakauhueni to Merak (standing outside is more hygienic) Salesmen are always trying to sell you some food on these ferriesĪt Bakauhueni, the ferry to Merak departs every 20 minutes in daylight hours (but rough seas can lead to cancellations) and within 2 hours you should have reached Java. By bus, this journey should not take any longer than 90 minutes and will set you back 20,000 Rupiah (less than £1.50).

From there, you need to head to the Sumatran port of Bakauhueni where you can catch a passenger ferry to Merak port in Java (Merak is around 151km away from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta inland).īandar Lampung is 94km away from the coast and as there is pretty much no significant rail network on the entire island of Sumatra (in stark contrast to Java), you need to take a bus or taxi to Bakauhueni.

It is an unremarkable city (like every city in Sumatra apart from Padang) that has very little to offer travellers of any budget. The key city that you need to head to in Sumatra is Bandar Lampung (11 hours on a train from Palembang). But where’s the adventure in that?! Bandar Lampung in all its…glory So much so, that it is often much easier to just head to the nearest airport and fly a domestic flight to your intended destination. The thick jungle of Gunung Leuser and particularly Kerinci Seblat make travel extremely difficult and time-consuming. Sumatra, the world’s 6th largest island, is not exactly known for its ease of overland travel. Wouldn’t it be great if you could arrive in Medan and then travel overland (via Bukit Lawang, Lake Toba, and Padang) all the way to the eastern tip of Sumatra to continue your adventure to Java and beyond? This is actually one of the hardest and most challenging journeys a backpacker can endure in South East Asia – but it is possible.

Sumatra java