HELLO MISTERRR!! Worlds collide in Sumatra

We'd love to be able to say that things have looked up since we last posted, but we continue to be at a low ebb here in Sumatra. The blatant sexual harassment and stone-throwing have not resumed since we left the province of North Sumatra, but the sense of being absolutely alien and alone persists.

Partly it's that whilst the scenery is exceptional we're bored with villages. Indonesian ones aren’t photogenic like Cambodian ones; most of them are just a bit grimey, dull and depressing and populated by little children who scream at us, bored bigger children who follow us on motorbikes photographing us on their mobile phones and bored men who grunt and shout pointless questions at us.

Yes, mainly it's that we've absolutely had enough of being stared at and shouted at all day every day. You'll recall that Hannah in particular has struggled with this since Day 1, but by now we both feel completely oppressed by the incomprehensible, inescapable attention. We do try to understand it. We talked this morning about the time we spotted a dugong in the Red Sea; we followed it and wanted to keep staring at it until our air ran out. Maybe that's what it's like for the people here, some of whom may never have seen a bule (white person) in the flesh. Except we aren't dugongs. We aren't even famous. We're just a couple of cyclists.

And partly it's also that there's a certain low-level unpleasantness to much of the attention we receive and to many of our direct interactions. This is hard to describe and it varies. People demonstrate zero empathy; they just stare and/or shout, often without smiling. Often there's a sexist undertone to our interactions and there's xenophobia too, or at least a sense of 'them and us'. Zoe says she recognises (from her work) the feeling of having to find the maturity within herself to face up to a pack of immature human beings some of whom need to score points at her expense. Hannah accepts she doesn't yet have this maturity and isn't motivated to develop it just now.

On top of this we feel homesick, for the lovely people in our lives back home, and also for our own identities. Here (unlike the other countries we've been through) we're acutely aware of the bullshit people think they know about us. We can sometimes gain an ounce of respect by saying we're in our thirties and we're married (it's clear people assume otherwise). To express anything of our true identities (independent, feminist, the list goes on..) is unthinkable.

We're still clinging to the advice some of you sent us in response to our 'cry for help' from Vietnam: we try to draw strength from the smiles of genuinely welcoming people; we try not to beat ourselves up; we seek respite when we can (though the laughable quality of accommodation doesn't help with this!).

Being the control freaks we both are (different kinds of control freak, mind!) all of this is putting us both right on the edge. We’re up and down like mad and occasionally wonder what the hell we're doing!

And there's one more thing. We selected our current route down the west coast of Sumatra because the road is quiet and therefore relatively safe to cycle on. But Indonesian driving is APPALLING, so the exciting prospect of arriving in Java – the world's most densely populated island and the cultural heart of Indonesia - in a few days' time is tinged with foreboding. Whenever we are in real danger (and we will be) we'll put our bikes onto a train or a bus, though the latter mode rarely feels any safer than staying on the bikes!

To end on a positive note we're thankful for each other, we're thankful for the fantastic trip we've had so far, and we continue to appreciate how lucky we are to have such a good life to go back to in January.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos from Indo. Internet connections aren't fast enough to handle the size of Zoe's files.