While in Sorong for almost two weeks, we had opportunity to try out a number of different transport methods.

The easiest, but most expensive, was to just hire a driver to take you where you want to go in their car. This is convenient, especially if you need something special. In my case, it was a particular antibiotic that I needed for my ear infection, and the driver was useful in knowing which were the best pharmacies. The price was 100,000/hr with a two hour minimum.

Second most expensive was to use the taxi vans, which operate like buses, stopping to pick up and drop multiple use passengers anywhere another the single road that threads through Sorong. These small vans of about 500kg carrying capacity are fitted with two rows of seats in the back. The drivers typically have customised horns that they blow as they approach prospective passengers, for whom they stop and pack into the back. We used one of these on the way back from the supermarket one day, and the van that stopped for us was already pretty full, with a passenger in the front, and four in the back. The driver insisted that we would fit, and the four ladies in the back seemed more than happy to sit on top of each other so they could be near to us “whities” now crammed in to the middle seat with about 6 bags of groceries. Price for the taxi is meant to be 100,000Rp, but we only paid this once when we were taking the driver well away from their area. More typical was 30 or 40,000Rp (about 3 or 4 AUD).

The cheapest and fastest of all transport is the scooter. If you stand on the side of a road anywhere in Sorong, almost every scooter rider will stop and ask if you want a ride. The price was negotiated before getting on, and seemed quite flexible. I think the riders were expecting that we didn’t know the value and asking for way more than the going rate.

Scooters are the primary means of transport everywhere we’ve been in Indonesia. They are remarkably versatile, capable of carrying entire families and amounts of freight that you would normally see in a small truck. We’ve seen a scooter rider carrying a 3m long ladder under one arm, seen one with a rolled up length of corrugated roofing sideways across the scooter, and seen one towing long lengths of timber behind by dragging them along on a rope.