Lovers bicycle around the world

Lovers bicycle around the world

Laetitia van der Elst and Frederic Duprat, who
are traveling around the world by bike, pose with Indonesia's
Usmadi, who is journeying across the archipelago by bike, near
Cirebon, West Java.

Laetitia, a doctor, visited The Jakarta Post's offices on
Sunday, and said that she and Duprat, a computer engineer, had
decided to make the journey to discover the world.

Starting out from the U.S. city of San Diego on Feb. 12, 2001,
the lovers, who come from Belgium, took a sailing boat to New
Zealand before starting out on their bike journey.

Moving successively through West Nusa Tenggara, Bali, East
Java, Central Java, West Java and Jakarta, they have so far
traveled some 11,000 kilometers.

"We like Indonesia ... each island has its own uniqueness and
culture.

"But we're concerned about pollution in Java particularly, as
sometimes we could no longer hear the singing of birds," said
Laetitia.

They are now on their way to Batam and Singapore, before
traveling on to Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, China, Taiwan, the
Philippines, and the Indonesia islands of Sulawesi and
Kalimantan.

"Yes, we are making a loop ... back to Indonesia. Afterward,
we'll go on to our final destination in Europe, but we have no
idea yet when we will finish our trip," she said, adding that
they had not been sponsored by anyone. --JP