Madura Sights

Bull Racing (Kerapan Sapi).

Bull Racing (Kerapan Sapi). This is the most famous attraction in Madura. Every August and September towns and villages across Madura hold races and the winners compete for the Presidential Trophy in the grand finals in Pamekasan in late September. Races take place over a 100 metre course and are over in about 10 seconds. The jockey is usually a young boy who shows great control of the large bulls whilst balanced almost impossibly on a simple wooden sled. This is a major event in Madura and it is taken very seriously indeed with all sorts of intrigue surrounding the raising of champion bulls, use of mysterious herbal tonics and the harnessing of dark magic to cripple opponents. A very exotic and colourful affair.

The Suramadu Bridge

The Suramadu Bridge (Indonesian: Jembatan Suramadu), also known as the Surabaya–Madura Bridge, is a bridge with three cable-stayed sections constructed between Surabaya on the island of Java and the town of Bangkalan on the island of Madura in Indonesia. Opened on June 10, 2009, the 5.4-km bridge is the longest in Indonesia and the first bridge to cross the Madura Strait

Features

The cable-stayed portion has three spans with lengths 192 m, 434 m and 192 m. The bridge has two lanes in each direction plus an emergency lane and a dedicated lane for motorcycles. The first toll bridge in Indonesia, fares have been initially set at Rp. 30,000 (US$3 in 2009) for four-wheeled vehicles and Rp. 3,000 (US$0.30) for two-wheelers.

The bridge was built by a consortium of Indonesian companies PT Adhi Karya and PT Waskita Karya working with China Road and Bridge Corp. and China Harbor Engineering Co. Ltd. The total cost of the project, including connecting roads, has been estimated at 4.5 trillion rupiah (US$445 million)

History

Construction was started on August 20, 2003. In July 2004, a girder collapsed, killing one worker and injuring nine others. Work on the bridge halted at the end of 2004 due to lack of funds, but was restarted in November 2005. The main span of the bridge was connected on March 31, 2009, and the bridge was opened to the public on June 10, 2009. Within a week of the opening, it was discovered that nuts and bolts as well as maintenance lamps had been stolen and that there was evidence of vandalism of cables supporting the main span

Kangean Islands.

• Kangean Islands. The Kangeans are an archipelago of about 30 islands 120 km to east-north-east of Madura. These are relatively little known but with far better boat transport options than used to be the case, the islands are accessible for the adventurous traveller. The largest island is Kangean itself at about 490 sqkm. Others are as small as 1,800 sqm. The key attraction here is marine life and there is good snorkelling close to shore off many of the islands. As a general rule, the western coast lines here tend to be white sand while the eastern coasts are often covered with mangrove forest. Some Bali-based dive operators offer formal dive excursions to this archipelago, and there are irregular boats servicing the Kangeans from Sangsit nr Singaraja in North Bali. The only formal accommodation option in the island group is a fairly terrible government rest house (pasanggrahan) in Arjasa on main Kangean. As an alternative, you should also be able to find lodging with a family by approaching a local head of village (kepala desa). Both public ferries (ASDP) and private boats service Batu Guluk ,which is about 12 km from Arjasa the capital of main Kangean. These leave from Kalianget just 6 km south-east of Sumenep, and the crossing takes anything from 6 to 10 hours.