Sepeda Motor Dicuri di Amsterdam, Jeffrey Polnaja Bertekad Teruskan Misi Keliling Dunia

AMSTERDAM — Penjelajah dunia asal Indonesia, Jeffrey Polnaja, menyatakan tidak patah semangat dan akan terus berjuang melanjutkan misi berkeliling dunia kendati sepeda motor besar BMW R1150GS Adventure yang menjadi sahabat perjalanannya hilang dicuri di Amsterdam, Belanda.

Jeffrey sendiri baru menyadari sepeda motornya telah lenyap pada Jumat (4/5) pagi kemarin, sekitar pukul 08:00 waktu setempat. Kehilangan sepeda motor ini sangat tidak diduga pria asal Bandung tersebut. Pasalnya, Jeffrey memarkir di depan kantor kepolisian yang dinilai sangat aman terhadap aksi pencurian.

“Kabar ini tentu tidak menyenangkan, namun kehilangan sepeda motor tidak sedikit pun menyurutkan misi keliling dunia kedua Ride for Peace. Tekad saya jalan terus, api tak boleh padam,” kata Jeffrey.

“Tekad saya sudah bulat, walau kehilangan motor perjalanan Ride for Peace akan tetap berlanjut, inilah motonya untuk pantang menyerah ” The Road May End, But Not The Spirit of Brotherhood and Peace “. Kita buktikan bahwa kita bangsa besar dan kita tidak akan berhenti walau rintangan besar menghadang,” sebutnya.

Jeffrey mengaku terakhir memarkir motor tersebut pada Kamis (3/5) tengah malam, tatkala dirinya ingin bermalam di Hotel BackStage, di jalan Leidsegracht 114, Amsterdam-Centrum.

Hotel yang berada tepat menghadap sungai itu memiliki lahan parkir yang terbatas, dan terbuka di sisi jalan. Dengan alasan keamanan dan saran petugas di hotel, Jeffrey memarkirkan sepeda motornya di lahan parkir di depan hotel yang berdekatan dengan kantor polisi  Lijnbaansgracht Distric 1.

“Sewajarnya sebuah kantor polisi lebih aman dari aksi kejahatan. Namun terkadang fakta di lapangan bisa terbalik. Saya berharap polisi bisa membantu menemukan dan memberi perhatian dalam menangani kasus ini,” ujarnya.

Ditambahkan Jeffrey, kini dirinya telah dibantu pihak Pensosbud (Penerangan, Sosial dan Budaya) KBRI Den Haag (Kedutaan Besar Republik Indonesia), dan atase Kepolisian Republik Indonesia Ary Laksama Widjaja yang secara khusus datang ke Amsterdam dari Den Haag.

“Utusan KBRI dan Atase Kepolisian RI datang ke Den Haag, Sabtu (5/5) pagi. Sekarang kepolisian setempat mulai serius menangani kasus kehilangan sepeda motor saya setelah pihak perwakilan RI turun tangan,” ungkapnya.

Hilangnya sepeda motor Jeffrey di Amsterdam juga telah diberitakan media-media lokal. Hal ini membuat sepanjang Sabtu (5/5) Jeffrey menerima banyak ungkapan simpati, baik yang disampaikan melalui telepon, pesan singkat, maupun surat elektronik.

Stasion TV terkenal di Belanda, SBS6 meminta kesediaan Jeffrey untuk wawancara dengan acara favorit Hart van Netherland. Walau masih diselimuti duka, Jeffrey tetap menunjukan tekad dan semangatnya… Salut !!

Jeffrey sangat berharap sepeda motor buatan 2005 yang telah menjelajahi 72 negara di dunia pada misi Ride for Peace pertama bisa kembali. “Saat ini saya masih terus menunggu kabar dari pihak kepolisian. Semoga ada berita bagus dan motor bersejarah bagi Indonesia itu dapat dikembalikan,” harapnya.

Jeffrey sendiri akan menunggu selambat-lambatnya hingga dua minggu ke depan. Apabila sepeda motor tersebut tidak juga ditemukan, Jeffrey akan menggunakan sepeda motor pengganti dari model dan tahun yang sama.

Jeffrey berada di Amsterdam dalam bagian uji coba kendaraan sebelum digunakan menjelajahi dunia tahap kedua yang akan dimulai dari Paris pada 13 Mei yang akan datang. Sejauh ini uji coba motor tersebut baru mencatat total jarak sekitar 1.000 kilometer menjelajahi Belgia dan Belanda.

Perjalanan Jeffrey kali ini merupakan penjelajahan keliling dunia seorang diri yang kedua dengan sepeda motor. Pada kesempatan ini, Jeffrey mengemban misi “Ride for Peace – Solo Riding Exploring Five Continents on Two Wheels.” Pelepasan Jeffrey telah dilakukan di Jakarta pada 23 April 2012.

Rencananya, Jeffrey akan berkelana sejauh 220.000 kilometer melintasi beberapa negara di Eropa, Amerika Utara, Amerika Tengah, Amerika Selatan dan Australia. Penjelajahan kedua ini tak kalah menantang dari misi pertama, di mana dia melintasi negara-negara di Asia, Afrika, dan Timur Tengah.

Tak kurang dari 30 negara akan disinggahi, mulai dari Perancis, Belgia, Belanda, Jerman, Skandinavia, Polandia, Rusia, Korea Selatan, Jepang, Kanada, Amerika Serikat, Meksiko, Kuba, Kolombia, Nikaragua, Bolivia, Brasil, Argentina, Peru, Selandia Baru, Australia, dan Timor Leste. Jeffrey direncanakan tiba kembali di Jakarta pada tahun 2014. (RFP Info)

Indonesian ‘ride for peace’ Jeffrey Polnaja

ndonesian motorbike rider Jeffrey Polnaja has visited over 62 countries among them Iran, Burma, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and China. He is due to finish ‘ride for peace’ around the world in 2011.

“I am just a rider, but I hope to see peace in the world. I hope (politicians) will make peace part of their policy,” said Polnaja in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).

“I want to share peace with all the people in the world. We only have one planet, and it is not for us, it is for our grandchildren,” he said.

His journey began in 2006 in Indonesian capital Jakarta after his eight-year-old son asked him why the world is in such a state of war.

His ‘peace ride’ has already taken him to to 62 countries and by the time he finishes his journey he will have visited 100 countries in all five continents.

Polnaja, who is 45, said he felt particularly close to Afghanistan (photo), where he would hear gunshot wherever he went.

He comes from Bandung in the Indonesian province of West Java.

Polnaja said he was shot three times in a South Asian country, although he declined to name it.

After crossing through the notorious Khyber Pass, which links Afghanistan with Pakistan, he was hit by a drunk driver in the the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, near the border with Iran.

His expensive motorbike was badly damaged, its navigation system destroyed and his right arm was broken in the accident, which left-him stranded in the desert for days.

During that time he recalled having hallucinations and seeing birds fly over his head that he believed would attack him after his death.

“I only had me, my bike and my god,” said Polnaja.

“I had an adrenaline rush, and decided to ride as fast as I could,” he told AKI.

He then encountered a truck driver who gave him directions to get to the nearest town so he could find food and shelter.

After this near-death experience, he crossed into Iran, where he was escorted through the dangerous border area between Pakistan and Iran, where opium is smuggled from Afghanistan

Polnaja told AKI that although Iran is usually portrayed as being a ‘dangerous’ and ‘bad’ country, his experience was quite the opposite.

“Iranians fixed my motorbike at no cost, saying: ‘We do not want your money, you are representing us, go for peace, we want peace’,” Polnaja told AKI.

He said he is very grateful to Iranians. His sponsors offered him a new motorbike, an offer he refused, preferring to continue his journey on the same bike once it was repaired.

Polnaja has had to get a visa for nearly every country he has visited, and is making the journey alone, with a specially equipped BMW motorbike.

As well as a navigation system, the motorbike has a video camera and extra containers for tools and supplies specially designed for long distance rides.

He has already clocked up 101,000 kilometres and still has nearly 40 more countries to visit on his ‘ride for peace’.

During his stay in Rome, he visited the Town Hall and is due to visit Vatican city. He will visit San Marino and Venice on Italy’s Adriatic coast, before heading to Austria and Slovenia.(AKI/rideforpeace)