Aditya Nugraha, a 21-year-old Indonesian, was travelling from the capital city of Jakarta to his hometown of Palembang on Sumatra island, over 500km away, to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri this week.
The festival, also called Lebaran in Indonesia, marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
It falls today this year and the entire week will be celebrated by more than 220 million people in Indonesia, which has one of the world’s largest Muslim populations.
Aditya was one of the many millions travelling to his hometown in a mass exodus known locally as “mudik”, which is usually marked by hours of traffic jams, especially on the main island of Java.
“We departed from home last night around 9pm, and now it’s been 13 hours and we are still stuck in this very long traffic.
“Hopefully, there will be a solution to this soon,” Aditya said on Monday, as he was waiting to enter the port in the town of Merak for a ferry to cross from Java to Sumatra.
Drone footage on Monday showed thousands of vehicles queueing to enter the ferries, while many more were on the road heading to the port, stretching far outside Merak.
People living in Jakarta, a city of 11 million people, started leaving the capital over the weekend, according to the Transport Ministry.
Around 193 million people were expected to travel during the festivities this year, according to a survey by the ministry, around 56% higher compared to the number of travellers during the Aidilfitri holiday last year. — Reuters
