"I have lined up since noon along with thousands of others at the pier," one of the travelers, Wawan Hermawan, said.
He said when he arrived there already was a queue. "The queue of motorbikers was already there when I arrived and so I also had to line up," he said.
Another traveler, Kusniadi, said he had lined up for an hour near the tollgate. "Luckily, a long and large tent had been set up so that all motorbikers could be sheltered from the hot sun," he said.
The chief of the Merak chapter of ferry service company PT ASDP La Mane said the number of passengers and cars would continue to rise with the approach of Idul Fitri which falls on August 30.
"As I have said the hike will continue until two days before Idul Fitri," he said.
Since Thursday night motorbikers had been seen passing the city to the port with members of their families - wives and sometimes children - as pillion riders.
Their motorbikes had license plate numbers from Bogor, Sukabumi, Bandung in West Java and also Solo, Semarang in Central Java.
(uu.H-YH/HAJM/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
