Dia nekat tetap berangkat mendaki, padahal pelatih sudah bilang jalurnya licin dan temannya ngotot menyuruhnya menunggu.

Not exactly. Nekat usually means something like:

• reckless
• rash
• doing something despite risks or warnings
• going ahead no matter what

So in this sentence, Dia nekat tetap berangkat mendaki suggests that the person went anyway even though it was a bad idea. It is not neutral bravery; it often carries the feeling of foolhardiness.

Tetap means still, keep on, or continue to, depending on context.

Here, tetap shows that the person went ahead anyway, despite what others had said. It adds the idea of persistence in the face of advice or warnings.

So:

• berangkat mendaki = set off to go hiking/climbing
• tetap berangkat mendaki = still set off to go hiking anyway

It gives the sentence a stronger contrast.

Both can often be translated as go, but they are not identical.

• pergi = to go, leave
• berangkat = to depart, set off, leave for a purpose or destination

In berangkat mendaki, berangkat emphasizes the act of setting out. It sounds natural for trips, travel, or starting a journey.

So:

• Dia pergi mendaki = He/She went hiking
• Dia berangkat mendaki = He/She set off to go hiking

The second one feels a bit more like starting the trip.

This is very normal in Indonesian. Indonesian often puts verbs together without needing extra words like English to.

Here:

• berangkat = set off / depart
• mendaki = climb / hike uphill / mountain-climb

So berangkat mendaki literally looks like depart climb, but naturally it means:

• set off to hike
• left to go climbing
• went off to climb

This kind of verb combination is common and usually easy to understand from context.

Mendaki means to climb upward, and it is often used for:

• climbing a mountain
• hiking uphill
• ascending

In many contexts, especially with outdoor activities, it often suggests mountain climbing/hiking rather than technical rock climbing.

So here mendaki is best understood as going on a mountain hike/climb.

Padahal is a very common word that introduces a contrast, often with the feeling of:

• even though
• when actually
• whereas
• despite the fact that
• and yet

In this sentence, it highlights that the person still went hiking despite clear warnings.

A useful way to feel it is:

• first clause: what happened
• padahal clause: the important opposing fact

So the structure is roughly:

• He/she recklessly still went hiking, even though...

Sometimes, but not perfectly.

Padahal and meskipun can both relate to contrast, but they are used differently.

• meskipun = although / even though
• padahal = often introduces a contrasting fact with a sense of but actually / even though that was the case

In this sentence, padahal sounds very natural because it points to a fact that makes the first action seem unreasonable.

Compare:

• Dia tetap berangkat, meskipun pelatih sudah bilang...
  = He/She still left, although the coach had already said...

• Dia tetap berangkat, padahal pelatih sudah bilang...
  = He/She still left, even though / when in fact the coach had already said...

The padahal version often feels a little more like Look, the warning was already there.

Yes. Sudah often means already, but in many sentences it also helps mark that something happened before another event.

So:

• pelatih sudah bilang = the coach had already said / had already told them

Here it means the warning was given before the person set off.

Also, in natural English, had already said is often the best translation, even though Indonesian does not have a separate past perfect tense the way English does.

Bilang is a very common everyday word meaning say or tell.

Roughly:

• bilang = casual, conversational
• mengatakan = more formal, more written
• berkata = to say, somewhat neutral or literary depending on context

So pelatih sudah bilang sounds natural in spoken or informal written Indonesian.

If you changed it to pelatih sudah mengatakan, the sentence would become more formal.

Jalur means route, path, or trail.

So jalurnya means something like:

• the trail
• the route
• the path in question

The suffix -nya here does not necessarily mean his/her in a strict personal sense. Very often, -nya simply makes something more definite:

• jalur = a route / route
• jalurnya = the route / the trail / that trail

In this sentence, it most naturally means the trail they were talking about.

In this context, yes, slippery is the main meaning.

Licin can describe a surface that is slick, smooth, or hard to grip. For a hiking trail, jalurnya licin means:

• the trail was slippery
• the path was slick
• it would be easy to slip

So it clearly supports the idea that going was dangerous.

Ngotot means something like:

• to insist stubbornly
• to keep pushing
• to refuse to back down

It often carries the sense that someone is being forceful or persistent, sometimes a bit annoyingly so.

It is informal / conversational. In more formal Indonesian, you might see:

• bersikeras
• tetap bersikeras
• memaksa in some contexts, though that is stronger

So temannya ngotot menyuruhnya menunggu means the friend was really insisting that he/she wait.

Break it down like this:

• menyuruh = to tell/order/instruct someone to do something
• -nya = him/her
• menunggu = to wait

So:

• menyuruhnya menunggu = told him/her to wait

This pattern is very common in Indonesian:

• menyuruh + object + verb

Examples:

• Ibu menyuruh saya pulang = Mom told me to go home
• Guru menyuruh mereka diam = The teacher told them to be quiet

So in your sentence, the friend is the one doing the telling, and -nya is the person being told to wait.

They are probably not the same referent.

In this sentence:

• temannya = his/her friend or the friend
• menyuruhnya = told him/her

Most naturally:

• temannya refers to the subject’s friend
• menyuruhnya refers back to dia, the main person in the sentence

So the meaning is:

• his/her friend insistently told him/her to wait

This is one reason -nya can be tricky for learners: it can mean his/her, him/her, or simply mark definiteness depending on context.

Because Indonesian often does not need a word equivalent to English to before another verb.

English says:

• told him to wait

Indonesian simply says:

• menyuruhnya menunggu

The second verb directly follows. This is normal after verbs like:

• menyuruh = tell/order someone to do something
• membantu = help someone do something
• melihat = see someone do something

So do not try to insert a word for English to here.

No, dia is gender-neutral.

It can mean:

• he
• she

Indonesian usually does not mark gender in third-person singular pronouns. You only know from context.

That is why this whole sentence could refer to either a male or a female person.

It is mostly neutral everyday Indonesian, leaning a bit informal because of words like:

• bilang
• ngotot

These are very common and natural in conversation and informal writing.

More formal alternatives might be:

• mengatakan instead of bilang
• bersikeras instead of ngotot

But the original sentence sounds very natural and idiomatic.

Yes. A more formal version could be:

• Dia tetap nekat berangkat mendaki, padahal pelatih sudah mengatakan bahwa jalurnya licin dan temannya bersikeras menyuruhnya menunggu.

Changes:

• bilang → mengatakan
• ngotot → bersikeras
• possibly adding bahwa after mengatakan

The meaning stays basically the same, but the style becomes more formal and written.

It has two main parts:

1. Dia nekat tetap berangkat mendaki

   • main action
   • the person recklessly still set off to hike

2. padahal pelatih sudah bilang jalurnya licin dan temannya ngotot menyuruhnya menunggu

   • contrasting background information
   • the coach had already warned that the trail was slippery
   • and the friend strongly insisted that the person wait

So the whole sentence builds a clear contrast:

• action taken
• versus
• warnings that should have stopped that action

That contrast is exactly what makes nekat and padahal work so well together.