Enough with the long hot bus rides and every night in a different city -at that point I was sore from hiking, exhausted from haggling, shopped out and ready for our flight off Java to Denpasar where we would spend the rest of Idul Fitri vaca in one place. I love enriching authentic experiences and bathing myself in indigenous culture as much as the next enlightened ex-pat, but sometimes I just want the beach!
... and the club.
Bali was my first beach since I got to Indonesia. Loved it. On Bali everything's are a little more relaxed and it was so freeing just to enjoy life as a tourist person in a place where people expect the worst from tourists, and you can surprise them by being decent. And you can make friends with the loc's with a smile and a little Bahasa Indonesia. Cheers to the people of Bali for being some of the warmest, most patient and helpful people that I've ever met anywhere. Anti-cheers to so many tourists I ran into and surferpeople who ran into me for behaving badly and giving their homeland (rhymes with Shmoshmalia) a bad name.
Our days in Bali were fun ones. We stayed with a former ETA, and then at a lil hotel in Seminyak. Best part about travel in a party of five, aside from the is party, is that you can stay somewhere nice, and split the cost 5-ways. The runner-up best part is the dysfunctional family-type dynamics that start to emerge when you're stuck in a car together for too long with Lonely Planet Indonesia, in search of crouching restaurant, hidden beach hangout. We met up with some more ETA's on vacation as the week went on.
Bali highlights include watching the stars come out over the ocean while standing in the coral tidal pools of a surfery beach, after spending five hours in the car looking for aforementioned beach and out-charming the Indo po po. It's Indonesia when a traffic violation lands you in the police station and ends in an invitation to the cop's house for dinner that night. Also, clubbing in Kuta is not to be underestimated; touristy? oh yes, but fun. The only trouble is steering clear of techno music and its disciples. They're the ones on lota of drugs who cannot dance.
Rohan and I had to leave Bali before the rest of them, so the last day Tara and I split off to figure out travel plans for Ro and me that evening and when we caught up with the rest of the fam, they had found a spectacular beach where we all enjoyed the better part of the afternoon napping in the sun and bodysurfing on perfect waves. One big dysfunctional fam, we had our last dinner in the best warung I have ever been to. (Warung = roadside food stall) I had ayam goreng (fried chicken)... ordinary warung fare, but the sambals that came with this plate were out of control! Long time spent enjoying the warung delights, realized that Ro and I were late starting out on our journey, so we quick got ourselves a cab who took us the three hours to the ferry.... en route drama consisted of me leaving my wallet in the "family" car and a rendezvous at Bali's Planet Hollywood to get it back. But the drama had only just begun... Ro and I got to the ferry exhausted and almost broke no thanx to a slow-driving shiesty taksi driver! After we traversed the long line of cars and trucks in queue to board, in my exhaustion, I sat down on some steps while Ro found the boys room in that shady establishment. The wharf was a mess of different buildings and no signs to anything. Par for the course in Indonesia, the way to find your way is by asking. On the steps I pulled out my amazingly sexy and functional Leatherman Juice ® with the intention of putting in my bag that was to be checked on our flight that next morning (in other words, I took it out of my intended carry-on). Imagine the level of exhaustion and disorientation that would render me senseless enough to leave such a cool tool on the steps, stand up and walk away without thinking about it again until an hour later when I was halfway across the strait. Ok, everyone who knows me knows that's something I would do on my best days.
We landed on Jawa around 1am, with an 8 o'clock flight to catch in Surabaya. The question at hand was how far away is Surabaya? Well, some people said three hours, some said it would take six, and we couldn't get a straight answer. There was a bus to Surabaya that was coming in thirty minutes, and it could get us there in five hours... all this in Bahasa Indonesia, I'm still mourning my Leatherman and Rohan was worn out and pretty sick with something like a cold, and looked like he wanted to drop and sleep at any moment. An Indo hustler latched on to us; he had a friend with a car who would drive us, but the price was ridiculous. Honestly, we were in no place to bargain and when we finally got a price, his friend wasn't actually there with his car, he had to call him. Not good. The situation went from questionable to shady -once this guy was with us, I couldn't get away -no one else would cut a deal with us. When the driver got there, the Indo Hustler said he couldn't promise to get us there any time before 7:30 - not good enough. He wanted a tip for hooking us up. I was at the end of my rope and really afraid that we wouldn't catch our flight. Peak travel season - if we missed this flight, there wasn't a single open seat on our airline within the next two weeks. We'd be paying a month's stipend to snag a Garuda Airlines business class seat or something. Not going to happen. So while Rohan was at the ATM, I laid it down for him - if your friend gets us there no later than 7, we'll make it worth his while and yours. Any later than 7, and you don't get paid. I've been in crazy Indo taxis, but nothing compares to this guy's driving. We almost died, like, five times. I'm glad Rohan as asleep for that. This orang gila (crazy man) got us there by 6am -no lie. And we kept up our side -tipped him like he was my favorite nephew. I cannot tell you how grateful and relieved we were when we pulled into Surabaya Bandara. So all's well that ends well - the driver made us happy, we made the driver happy. The Sudibyo's, who had been tracking our progress, really thought we were going to miss our flight, so we pleasantly surprised them by getting there on time. We made it back to Papua, happy, exhausted and looking forward to Christmas break.
Rohan and I had to leave Bali before the rest of them, so the last day Tara and I split off to figure out travel plans for Ro and me that evening and when we caught up with the rest of the fam, they had found a spectacular beach where we all enjoyed the better part of the afternoon napping in the sun and bodysurfing on perfect waves. One big dysfunctional fam, we had our last dinner in the best warung I have ever been to. (Warung = roadside food stall) I had ayam goreng (fried chicken)... ordinary warung fare, but the sambals that came with this plate were out of control! Long time spent enjoying the warung delights, realized that Ro and I were late starting out on our journey, so we quick got ourselves a cab who took us the three hours to the ferry.... en route drama consisted of me leaving my wallet in the "family" car and a rendezvous at Bali's Planet Hollywood to get it back. But the drama had only just begun... Ro and I got to the ferry exhausted and almost broke no thanx to a slow-driving shiesty taksi driver! After we traversed the long line of cars and trucks in queue to board, in my exhaustion, I sat down on some steps while Ro found the boys room in that shady establishment. The wharf was a mess of different buildings and no signs to anything. Par for the course in Indonesia, the way to find your way is by asking. On the steps I pulled out my amazingly sexy and functional Leatherman Juice ® with the intention of putting in my bag that was to be checked on our flight that next morning (in other words, I took it out of my intended carry-on). Imagine the level of exhaustion and disorientation that would render me senseless enough to leave such a cool tool on the steps, stand up and walk away without thinking about it again until an hour later when I was halfway across the strait. Ok, everyone who knows me knows that's something I would do on my best days.
We landed on Jawa around 1am, with an 8 o'clock flight to catch in Surabaya. The question at hand was how far away is Surabaya? Well, some people said three hours, some said it would take six, and we couldn't get a straight answer. There was a bus to Surabaya that was coming in thirty minutes, and it could get us there in five hours... all this in Bahasa Indonesia, I'm still mourning my Leatherman and Rohan was worn out and pretty sick with something like a cold, and looked like he wanted to drop and sleep at any moment. An Indo hustler latched on to us; he had a friend with a car who would drive us, but the price was ridiculous. Honestly, we were in no place to bargain and when we finally got a price, his friend wasn't actually there with his car, he had to call him. Not good. The situation went from questionable to shady -once this guy was with us, I couldn't get away -no one else would cut a deal with us. When the driver got there, the Indo Hustler said he couldn't promise to get us there any time before 7:30 - not good enough. He wanted a tip for hooking us up. I was at the end of my rope and really afraid that we wouldn't catch our flight. Peak travel season - if we missed this flight, there wasn't a single open seat on our airline within the next two weeks. We'd be paying a month's stipend to snag a Garuda Airlines business class seat or something. Not going to happen. So while Rohan was at the ATM, I laid it down for him - if your friend gets us there no later than 7, we'll make it worth his while and yours. Any later than 7, and you don't get paid. I've been in crazy Indo taxis, but nothing compares to this guy's driving. We almost died, like, five times. I'm glad Rohan as asleep for that. This orang gila (crazy man) got us there by 6am -no lie. And we kept up our side -tipped him like he was my favorite nephew. I cannot tell you how grateful and relieved we were when we pulled into Surabaya Bandara. So all's well that ends well - the driver made us happy, we made the driver happy. The Sudibyo's, who had been tracking our progress, really thought we were going to miss our flight, so we pleasantly surprised them by getting there on time. We made it back to Papua, happy, exhausted and looking forward to Christmas break.
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