Day 137 and 138
It's a 5.30am start for what is going to be our most epic adventure yet, 30 hours by boat, bus and coach from Labuan Bajo to Gili Air, just off Lombok. It's a quick breakfast and then a taxi to the port, but the thing is, the taxi doesn't show. The lovely guys at the hotel have a suggestion though, they'll give us a lift...on the back of their mopeds! Eek. This is a very common mode of transport in Asia which we have avoided so far as a) there are two of us and b) we have 2 very big bags. They seem undeterred though and take our smaller bags on their fronts and I clamber in the back, careful not to tip him over as I do so. Ben gets on another one and we both then cling on for dear life. I swear my abs have never worked so hard and it's not an experience I want to try again.
Once at the port we have to wait a little to get our tickets and the touts offer us the journey for 300,000 (£15) each. I'm tempted as its not much cheaper than I've found people do it online but I'm too cautious of touts and their tricking ways so we wait out for the counter to open. The ferry is a transporter so the bottom has cars and trucks and the people sit at the top, we got our tickets and get on about 7.30am, we are really early but waiting is waiting and I'd rather be on the boat. It's also quite cool to watch everything being loaded up. Fishermen appear on little boats at the edge of the ship and pass through heavy boxes of fish through little windows at the side whilst their wives/mothers watch. The boat starts to fill up but we don't set off till 9.45am which is probably early for Asia time.
I've forgotten to mention that early as we got our tickets, we managed to adopt ourselves a pair of Chinese tourists who speak very little English but are very willing to share their fruit. They looked confused at the ticket desk and we helped them out which in ther terms means we will look out for the rest of the journey to Lombok, this might be interesting. The boat journey is a short 6 hours but having already spent 2 on it before it left and me still not being 100% from the stupid antimalarial, this journey drags. I nap for a bit, befriend a little girl in front of me with Oreos and get well and truly gawped at by most of the rest of the passengers. It's not all dull though as at about 4 hours Ben wakes me from a daydream to show me out of the ships window a pod do wild dolphin swimming next to the boat, it's amazing! There is about 10 of them and they just keeping bobbing next to us, we watch them till they swim off, a bit mesmerised by it all.
The boat docks at Sape at about 4pm but can't get a space so the only way off is to climb though the window of our boat over about a half metre gap to the next boat along. Well as you can imagine it was chaos and our adopted Chinese friends didn't do it partially gracefully but we all make it across in one piece. As soon as we are off, we are swamped by ticket sellers, the norm in any end point in Asia. A friendly looking one catches my eyes and shows us a dodgy look oh mini bus already quite full of people but it is going to Bima and I recognise a few other foreigners from the boat so we hop in. Ben goes into the front with 1 Chinese lady wedging herself next to him, the other Chinese lady goes on the last seat in the row behind them and I'm in the 3rd row, next to a young Indonesian lady and her baby. The windscreen is cracked, the driver looks high and our luggage is strapped to the roof but at least we have a seat. Some people we saw get tickets from the touts in LBJ port on on the mini bus next to us but they have to sit on the roof, all 8 of them.
We set off and already in the first 5 minutes the driver has already nearly run over 4 guys carrying a mattress. The driving here is the craziest we have experienced and I have to grip the bottom of my seat so I don't fall off or crush the lady next to me. The scenery is enough though to make the journey worth it. We head thorough lush mountains and bright green rice paddy and me and Ben spot several goats on cliff edges and some even engaging in horn tussles, it's the small inns eh?
We haven't got our tickets yet for the next park of the journey and the guy who got us on mini bus in the first place is keen we buy from him. Cue an hour of bartering with my managing to get it down from 350,000 to 200,000, making our total for the trip 290,000 so only a 10,000 saving but at least we had a seat. The bartering was a very funny process as he couldn't speak much English and I have no Indonesian but there was really lovely Indonesia couple behind us who translated and have a wicked sense of humour. The tout was using all the tactics he knew but I held out and he brilliantly went down from 250 to 200 in a minute without me saying anything, which meant the couple behind and the lady next to me ripped him for. I'm glad we did go with him though and once we arrived at the bus station, it was nearly dark and even more pushy and grabby than the port.
We now get on a snazzy looking coach, the 4th vehicle of the day and we still have 14 hours left of out journey. We are unfortunately at the back of the bus near the toilet but with air freshener to chock us and the ability to push our seats near horizontal as there was no one behind, it was shaping up to be a good looking journey. The only thing was is coach was bucking the trend of all other Asian transport and it wasn't freezing cold, it was in fact unbearably hot, not good for Ben and even I was sweating. The driver also lovely Bollywood music loud and drove it like it was stolen but hey, you can't have everything. At about midnight, it stops at a restaurant and we get out and have our meal with included in the ticket price which was actually a quite good buffet and once back on the bus our adopted children give us fruit so we were feeling quite full. The tempreture and the music drop off at this point and we both manage to get some sleep which didn't look likely when we first got on.
At about 4am, we are awoken as the coach is boarding a ferry to take us from the island Bima is on to Lombok, we have to get out of it here so we head up to the top to get some fresh air and admire the stars. About an hour later we dock, get back on the coach and bomb through Lombok. We both manage some more sleep here and stay snoozing till 7am when the bus arrives at our bus station. To get to the Gili Islands we have to get to Bengsal Harbour and we grab an old mini van to get us there. The scenery here carries in its stunningness of rice paddies and hills but with the inclusion now of some monkeys! We grab some breakfast at the harbour, who knew they called toasties Jaffles here? And then grab a ticket for the public boat across to Gili Air.
These boats are only 50p each but it will only leave ones it's full and man they fill it. There was about 30 people on it as well as the 2 metre foot well piled high with veg and meat. I had my feet in the floor until something nudge against it, unable to see them as I had my bag on my lap and thinking it was someone's foot, I move them over. I get nudged again though and as I lift my bag to see what it is, it clucks at me. There's a live chicken in with the food!! This is mad. The ride is only 10 minutes and then we arrive on the beautiful Gili Air! Our accommodation is on the other side of the island and there isn't any petrol transport on the island so we need to walk it and we drag our tired little bodies the 20 minute walk in the morning heat. The room is lovely when we arrive though and once we have sipped our complimentary fruit smoothies we head straight to the sun loungers and lay till we head back to our room to freshen up. This unfortunately turns into a nap which is a bad idea as both of us wake up very confused. It feels more like jet lag that a nights travelling and we both don't really recover all evening. We do perk up a little with some food though but it's an early night to rest our weary bones.
No comments:
Post a Comment