Odyssee from Yogyakarta to Bali

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Wow! We finally made it to Bali... It was a long and difficult way to get here. This is how we got here.

Last week we spent a couple of relaxing days in Yogjakarta. We visited some religious sights such as Borobudur and Prambanan and saw the process of Batik and puppet making. Life was good and we enjoyed staying in the same place for some days in a row.

Wednesday we left Yogjakarta heading to Mount Bromo in East Java. The drive to Mount Bromo was not only long (12 hrs) but also extremly hot. With shared a minibus with 8 other people. Hence it was full and the air condition could not manage to cool the bus down. Sitting, waiting, wishing, and sweating we were for a long time already and then the bus collided with a motorbike. The two women on the bike fell and we supposed the bus driver would stop. But he did not. At the next red light the bus was stopped by a man on a motorbike. That man had seen what had happened. We then were driven to the police. 10 foreigners at the local police office was quite something. Many people stopped and looked at us...

At last we got to Mount Bromo at 10pm (instead of 7pm). The accomodation was not as lousy as I had expected. Still I couldn't sleep. My stomach was upset and I had a fever. In the morning I decided not to climb Mount Bromo but to stay in bed (for pictures of Mount Bromo please look at Philipp's travelblog). When the rest of the group got back from the mountain we left for Ijen Plateau. Now it was only three of us in the bus. I could lay down and sleep. I don't know kow many but I lost many litres of sweat in that bus. Some due to the driver's way of driving, but most due to the fever. I didn't climb to the Ijen Plateau either. We decided to stay in the mountains for one night. The next day we headed straight for Bali. First we went to the nearest harbour by minibus. There we were put in an old and smelly bus. The bus then drove onto the ferry. We prefered to just walk onto it. After an hour or so, we landed in Bali. Unfortunately we were still a 120km from Legian, the place we wanted to go. After a long time negotiating we chartered a public bus (yes, this is possilbe it Indonesia). Like this it only took us 2 instead of 5 hours to get to Legian.

After some walking around we found a pretty accomodation. Right now, we're not sure about how long we'll be staying in Bali. But I'll keep you updated.

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