Stranded in Java!

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Okay, the title is a bit alarming so I will start by saying that I am now safely in Gili Trawangan, a small Island off Lombok, near Bali. (Nowhere near Merapi.)

Back in Java though, we woke up one morning prepared to go out and restock the van with supplies and head back out for another round of relief work. We had only one problem: our driver and van were missing. Yes, missing.

At first I was not alarmed - perhaps he had just popped out to get some petrol? As the hours passed we became concerned for us and for him. We spoke to hotel security who called in the “secret police” (two plain-clothed dudes who were reluctant to show me any identification but did in the end when I thanked them for coming out and would not continue to speak with them).

I explained that I was worried about our driver (and our van and belongings) and they checked hospitals, traffic police and found nothing. He was simply gone.

It took a while to figure out what had been in the van and was now gone - fortunately, it had not been much. Strangely, on previous nights we had often left a great deal of stuff in the van overnight because the hotel had good security and secure parking - the night before it went missing, however, I took damn near everything with me, including my travel wallet that had been living in the glove box with my passport and travellers cheques.

So in the end we were only missing two IPODS, one small camera and some miscellaneous items of clothing that had been in the van. Fortunately we had given away 98% of our food, water and medical supplies the day before.

Eventually we gave in - our driver was gone. Our van (and therefore transport back to Bali) was gone. That night we moved to the Amanjiwa resport and booked a flight back to Bali for the next day.

(Keep your eyes out for my review of Amanjiwa - for now, I will simply say, “Wow!”)

Oh, and what happened to the driver in the end? Well, we heard through the grapevine that he suddenly decided to sell our stuff for petrol money and return to Bali. This is rather strange because I had known him for a while and he seemed like a good guy. Further, we had not even paid for the car rental yet!

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