Labaunbajo - Bima

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The long journey ahead....

I'm 2 hours into this 30 hour journey to Mataram. I took the local ferry as I had missed the other boats as they only leave once a week. The ferry stinks, I'm sat on a rickety old plastic chair and I don't even want to find out about the toilets, I wonder if I can hold it for the next 6 hours?? I can see a 'first class'area aka a room with sofer seats - I might try and sneak in.

6 hours later we have docked in Sumbawa. I have successfully not gone to the toilet...much to my dismay there is no toilet at the ferry dock...so another few hours to wait.. Bima is over-run by goats, they are everywhere, running around eating everything. Its a very strict Muslim island, all the women have head scarfs on, some you can only see their eyes. I got hassled on the bus by the ticket guy...I gave this woman some of my travel sickness pills as she was being soooo sick!! He then hassled me for them, he thought they were British, when I told him I bought them in Thailand he soon sut up. Then he asked me for English money, then English souvenir...by this time I had been travelling almost 12 hours, I wasn't feeling too tolerant, this guy was so rude and obnoxious..so I made it quite clear to him that I wouldnt give him anything...ever. I never experienced anything like this in Flores....its crazy how much different the people are just across the water.

The bus arrives at Bima bus station at long last....and there is a toilet!! The guy made me pay to use it which I couldn't believe, if I had touched anything in there I think I may have died...it was not a nice experience. I had to wait 2 hours for my bus, got hassled continuously the whole time by various men. The same ticket guy had the cheek to ask me to buy him a drink and food... Bima is an awful place, its really run down, I felt quite unsafe especially as it was getting dark, I seemed to be the only woman and the only tourist around. My bus left at long last, my VIP bus with a/c, toilet etc....I mean its quite clearly written on the outside. All a damn right lie of course....the bus driver looked at me as if I was stark raving mad when I asked him where the toilet was...

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