I was pretty tired after the late night/early trip to Mount Bromo, so I just slept on returning to the hostel.
I had a wonder round the heritage village later on - an Italian girl I met at the hostel told me about it - it was quite cool but unfortunately, I managed to delete the pics of it on my phone by accident, as well as a little video blog I did. Oh well!
I tried some Indonesian meatballs - a popular street food served with spicy peanut sauce. They are minced beef and flour with garlic & spices like ginger & cinnamon. They are quite rubbery in texture, smooth on the outside and beige in colour. I thought they were called Guluk.....or Bakso
Up early for the train to Ketapang port & on the train I booked the bus and ferry together (a night one leaving at midnight) to take me to Denpasar then another bus from Denpasar to Padangbai port for Lombok.
I basically decided to 'skip Bali' as a couple of Javan's had suggested, but I will return for a few days before I fly to Oz.
At Ketapang port I kind of regretted my desicion to book buses, as I probably could have got a better deal....and in fact this was confirmed by a local - Chiko - I got chatting to. I had food at the restaurant/cafe he was working at (his Sisters) and I ended up spending most of the evening there killing time again. He was very sweet and let me have a nap behind the food counter of the cafe as it wasn't that busy - I managed to sleep for 2 hours.
If you ever go to Ketapang in Indonesia, I can recommend 'Fresh Food' cafe - the portions were huge and really good value and tasty.
Waiting for my bus:
My bus was an hour late but quite cosy on board with blankets and pillows & was given a packed lunch.
It seemed like chaos at the port - lots of shouting and our bus seemed to reverse backwards and forwards several times before finally boarding the ferry. - I completely slept through the ferry crossing and woke up to traffic going through Bali.
The Bali scenery was very lush, like Java with rice terraces, and the people looked very different.
Since not being Muslim and mostly Hindu, the women wore different clothes - very lacy tops and the men wore hats and sarongs. There were many Hindu temples along the road and incense burning everywhere......
even in KFC! - Yes I was in there again. It was my meeting point for the second bus which I thought I wouldn't make, as the bus was running so late and the traffic was so bad.
Now I know the significance of the packaging for the packed lunch from the bus:
Luckily, I had booked the following bus with enough leeway and got to the Port okay.
But at this point I hadn't even decided where in Lombok I was going to head for......either the slow, cheaper ferry to Lembar in the south or the faster ferries to Senggigi, or Bangsal in the north.
I wanted to go to Senggigi, but that ferry was 700,000 IDR so I ended up taking the fast ferry to Bangsal for 400,000, as it is close enough to Senggigi up the coast and only took 3 hours as opposed to 5 or so for the slow Lembar ferry.
I bought the ticket with minutes to spare and was rushed through to the ferry.
It was pretty choppy later on.....this was the calm bit.
We went via two of the Gili islands .......in fact I got off at Gili Trawangang, thinking I'd arrived at Bangsal and only realised when they couldn't find my rucksack.....'cos it was in with the luggage for Bangsal.
Felt like a right idiot as I got back on the ferry. One of the ferry workers, Mario, got chatting to me - first he tried to sell me an expensive lift to my hotel. I said no thanks as it's only 10 km, I'll get a taxi.
He said - ok - then we got chatting and he was telling me about his family and his village in the forest and how peaceful it was. He ended up offering me a lift on his scooter to the hotel as once we docked at Bangsal that was his shift finished for the day - I was a bit reluctant, but he seemed decent - and he was working for the ferry.......anyway, it was fine and I gave him petrol money for the ride.
The scenery we drove through was lovely, peaceful and rural. I'm guessing Lombok is what Bali was like before it got too touristy. I was very happy to finally be away from a city!!
My hotel (which I only just booked on the ferry) was really nice, with a brilliant view of the little cove.
I only booked one night. I decided to book a hostel in the forest for the next three nights - as they run trips from there - and then have some beach time after that, further towards Senggigi.
The only place to eat nearby:
So - if things really do come in threes, the third act of kindness was the guy working at the hotel.
I only asked him if breakfast was included at the Hotel. He said it wasn't but he offered to make me some eggs in the morning.......what can I say 😂
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