We have decided to stay at Balian Beach for a few more days, as it is the end of Ramadan and holiday time for the locals. We need to start making our way to Java soon, as we have a flight out of there on Tues 28th, but are told that the ferries and hotels will be very busy.
The Bintang Balian is nice, cheap and quiet so we make the most of it, as we have a nasty feeling Java is not going to be any of these things! There are 3.5 million people in Bali and 134 million in Java!
We have a couple of really lazy days, reading, watching the surfers and in Matt's case, getting sunburnt legs, even though he seems to stay in the shade, I don't how he does it.
It's saturday, so decide to treat ourselves to lunch at 'Toms Garden', we have a really tasty meal and 2 drinks for around 7 pound, this is a bit more expensive than what we have been paying, but it was worth it. (My drink was fresh coconut milk, it was that big I had to carry it home, by the evening, I still hadn't finished it, so I gave it to the resident monkey).
The food on the whole has been very good and consistant. I think we have found out why, everyone use's powder sachet's! I noticed a girl in a cafe on Gilli using them and since a couple of others have been spotted! Their kitchens are mostly open fronted, so nosey me, doesn't miss a trick!
Tuesday 21st August
We pay our bill at the Bintang Balian. We have been here 5 nights, had most of our meals here and used their internet, the bill is less than 100 pounds.
Time to move to Java.
We get on the local bus to Gilimanuk, the ferry port. It costs 2 pound each, for the 2 hour journey. (Oh, and a pair of sunglasses! Matt's fell out of his bag and down the steps, through the open door onto the road, at speed. They'd been through a lot together over the last 6 months!)
The ferry cost us 40p each for the 30 minute crossing! We then seemed to have to wait 30 minutes to dock!
We get off and head for the train station to book our tickets to Yogyakarta, which is central Java, as we only have 1 week here, we need to get to get a move on, to get to Jakarta by the 28th. We have read that really we need to pay the extra to get on a first or business class train. We ask at the ticket desk, 'no full' she says, okay, we ask for aircon train, 'no, full'. Shit, what to do? We then get waved at and get are told to go around the corner into an office, where an offical looking chap called Hari is sitting, his english is good, so we explain we need to get to Yogyakarta tomorrow, if poosible. "The train is full, we don't know yet if there will an extra carriage". We are asked to wait in another room, while he tries to find out. To us, this seems a little dodgy, we have heard of all sorts of corruption and bribes, and almost everyone we spoke to in Bali warned us to be 'careful' here! After about 15 minutes Hari is back, they are going to put another carriage on, he asks for 1,200.000rps each (around 8.50p) we relunctently part with our money while he writes us a receipt, he says we have to hand the receipt into the ticket office in the morning and we will get our ticket then. We ask him whywe can get the ticket now, but he say's we just can't, it has to be in the morning. We make sure he writes everything on the receipt and get him to sign it, he is not very happy that we don't trust him, but I'm afraid after traveling through South America, you tend not to trust anyone!
He asks where we are staying, we have no where booked, so before we know it, he is on the phone to his friend who has a hotel and we have a room booked and in the blink of an eye a taxi turns up too! Um...Hari seems to good to be true! We leave the station feeling like we may have just been ripped off!
The hotel room is okay and cheap. We pop up the road to get some fruit. Well, people were staring at us so much, they were nearly falling of their scooters. We walk pass an old couple (in their 80's I would say) who were messing with something on the pavement, we smile and say hello. The old man straightens himself upright, grins and shakes our hands, talking and smiling all the time, they are really excited to see us. We obviously have not got a clue what he is saying, so we just smile, nod and shrug our shoulders. We eventually get away, realising we are definately not in a tourist area!.....
