Actually, I am not really sure where I’ve been the last few days. Not sure that I ever caught the name of any of the cities. We woke up a few days ago in Ubud, hired a taxi to drive us to the very west end of Bali (to Gilimanuk, where the ferry takes you to Java), and found a random hotel to stay in (Nicole picked it based on the “Live Karaoke every night” sign). We did indeed Karaoke (which I would never do back home). For some reason the only English song available was Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” so we sang that, twice. Danced with some locals, then went home to what turned out to be our rat and bed bug infested room. This was my first experience with bed bugs (have some awesome bites all over my legs). I’m certainly not a rat fan, but to say Nicole dislikes them would be a huge understatement. Fortunately the rats preferred the upstairs (we were downstairs), so they weren’t living in our mattresses like in the German guy’s bed upstairs. West Bali/east Java isn’t a tourist destination (we only saw 2 German guys the whole time we were there), so no one speaks any English, and we of course can’t speak Indonesian. This always makes for interesting interactions.
The next day, we took the ferry to Java…an experience in and of itself. Not sure how many people just stared at us and took cell phone photos of us, but it was a lot. This is also where my bags and I got covered in dirt and grease, which I can’t get completely off. When we got to Java we weren’t too sure where to go next (what else is new though), and some nice Muslim family picked up on this. They insisted on helping us out, even though they couldn’t speak any English. The plan was to take a train to Probolinggo to see Mt. Bromo. Long story short, we wound up getting in their car, going to the train station, saw that the train wasn’t leaving for hours, went to the bus station, there was no bus schedule and no way of knowing where the buses even went, so we just hung out with the family. We stopped so they could pray ( a 5 times a day activity), stopped at an internet cafe to use Google Translator so we could communicate (he said “please do not be afraid of me because I am Muslim and because of terrorists!”), stopped for lunch and ate a few whole fish, then went to their house to meet the rest of the family. They were all so nice and sweet, and wound up taking us to a hotel near by when we decided we didn’t want to take a 10pm train to Probolinggo. Hotel…not so nice. The next morning we woke up an hour early because we forgot to change the time on our phones (at 5:30am) and got a motorcycle ride to the train station. After the guy tried to charge us way too much for a ticket, we made it on as it was pulling away. The next 6 hours were spent on an incredibly dirty and hot train. All kinds of interesting characters on it….people were selling weird snacks, shaving kits, and…birds. In cages. With really long beaks. If I’d had smaller bills on me I would have bought a bird, played with it for a bit, then set it free.
I’ve definitely never felt so dirty for so long (sometimes the shower is just a bucket of water next to the toilet). We made the decision to take a break and checked into a 5 star resort in Surabaya, where I am writing from now. We’re internetting, ordering room service, and are about to check out the pool. We even get to do laundry! Hope they know how to take care of bed bugs, I’m tried of carrying the garbage bag of my sleep gear/bug collection around.
Building some character out here!
They met us at the front desk of the hotel (Hotel Majapahit) with champagne flutes of some delicious fruit juice…normally I keep a pretty positive demeanor and don’t mind “roughing it,” but after that I grabbed Nicole by the shirt (no doubt creating a cloud of dust) and said “I can’t go back out there…we’ll pay whatever they ask for the room!” Pretty sure we’ll be camped out here for a few days.