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Showing posts with label Gili Trawangan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gili Trawangan. Show all posts
Sunday, June 26, 2011
2 Bridges Photos Day 39 - 43: Gili Trawangan - Ende
At last! A Ferry Schedule! You may laugh, but right now all we want is a ferry! Click on the photo for more (interesting) pictures!
If you like our pictures, please consider a donation to our charity Doctors of the World - to donate click here
If you like our pictures, please consider a donation to our charity Doctors of the World - to donate click here
Day 39 - 43: Gili Trawangan (Lombok) - Ende (Flores)
Maybe our joint subconscious in demanding a break in Gili knew something we may have suspected, but always hoped, wouldn't be the case: that travelling through the world's largest cul-de-sac of the volcanic Nusa Tenggara islands would be the most frustrating, time consuming and complex part of the journey as we moved well beyond the standard backpacker trail of Bali and western Lombok and onto islands so remote that even Google thinks they are empty (see our Google Map).
Leaving behind the comfortingly almost symbiotic relationship between tourists and locals on the Gili islands full in the knowledge that rapid progress was needed, we sacrificed the amazingly tempting tourist snorkelling boat via Komodo (of dragon fame) for the local alternative: a 16 hour bus through Lombok and Sumbawa islands to meet the 12 hour ferry on to Lubuanbajo at the western extreme of Flores.
The lack of comfort sleeping amongst sacks of rice, heads resting on the subwoofer speaker as water leaked from the onboard toilet past our feet, has become pretty much the norm, but the major problem we were finding ourselves coming up against was the plethora of inaccurate travel information through which we had wade to try and divine what transport might actually happen. To say this disinformation is malicious is certainly true in some cases (our need to save time saw us done out of $10 each on this leg), but in most seems to stem from a refusal by locals to ask anyone who might actually know, relying instead on family and friends' opinions as unquestionable and beyond doubt, certainly by jumped up bule like us.
Mildly soothed by the stunning scenery of Komodo island from our ferry, and then the mountainous story book style tropical landscapes of Flores as we enjoyed the luxury of a hired car, the key question in our minds became how to turn early Lombok assurances that a ferry operates every Tues, Thurs and Sat between Ende in Flores and Kupang in West Timor, into a ticket and a big white boat that would actually take us across to the next island on our journey.
Doubts over even what port the ferry would run from, before even worrying about days and times, seemed only to multiply in Lubuanbajo to the extent our agreement with the owner of the car we hired to cross Flores was that we paid him once we were on the Kupang bound gangplank - a very shrewd move as three hours cruising the appropriately named Ende on our arrival culminated with no ferry on the day we'd been promised, and none likely until at least two days after. Not ideal. Will & Rob not happy. Can ANY other place in the world have such poor and apparently randomly generated information with such feeble resemblance to reality?
As I write this we still don't know if they'll ever be a ferry, but at http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifleast the delay here in Ende allowed us to shoot out north to the majestic and breath taking Kelimutu volcanic lakes (towards the end of our photos for this leg). Sitting on the rim blinded by mist there are few words to describe the beauty and almost unworldlike appearance of these crater lakes as the cloud rises slowly revealing their cameleon like colours, changing through blue, green, red and black as their mineral cocktail evolves over time. A further 10 US cents spent saw us enjoying the spa like hot volcanic spring water bubbling up in the middle of the surrounding paddy fields. Did it stop us worrying about the ferry? Well no, but I tell you, for any readers thinking about taking a ferry from Ende, this is the place to come and wait!
Indonesia is certainly proving the most challenging country of the trip so far, its outstanding natural beauty just about making up for the frustrations of travelling here. Let's just hope the ferry does run tomorrow! Come on Indonesia, redeem yourself!
Ps. Check out our updated Google Map of the route and our stop off points (click on the map to zoom in).... "not far" to go now!
Mataram - Lubuanbajo: 32 hours & 14 ferry hours / 450 km
Lubuanbajo - Ende: 12 car hours / 400 km
TOTAL TO DATE: 18,515 km
FUND RAISING TOTAL: GBP 3,620 including Gift Aid - please keep these Doctors of the World donations coming - click here!
Leaving behind the comfortingly almost symbiotic relationship between tourists and locals on the Gili islands full in the knowledge that rapid progress was needed, we sacrificed the amazingly tempting tourist snorkelling boat via Komodo (of dragon fame) for the local alternative: a 16 hour bus through Lombok and Sumbawa islands to meet the 12 hour ferry on to Lubuanbajo at the western extreme of Flores.
The lack of comfort sleeping amongst sacks of rice, heads resting on the subwoofer speaker as water leaked from the onboard toilet past our feet, has become pretty much the norm, but the major problem we were finding ourselves coming up against was the plethora of inaccurate travel information through which we had wade to try and divine what transport might actually happen. To say this disinformation is malicious is certainly true in some cases (our need to save time saw us done out of $10 each on this leg), but in most seems to stem from a refusal by locals to ask anyone who might actually know, relying instead on family and friends' opinions as unquestionable and beyond doubt, certainly by jumped up bule like us.
Mildly soothed by the stunning scenery of Komodo island from our ferry, and then the mountainous story book style tropical landscapes of Flores as we enjoyed the luxury of a hired car, the key question in our minds became how to turn early Lombok assurances that a ferry operates every Tues, Thurs and Sat between Ende in Flores and Kupang in West Timor, into a ticket and a big white boat that would actually take us across to the next island on our journey.
Doubts over even what port the ferry would run from, before even worrying about days and times, seemed only to multiply in Lubuanbajo to the extent our agreement with the owner of the car we hired to cross Flores was that we paid him once we were on the Kupang bound gangplank - a very shrewd move as three hours cruising the appropriately named Ende on our arrival culminated with no ferry on the day we'd been promised, and none likely until at least two days after. Not ideal. Will & Rob not happy. Can ANY other place in the world have such poor and apparently randomly generated information with such feeble resemblance to reality?
As I write this we still don't know if they'll ever be a ferry, but at http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifleast the delay here in Ende allowed us to shoot out north to the majestic and breath taking Kelimutu volcanic lakes (towards the end of our photos for this leg). Sitting on the rim blinded by mist there are few words to describe the beauty and almost unworldlike appearance of these crater lakes as the cloud rises slowly revealing their cameleon like colours, changing through blue, green, red and black as their mineral cocktail evolves over time. A further 10 US cents spent saw us enjoying the spa like hot volcanic spring water bubbling up in the middle of the surrounding paddy fields. Did it stop us worrying about the ferry? Well no, but I tell you, for any readers thinking about taking a ferry from Ende, this is the place to come and wait!
Indonesia is certainly proving the most challenging country of the trip so far, its outstanding natural beauty just about making up for the frustrations of travelling here. Let's just hope the ferry does run tomorrow! Come on Indonesia, redeem yourself!
Ps. Check out our updated Google Map of the route and our stop off points (click on the map to zoom in).... "not far" to go now!
Mataram - Lubuanbajo: 32 hours & 14 ferry hours / 450 km
Lubuanbajo - Ende: 12 car hours / 400 km
TOTAL TO DATE: 18,515 km
FUND RAISING TOTAL: GBP 3,620 including Gift Aid - please keep these Doctors of the World donations coming - click here!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
2 Bridges Photos Day 34 - 38: Jakarta - Gili Trawangan
Click on the photo for more pictures!
If you like our pictures, please consider a donation to our charity Doctors of the World - to donate click here
If you like our pictures, please consider a donation to our charity Doctors of the World - to donate click here
Day 34 - 38: Jakarta - Gili Trawangan (Lombok)
Jakarta, in addition to being one of the hardest to love places I have ever been to (and I say this after much soul searching and five attempts to enjoy the city), is obviously a subscriber to the assertion that best laid plans shouldn't always reap rewards as Day 34 turned into one of the most frustrating of the trip so far.
Lulled into a false sense of security by our decision the night before to have a travel agency arrange our bus tickets (it always seems impossible to me to work out where in Jakarta each company's buses leave from), our semi-bright eyed and bushy tailed moods were in for an early disappointment as the agency's claimed bus departure time slipped from 9am to 11am to 1pm to a definite 3pm. The bad start continued as the agency decided to bajaj (like a prehistoric tuktuk - see photos) us through Jakarta's tangible to the eyes, nose and taste bud pollution to the bus station, the same bus station we had been dumped at the night before.
"Executive" buses from our company Lorena came and went, yet none apparently were ours. As time ticked by, the metal benches became less and less comfortable and our frustration at losing time, a frustration compounded by the fact we were still suffering bus hangovers from the previous leg, grew and was only partially soothed by cold drinks and Ayam Goreng for Will and fresh mangoes for me.
Our frustration and persistence eventually paid dividends as Lorena got fed up with us and shunted us onto another operator's service with us finally wheels rolling at 6pm. A very frustrating and sweaty day, which has done little to improve Jakarta's standings in our league table of places we'd like to come back to.
Rant over. Shell shocked by the day so far and with our bodies seemingly numbed from the discomfort of the bus journey from Jambi, we settled in for the reported 18 hour ride through to Denpasar, the capital of tourist central Bali. We must be becoming used to these journeys as the hours passed reasonably rapidly, the (surprisingly good in my book) food stops came regularly, the scenery was at times pleasant (note to go back to the central Java volcanoes sometime) and even the traffic jams seemed to be limited to only the main cities, and some place near Surabaya where an over zealous gas exploration company hit a mud volcano.
Our popularity with young school girls on trucks and buses as our coach slalomed the 500km or so through East Java seemed to extend to the first of the two ferries on the journey, the hop from Java to Bali where an entire school trip including the teacher got their cameras out. That apart the ferry journey to Bali was uneventful other than finalising our pay off to the bus drivers to let us stay on all the way through to Mataram in Lombok. An agreement that seemed to make us new friends for life.
More bus, and a five hour ferry across the Lombok and Jakarta + 41 hours we arrived in Mataram fully ready for, and only one step away from, our mini break in the Gili islands. Taxi (yes we were getting pretty tired of buses) to the beach and a quick boat hop saw us leaping with joy onto to pristine sand of Gili Trawangan, a true gem of the tropical island world and a sign of where the real beauty of Indonesia lies.
2 days off. Just what the Doctor ordered.
Ps. Check out our updated Google Map of the route and our stop off points (click on the map to zoom in).... "not far" to go now!
Jakarta - Mataram: 41 bus hours including 2 ferries / 1,200 km
Mataram - Gili Trawangan: 1 taxi hour & 30 launch minutes / 35 km
TOTAL TO DATE: 17,665 km
FUND RAISING TOTAL: GBP 3,570 including Gift Aid - please keep these Doctors of the World donations coming - click here!
Lulled into a false sense of security by our decision the night before to have a travel agency arrange our bus tickets (it always seems impossible to me to work out where in Jakarta each company's buses leave from), our semi-bright eyed and bushy tailed moods were in for an early disappointment as the agency's claimed bus departure time slipped from 9am to 11am to 1pm to a definite 3pm. The bad start continued as the agency decided to bajaj (like a prehistoric tuktuk - see photos) us through Jakarta's tangible to the eyes, nose and taste bud pollution to the bus station, the same bus station we had been dumped at the night before.
"Executive" buses from our company Lorena came and went, yet none apparently were ours. As time ticked by, the metal benches became less and less comfortable and our frustration at losing time, a frustration compounded by the fact we were still suffering bus hangovers from the previous leg, grew and was only partially soothed by cold drinks and Ayam Goreng for Will and fresh mangoes for me.
Our frustration and persistence eventually paid dividends as Lorena got fed up with us and shunted us onto another operator's service with us finally wheels rolling at 6pm. A very frustrating and sweaty day, which has done little to improve Jakarta's standings in our league table of places we'd like to come back to.
Rant over. Shell shocked by the day so far and with our bodies seemingly numbed from the discomfort of the bus journey from Jambi, we settled in for the reported 18 hour ride through to Denpasar, the capital of tourist central Bali. We must be becoming used to these journeys as the hours passed reasonably rapidly, the (surprisingly good in my book) food stops came regularly, the scenery was at times pleasant (note to go back to the central Java volcanoes sometime) and even the traffic jams seemed to be limited to only the main cities, and some place near Surabaya where an over zealous gas exploration company hit a mud volcano.
Our popularity with young school girls on trucks and buses as our coach slalomed the 500km or so through East Java seemed to extend to the first of the two ferries on the journey, the hop from Java to Bali where an entire school trip including the teacher got their cameras out. That apart the ferry journey to Bali was uneventful other than finalising our pay off to the bus drivers to let us stay on all the way through to Mataram in Lombok. An agreement that seemed to make us new friends for life.
More bus, and a five hour ferry across the Lombok and Jakarta + 41 hours we arrived in Mataram fully ready for, and only one step away from, our mini break in the Gili islands. Taxi (yes we were getting pretty tired of buses) to the beach and a quick boat hop saw us leaping with joy onto to pristine sand of Gili Trawangan, a true gem of the tropical island world and a sign of where the real beauty of Indonesia lies.
2 days off. Just what the Doctor ordered.
Ps. Check out our updated Google Map of the route and our stop off points (click on the map to zoom in).... "not far" to go now!
Jakarta - Mataram: 41 bus hours including 2 ferries / 1,200 km
Mataram - Gili Trawangan: 1 taxi hour & 30 launch minutes / 35 km
TOTAL TO DATE: 17,665 km
FUND RAISING TOTAL: GBP 3,570 including Gift Aid - please keep these Doctors of the World donations coming - click here!
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