Our ferry over to the islands of Indonesia was fairly indescriptive. It was a different kind of ferry to the ones we had been on before. It was a sit down one, with no outer decks but also no windows so you couldn't see how you were positioned on the sea. It was fairly crammed inside with seats but this ferry company provided passengers with 80's music videos and a film for entertainment along with a snack lunch. We left Melaka, Malaysia at 8am and arrived in Bergalisk,on the island Java 12.40pm local just in time for some horrendous rain. At the port we jumped on our Indonesian bus and arrived at our hotel in Pekanbaru seven hours later.
It was a one nighter there and at 6.30am we were on our way again. Now I write this a long time after we were there and my memory of the country is mostly marred by long days, group politics and the impending sens that this amazing journey was soon going to be over. However one of the highlights for me and something not a lot of other people really got was an experience on day 66 of the OzBus London to Sydney tour. At 9.35am we arrived at the Equator in Tugu. This was an enormous symbolic event for me. Firstly it symbolized that I'd left one hemisphere behind – the north I'd known all my life and this new and exciting, opposite southern one. Secondly it's a point on the world map I have always wanted to step foot on. Ever since daydreaming in Geography class, flicking through my school atlas and pointing at all the weird and outlandish locations I hope one day to see with my own eyes. And when I though of this, at the time, all I had around me was four walls and an expectation from other people of how my life would turn out.
So there I was, finally having reached the Equator and loving it! A couple of snack stops later it was evening and we had come to Jambi in Sumatra. Another one nighter (and Indonesia was simply littered with these and severe daily drives) and we left at 8am to arrive in Palambang at 3.30pm. Which didn't seem so bad and obviously meant we had some decent time to spend exploring – only I don't recall there being anything in this town worth exploring. I think the most exploring we did was attempting to find somewhere decent to eat (for those who didn't automatically turn to Pizza Hut just because it happened to be available). At 6.30am on day 68 we left and at 4.30pm we arrived at Bandar Lumpung. This was our Sumatra/Java border and at 8.45am the next morning we arrived for the ferry.
Indonesian ferries are interesting. I don't think our roll on/roll off boat was particularly overloaded but we did notice other ferries coming in with their cargo doors already down! Alarm bells! I don't think our one did that and the only bad thing I remember of it is that the deck with the toilets on smelt really bad. At about 12pm we arrived in Java and continued on to Bandang. I probably enjoyed this island more than the last but I think mainly because we got a chance to rest up a little on this one. We left 7.30am the next day on the way to the Green Canyon. Here we were loaded into traditional boats and taken to a swimming hole with currents, and boulders to jump off. It was a little bit of paradise and I didn't even find out there were leaches in it until I was in Australia which is great.
Day 71 we were taken to a National Park and even though we weren't changing towns we were changing hotels which was more than slightly annoying because of all our one nighters. At 7.30am we left Pangadarran and headed for Yogyakarta the cultural capital of Indonesia. This was a delightful two night stop over and on our 'free day' we went on a cultural tour of the city which included: The Sultan's Palace where every artifact symbolized sex according to our guide, a batik demonstration studio, a Buddhists temple where Rob the Geography boy assured us that big mass of black cloud wasn't headed for us and then changed his mind when were all stranded at the top where a torrent of rain was deposited on us. Suddenly I was cold and wet with only summer clothes on. I am not a cold and wet person – I have no central heating. Basically I'm amphibious and cold blooded – I need the sun to live. When I am cold and wet I tend to go into hibernation. Getting back to the bus from the temple was a bit of an assault course but lucky for me there was a tall French/Canadian who rescued me from a few deep puddles. Back at the hotel the weather had taken it's toll on me and I decided to miss out the cultural dinner that had been laid on for us. Besides I wanted to get some precious sleep before a 5.30am departure the next day.
Day 74 we arrived at a small hotel complex besides a crater besides an active volcano called Mt Bromo – oh yeah! It smokes, it smells, it's majorly cool and I got to ride across the crater on horseback. It was here that I found my laptop had ceased to live throwing my already sporadic OzBus updates into disarray. Bromo was a fabulous three night rest for the Ozbus group. We all got to wind down a little and enjoy ourselves in a relatively isolated location. All the places in Indonesia before had simply been towns or cities. We left on day 75 already excited about our next ferry trip to Bali.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment