Time to escape from my Paradise
I know from experience that one can get stuck on an island for quite some time. I over stayed my visa in Thailand a few years back by over 30 days on Koh Phanghan when I stayed just on the island for 45 days. So before that happened again in Indonesia, I decided that we had to leave Trawangan. My visa was running out for Indo in a few days and I had to get back to Bali for my flight to KL. I had to spend at least a few days in Kuta before I left to see how it had changed in the past 13 years.
Instead of paying the exhorbitant prices the tour agencies were charging for a shuttle to Kuta, I decided to take the local way off the island all the way back to Bali so I could stop off back in Padangbai to update my MP3 player. This involved taking multiple local transport modes including the local long boat to Lombok, a cidomo, pony driven cart, to a local bus ‘terminal’ (guy at side of the road with a van) to Mataram and a minivan to Lembar port to catch a car ferry back to Padangbai. We decided to stop a night in Mataram and try to meet up with some people.
I managed to get a case of delly belly in Mataram, capital of Lombok, and had a not so pleasant journey back to Bali the next day. All in all, eventho it was a bit more difficult than sitting on a tourist bus/boat back to Kuta, I managed to get back to Kuta for less than half of what the tourist agencies were charging. And of course, it was more fun interacting with the locals. Although one of those interactions was dealing with the drivers of the “bus” to Lembar trying to rip us off by charging us 30X the local price. They actually tried to grab my bag when I wouldn’t pay them anything but the local price. They threatened to call the police, but when I actually went to the police they said OK.
Tags: Bali, Travel
Kane
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