Ten Minutes to Spare and Ten Hours to Go
/We had just ten minutes to spare to catch the bus for our all day ride across east Java. We had to seriously hustle. Rich trusted the journey. Paul sweat bullets. This wasn’t the plan!
We said goodbye to Bali yesterday from the northwestern ferry terminal port of Gilimanuk. Leaving the hotel at 9:15 am for our 30 minute drive to the port we projected confidence we would make it, first with the one-hourish crossing to Java island — it’s really only 30 minutes but the ferry waits just as long for a berth at the Ketapang port. From there, we still had a 30 minute taxi to the bus terminal in order to make our noon departure bound for Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city and some 300 kilometers (185 miles) to the west on java island.
And bless the cheerful young angelic man on the ferry who offered, in exchange for 50,000 Indonesian rupiah (about US$3), to porter our medium-sized roller luggage bag off the ferry, through the bustling crowd to the exit. He really was an angel, worth far more including our immense gratitude. We would have missed the bus without his hustle and knowledge of how to maneuver through the chaos to get us to the taxi stand!
Below is a short video from the tuk tuk taxi we secured at the port exit. What a wonderful culture shock from our staid, naked seclusion time on Bali just a day before!
