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On the way to Java, we decided that we were going to take the fast ferry instead of the slow heap on the way over. What a concept, there were actual seats, air conditioning, and a movie. This wasn't an easy feat - for anyone who thinks we were just drinking daquiris, getting from point a to point b is not nearly that simpli. To get to the fast ferry, Julz had to walk a kilometer into town to find 2 horsecarts to take all our baggage, loaded the baggage onto a little skiff with 20 other people and approximately 40 cartons of coke bottles, (add us and our luggage to that and it took 6 strong men and 15 minutes to shove the boat from the sand), to a minivan that drove at death-defying speed up hills and around switchbacks. All that took 3 hours, and Josie learned not to do this with a hangover. The fast boat was such a relief after our original meltdown on the deck of the other boat; we were amazed that they actually went through the safety procedures, which made us wonder what the safety precautions on the other ferry would have been ... #1: jump ship and swim like hell, #2 swimming lessons and how to dog paddle without attracting sharks, and our personal favorite, #3: how to use your friend as a floatation device :) |
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LL got to fly First Class to Java!
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We flew to Jogya (Yogyajkarta) - big mistake after all the nice island atmosphere. We finally found a town smoggier than LA. Day 1 Frik and Frak decided to take a bechak (bike with them as the bumper) trip into town. As they sat on the front of the bike, and found themselves facing oncoming traffic and inhaling huge clouds of exhaust from the buses in front of them, they regretted having not brought their masks and snorkels to leave at least one spot on their face that wasn't black with soot. They took comfort in the fact that in 20 years of biking and he was still alive, looking back they should have asked how many passengers he'd lost.
We thought it was sick and wrong that we were surrounded by such poverty, and yet on CNN the night before it was announced that the president (Soeharta, sp?) is the 3rd richest world leader. All was not lost, because we saw Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist Monument, a diamond in the rough and a good learning experience. We especially liked that the way it was constructed with different levels said a lot about how the Buddhist perceive life (for example, level 1 was Desire/Temptation, Level 2 Reality - and the steps were taller and steeper to reflect the struggle to acheive higher levels, and finally level 3 Nirvana ("heaven"), and a place that we al hope to be someday - we took lots of pictures just in case we never quite make it).
We had orignally intended on heading out from Jogya to Jakarta but trashed the idea when we heard that it was smoggier and more conjested, and decided to head back to Bali and a place called Tulamben to dive the WWII wreck USS Liberty.
Once again, it sounded like a good idea right up until we were on a bus (Allegedly the "executive" bus - clearly a beauty in it's time 30 years ago, and we didn't see any executives, just suckers like us who paid extra for what?!) 17 hours to Denpasar. We couldn't drink any water for fear of the bathroom in the back - and, by the way, have we told you what the word "toilet" means here? Porcelain hole and hose (or a bucket at hte ritzy places) Our aim's getting pretty good, but we're still trying to master which way to face and the most appropriate way to greet a stranger when they walk in on you. One big idea was to say hello, shake their hand and invite them in, but we never took advantage of the opportunity -- |
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