Today I'm planning to move on to Java. First stop there will be to the small mountain village of Cemoro Lawang beside the active volcanoe of Gunung Bromo. It sounds spectacualr and is renowned for the morning sunrise so I'm going to go up and take a look. The bus from Kuta doesn't leave until 6pm so there's the best part of a day to kill around Kuta.
The day is oppressively humid. The simplest of movement results in reams of sweat drenching you. Most people walking around town appeared drenched in sweat. There had been a heavy downpour in the morning but this didn't do anything to clear the air. It remained hot and humid throughout the day. I tried to stay indoors as much as possible until the heat had eased off.
I was picked up around 6.20pm and was shown to the back seat of an 8-seater minibus. I would share this with a young couple to Surabaya on Java. They were married last saturday and honeymooned in Kuta for 3 days. They were now returning home to begin their married life together. The minibus was comfortable. We had good A/C and the seats reclined so you could almos lie flat. From Kuta we made our way into Denpasar to pick up other passengers in different parts of the city. There were six passengers in total for the journey. With everyone onboard we struck out westwards into the darkness for a 4-hr journey to Gilimanuk, the ferry port connecting with Java. I tried to sleep for most of the way as there was nothing to see anyway.
We arrived at Gilimanuk around 11pm. Twenty miles earlier we had stopped at a restaurant to eat. It turned out the food was complimentary, the price included in the ticket. I joined Fehta and her husband for the meal. They looked so young, barely 20. They live in Surabaya, the principal city of eastern Java. Fehta works for a finance company while her husband is an undertaker. Full and refreshed we were ready for the ferry. The waterfront at Gilimanuk was lit up and busy. Numerous ferries were crossing over and cross through the straits. I counted at least 5 ferries loading and unloading on our side. Our driver found his way onto an empty ferry. While the others slept I made my way up on deck for a look around. Some miles away across the water sat Java. While its only a 30 min crossing we were onboard for a good 90 mins at least. Bangawangi, our destination, lit up the far shoreline. It sat low on the land. Towering overhead two great peaks sat in the darkness, their volcanoe-like outlines showing in slhouette against the bright, moonlit sky.
On deck it was warm and humid but a light breeze felt so good. The dark, murky waters beneath were littered with debris. I was the only westerner on board this particular boat and, as I wandered around my presence drew bored looking stares from other passengers who had nothing better to do than spot the tourist. The main portion of the deck consisted of a large lounge. A scatter of passengers seated themselves watching a local tv station as we waited to pull away from shore. From the decksides others peered in through the windows preferring the cooler air outside. As soon as the ferry got under way the tv was switched off an a female singer accompanied by a keyboard player began to play a selection of Asian and arabic numbers to the audience.
One lad came up to chat to me. He had decent English as he had worked previously on cruise ships around Europe. He had returned home to gain a certificate in seamanship. He was returning to Surabaya for a 2 month break before going back to work on the cruise ships in Europe. As we neared Banyawangi the ship had to go into a queue before docking. There were a number of other ferries ahead of us so it would be a while before leave the ferry. Before we docked I returned to the minibus and settled down to sleep. It would be a good three hours before we would arrive in Probolinggo from where I would get a bus up to Cemoro Lawang. Once we got off the ferry the driver set off at pace through the outskirts of Banyawangi. We followed the coast road north and then west as we skirted around the mountains of the interior. I looked out into the darkness of eastern Java and began to drift off.
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