Indonesian buses vs Indonesian boats
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
86
93
Trip End
Dec 24, 2009
Where I stayed
On a f***ing boat for 4 days!!!!
Pulau Rinca, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
Monday, October 12, 2009
For the first time in my trip I have to admit that I'm exhausted of travelling!!
I've had enough of winding bus journeys, where you're crammed in a small bemo with smokers and animals in 40C. It usually takes hours before the bus actually leaves for his destination, just because the driver decided to go around the town looking for more passengers to put on top of the roof and when you finally leave you're already dead tired and in need of a toilet, but the bus won't stop for at least another 4 hours! If you haven't had the experience you're far from understanding how waking up in the morning thinking about bemos just wants to make you cry!! ToT and I heaven't even mentioned the effort of finding a bus that actually leaves before the other ones and having to bargain on the fare with 10 locals...ahhhh!!
I've been travelling for more than a year now and never complained about moving around south east Asia, but Indonesia is a different story! ;)
So...I came up with what I thought was a great idea: "let's go by boat"!
The boat trip to Lombok was 3 days long, including activities like snorkeling and a few stops along the way. It sounded perfect!
But we didn't really think about the strong currents in between islands and the size of the boat...
It turned out to be another nightmare especially the last night... I'm glad we don't really suffer from seasickness!!!
Now I laugh if I think about it, but that night we were pretty scared! :P
So, my advice... think about a boat trip twice! What will I choose next time I don't know, maybe I'll just cheat and fly ;)
Comments
It's not all Indonesia like that, Java has an extensive railway network. Flores is the poorest part of Indonesia, so it's normal if the transportation system is not as good as in Java.
Don't get me wrong I loved Flores ^^ I was just a little tired about buses after nearly 4 months there!