Well, whatever we lost in terms of a "genuine local experience" on our last ferry ride, we definitely gained on our bus/ferry trip to Java! A lovely taxi man got us from the middle of Kuta out to the main bus station (we bartered down the price before getting in the taxi but then he was so nice that we ended up paying the original asking price anyway). The bus station was just one big, fat hive of activity and people hassling us to buy tickets from them whether their bus was going in the right direction for us or not. I have to admit I looked oh so longingly at the big, luxury, air conditioned coaches, but for 1/4 of the price we clambered on to the little local bus. It had wheels and a driver but that was about where the similarities ended. Our bus was full of local people and a chicken. The locals were in general very friendly, the chicken looked like it could think of many places it'd rather be than on that bus (I know how it felt!). My poor stomach got fully jolted for 4 hours and digested a generous dose of carbon monoxide but it held up well. In fact, our bus ride was great in the end! As soon as you leave the tourist mecca, you travel along a long and winding road, passing rice paddys, villages and beautiful, tropical greenery. There is a big Hindu celebration across Bali on 5th March, effigies are made to be paraded and then burnt to banish demons (at least that's that vague details I've managed to pick up when I've asked people but they probably shouldn't be relied on to be factually correct or anything!) . These effigies are giant and spectacular, we passed many along the way.
The ferry ride across to Java was even better, leaving just at sunset in calm water (it could have been romantic except for the people staring at us and crowding round to talk to us). We seemed to be the only white tourists on the boat and managed to attract a random haggle of people who wanted to use us to practise their English, or ask us questions (with those who could speak English acting as interpreters for those who couldn't) it was all a bit confusing but kind of cool. We were warned that we may get a lot of hassle at the ferry landing so I had the bright idea to leave in the middle of a crowd and blend in. Bloomin' genius plan, because Brett at 6 foot 4 plus me, carrying our backpacks are never going to stick out like sore thumbs anyway in a sea of Indonesian people whose average height was maybe to my neck! Either way, we got a fair few stares but very little hassle - maybe because we arrived at night, maybe we just got lucky or maybe because we looked like big, white giants?!
With all the fleeting stops in internet cafes and battling with sticky keyboards (I don't question why they're sticky, but they just always are!) I forget to write so much stuff that I think at the time I should write. So I'm going to scrawl a couple of extra things on Bali before shutting up today:
Families: There's something very special about the role of families and communities here in Bali. We keep commenting on it so it has to be worth writing, it's just different from what we're used to back home. Children in particular just seem incredibly happy and self sufficient, helping out at home, playing together, always smiling. We have literally heard just one Balinese child cry since we got here, even the babies seem always contented. We met one family when we ate in their little warung shop front, The owner worked there with his wife and son (who worked at a hotel in the mornings and came back to help his Dad in the evenings), the grandchildren padded around and local kids and friends drifted in and out and stopped for food and a chat. It was such a lovely, easygoing environment and so close knit yet friendly to us!
Corruption: Yeah, I suppose you could say that all governments are corrupt everywhere in the world, but general consensus is that corruption is especially rife in Indonesia! To get a job as a Government official (eg, police) you have to pay 70 million rupiah. Considering that the average wage is about 1 million a month (and that's probably a generous estimate) this is a ridiculous amount of money and I guess leads to a career of bribery and corruption. I think this may well be why communities rally together so well as they sure as hell can't rely on the government to help them out. Speaking to people, we've learnt how much of a struggle it can be to afford education and many people have had to drop out of school early to find work (and they still speak better English than I can ever dream of speaking Indonesian)!
Tourism: This is my first time in Bali, but even for me it's clear to see just how much and how quickly tourism has changed Bali. New hotels are literally being knocked up on every available spot of land and the good old Ozzy influence is strong. The streets of Kuta are riddled with Australians in varying degrees of drunkness, proudly wearing their Bintang t-shirts! Brett spends a lot of time apologising for being Australian, but for better or worse, tourism must now be one of the most essential industries here now. I still wish I'd come in the 70s or even the 80s when apparently there was very little traffic, way fewer tourists, more natural scenery left, but hey, it's still got a lot of charm in 2011.
Chickens: I wouldn't want to be a chicken in Bali (thinking about it, I probably wouldn't choose to be a chicken full stop), but still, I specially wouldn't want to be a chicken in Bali. We've passed a couple of chicken lorries and they are literally piled high with chickens in these wire cages, bits of chicken hang out at all angles and they look either half dead or very sorry for themselves! Cock fighting is also pretty popular here. Generally animals in Bali seem perfectly well and contented. The many cows (introduced to us as the Bali tigers) seem well happy and contented with their lot. I just feel that the chickens get a rough deal.
Anyway, moving on! As I said, we are now in Java. So far we seem to be treated with a bit more suspicion than we received in Bali. That said, I will forever be grateful to a shop man who by some miracle understood Brett's miming of a train (complete with arm actions and sounds) and drew us a map to the train station. There we found a lovely lady who could speak English and was able to tell us the times and prices that we needed to travel on to Surabaya in Java. We traveled Executive - check us out, going all posh again! The train ran overnight so that we landed in Surabaya at about 6 in the morning.
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