The posh boat option

Well it was a bit of a hairy boat trip for a bit there but glad to say we made it back to mainland Bali without drowning or vomiting - a great result all round I'll say! My mysterious poisoning seemed to stay with me through yesterday so what with that and slightly rough weather we decided to abandon the rickety 8am ferry ride from Musa Lembongan and upgraded to a little speed boat type option. This was all well and good in theory, in practice it was still fairly budget, it just went faster through the water. While everybody else crammed inside the little boat, Brett, me and 2 other people opted for riding outside (stupidity prevailing every time). This was the fun option, it was also the option that saw us absolutely drenched from head to toe as a massive wave of water covered the top of the boat and landed straight on us! Even more reassuring was the boat guy who then proceeded to grab a little scoop and started to bail water out of the back of the boat. Anyway, like I said - we made it so all's well that ends well!

Back in Bali after the peace of the island, you realise just how hectic it is here in Kuta, and just how much pollution there is from the hoards of scooters! Mind you, it is also a fair bit cheaper. We found (when I say we, I mean Brett found, while I waited with our bags in a cafe with a nice iced drink) a room for just 80,000 rupiah (approx $8) for the night. I mean it had a bed and a toilet so we've got nothing to complain about but we pretty much got what we paid for. And it didn't even come with toilet paper, we had to buy that extra!

Today we are leaving Bali and starting our journey across Java - we have some basic, vague travel plans along the lines of getting a bus then a ferry then maybe searching out a train to get as far as Jakarta. So far we have tried and failed to get any concrete information on bus or train timetables so the plan is to go up to the main bus station, find a bus and go from there.

With a fool proof plan like that, what could possibly go wrong?!