Jakarta to Bandar Lampung
March 19th
Kalideres bus station was fairly calm and relaxed after the other one and it didn't take long before we were on an ekonomi bus to Merak. That's the port for ferries to Sumatra, about two hours away from Jakarta. It would have been good to get a night bus all the way to Pakanbaru, but we just didn't have enough money.
Merak's a small, busy port town, with the ferry terminal and bus station combined, right in the centre of it. We checked out places to stay, but there didn't seem to be much choice and they were fairly expensive. So we decided to jump on a ferry and find somewhere to stay on the other side.
We were getting very low on money and it was important not to get ourselves stuck. We just had to wait for the banks to open the next day. We didn't need money for somewhere to stay, as we wouldn't have to pay till we left, but we didn't want to strand ourselves somewhere where there wasn't a bank. So we debated for a long time whether or not it was a good idea to go across, when we knew we could change money where we were and we had no idea what was on the other side. In the end, we decided to chance it.
The ferry was really shitty, but it only took a couple of hours to cross the small stretch of water between the two islands. I was amazed by the large ammount of people who were walking around the decks and seating areas selling the most bizarre selection of plastic junk. The two eating places on board were exactly the same as an ordinary rumah makan (eating house) on shore. And there was a shop selling music tapes on the back deck.
When Bakauheni, the port on the other side, came into view, it was quite obvious there was nothing there! It was nothing like Merak. There was just a ferry terminal and nothing else.
Shit!
We got off the ferry and walked out towards the buses. When we got outside the terminal building, we were called over by a non-uniformed man at the police office. He was really helpful and told us we should get a bus to Bandar Lampung, which was a couple of hours away. There were losmens and banks there.
Bugger it! Another bus ride. It was about half past four by this time and we'd been on buses with hardly any breaks for the past thirty two hours and travelling non-stop for four solid days. The last thing we wanted was a two hour bus trip - especially as it would mean arriving in a strange town after dark. But there was no choice. We got on the bus.
- - -
On the way into Bandar Lampung bus station, we didn't see anything that looked like a town. We had a look round the night bus ticket offices in the centre of the bus station and got so severely hassled by people wanting us to buy tickets from them that we just got out of the bus station fast.
We started walking, without having even the faintest clue as to where the town was. Not far from the bus station, we saw a sign saying "hotel", so we checked it out.
There was a woman standing out the front and a man walked up when we started talking to her. They pointed inside. There were three men hanging around and they were acting really weird. One of them showed us a room, but we both had a weird feeling about the place and we left quickly. It was almost certainly just a brothel and they were surprised by us wanting a room there. But they were laughing and acting strangely, which made us wonder what was going on. And we didn't really feel like hanging round to find out!
We carried on walking down the road, wondering where the hell we were going. There weren't any bemos going past, which made me think we weren't going towards the town centre. Then, suddenly, i remembered i hadn't done my usual little ritual of introducing myself to the land, which i always do when i touch ground in a new place, and i did it quickly. A minute or two later, we passed a shop across the road and a man sitting in it waved. I waved back and then thought let's go and ask him. Sure enough, town was the opposite direction. He flagged down a bemo for us and we got in.
It was a longish drive into town and things were made more confusing by the fact that it was dark and we couldn't really see what sort of areas we were passing through, but the bemo crew and the other passengers were really friendly and helpful and eventually we ended up at the Hotel Rennie, a losmen down a laneway near a big mosque around the centre of town.
We spent the last of our money on some fried tofu and two bottles of beer. Shit, it was good to lie down on a bed! We'd travelled the entire length of Java in thirty six hours, including going through Jakarta, and we'd caught six buses and a ferry. It had really been a hell trip. But it wasn't over yet! We got a night off, that was all!