2/16/10 - 2/17/10 - The Great Struggle to Denpasar

Helloooo 4:45 AM. A sunrise hike seemed like such a good idea yesterday. Hmm...

The League of Nations (minus USA Steff and UK Steph) made the morning climb to watch the sun rise over the Crater Lakes. Was it beautiful watching the pink sky turn to blue as the sun rose, it's yellow glow touching the tops of trees on the green mountains below? Yes! Worth getting up and hiking at 5:00 AM to a place I had seen yesterday? Perhaps not. But we did see two monkeys, and that made me happy.

Yesterday we had booked trasportation with Johnny 1. To the Lakes in the morning 2. To get to Maumere. Long story short: too much money was paid to the lake driver after the deposit that should have been given to the Maumere driver. ::sigh:::

Arguing, complaining, going to the lake drivers house with Johnny, money waving, more arguing, annnd success! All worked out. However, this was strike one for the bus ride.

The benches sat too high causing our heads to hit the ceiling. I felt like a giraffe, with my neck bent at a 90 degree angle. Strike two.

Tom's bag flew off the top of the van and had to be attached again. We were then all on flying bag watch. Strike Three.

It stared to pour down rain. We unattached the bags and piled them in the aisle under our feet. Our knees were now resting by our bent up giraffe necks. Bonus strike four.

Going along with our refugee theme: our hotel has a view of a a wall with barbed wire, we swithced from bird watching to rat watching, no shower, no western toilet. The hotel workers are very sweet though. They gave us a fan and free water.

Book a connecting flight from Maumere to Denpasar, to Yoga Karta. Easy! Noo....

Ticket office, another ticket office, walking, bemo ride, phone calls, lonely planet maps, listening to a very explicit techno song in a Muslim family's van, back to the first ticket office - there was a cancelation! Flight to Denpasar = Booked!

Steff and I found the first large grocery store during our trip. All the food was so different. Five loaves of bread, but an entire aisle of different oils. Box ice cream instead of box cake (just add water and freeze!), salmon and sea weed flavored Lays potato chips, and blue berry fanta. We had way too much fun looking at all the different food, causing more stares and giggles than we were already getting when we walked in. We ended up buying cappachino cream cookies, chips, bread, and a hazlenut cream spread (like nutella). Came back to our hotel, pushed our beds together, and had a comfort food iPod movie afternoon before meeting up with he League for dinner.

We said goodbye to Sweden (Adeleine), belgium (Tom), and Holland (Nienke). It was great meeting all of you!

Early morning flight to Denpasar for England and the US. Shockingly, we had no trouble getting on the plane with tickets that weren't under our names (I'm Mr. Fredy Fredy and Steff is Mr. Ferdinand Futu). The ticket people swore it wouldn't be an issue but we were still a bit nervous. Silly us being use to that mattering... Or security checking your ID at all... or security being, well, secure.

We had hoped to get a connecting flight to Yoga Karta that day but it was MUCH cheaper to fly out at 6:00 AM the next morning. This meant Kuta/Legion round two for the night.

We must say, this area the second time around was much more enjoyable. Knowing where you're going, not being jet lagged, fully appreciating menues that include more than rice/onions/meat, and understanding the value of a shower and western toilet... Makes all the difference in the world.



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