Traveling in Indonesian

Expectation for the day: Lots of sitting, lots of waiting, arriving late at the accommodation.

After breakfast, we leave the Ibludan Hotel by taxi towards Bangsal. Upon arriving in Bangsal, we look for the little house at the harbor where tickets for the public boat are sold. We find it and buy two tickets for €1 each for the crossing to Lombok.

The public boat is not only used by tourists and locals to commute between the Gilis and the mainland, but also serves as a "transport boat" to bring food to the islands. A week ago, on our journey to Lombok, we found taking the ride on the small wooden boat to be relaxing. This time, "relaxing" could be replaced with "exciting".

As usual, we wait in front of the boats until 35-40 people have bought a ticket. The public boat does not leave before that. While we wait, we watch as some locals load rice sacks, bags full of fruits, vegetables, fish, and other food onto a boat. Once the food is loaded, we can board.

35 people, both tourists and locals (with us in the middle), sit on the wooden benches. The entire rest of the boat is filled with food. We lean our backpacks against a sack of bananas and a sack of onions, try not to step on the tail fins of the fish sticking out of the plastic bag, and wonder if our heavily loaded boat will even move. About 100 meters from the beach, the engine stops. Wildly gesturing and discussing, they try to get it running again. The man at the engine doesn't let his mood be spoiled and jokingly asks who would be willing to paddle the boat with him to Gili Air.

It's a good thing that we only hear stories of sinking public boats hours later. Apparently, a capsizing public boat due to excessive weight is not uncommon.

After the engine is repaired, we reach Gili Air without any further incidents. Since we have 3 hours until our ride on the fast boat, we go to a restaurant, order something to drink and eat, chat, and read.

When we are back at the harbor, we strike up a conversation with a German who emigrated to Bali 8 years ago and operates a ticket shop in Ubud. What a coincidence, as we have planned to climb Mount Batur for our second stay in Ubud.

However, before we can enter the coast of Bali, we have to take the fast boat. This time, it is noticeably windier, which is of course reflected in the sea. For two hours, we feel like we are riding a roller coaster. The boat races through the waves, being tossed back and forth, causing the windows to shake, and we are very, very glad when the boat reaches the port of Padang Bai on the east coast of Bali in one piece. Although there are occasionally unpleasant incidents with the speedboats (e.g. the front windows shattering), we can imagine that after the ride.

An employee of Blue Water Express drives us to Ubud and we are glad when we lie in bed. Even though the day consisted only of driving, boating, and waiting, it was somehow exhausting.

The next morning, we have breakfast at our accommodation and then use the hotel's shuttle service to take us to the center of Ubud. We want to book a hiking tour to Mount Batur. Since we have found out on the Internet where our acquaintance's ticket shop is located, we visit Bali OM Tours. The highly praised shop is located in a small side street in Ubud.

After a short and nice consultation, we book the "sunrise trekking tour" to Mount Batur for the next day. After a delicious lunch at Melting Wok Warung and a cozy rest of the day with a good book at the accommodation, we go to sleep as early as possible. The alarm clock will ring at 1:20 am the next "morning".