The Ferry Journey Over to Bali, Indonesia
Banyuwangi...View image... is the eastern-most regency of East Java and a 1-1/2 hour ride from Kaliburu. This is one of the main ports to Bali and the bus would accompany us on the ferry ride. An early morning, excellent buffet breakfast, and on the way by 6:45 a.m. The ferries constantly come and go every 30 minutes, 24 hours non-stop and Ian said that these are not the overloaded ferries that are always sinking with boatloads of Indonesians on board. Vehicles and passengers just come to Banyuwangi, get in line and wait for one to arrive. A gorgeous day with the island of Bali clearly visible from where we stood.
Once on board, we carefully made our way to a higher deck to spend the 45-minute journey. You can either stand outside or sit inside. Either way, prepare to be harassed to death by the sunglass sellers. They stand in your face with their sunglass display...View image, repeating over and over again, "...Buy sunglasses? Buy sunglasses?...", even though I was standing there with sunglasses on. And, if that didn't work, they'd segue into trying to sell little eyeglass kits with mini-screwdrivers in them. Now it was, "...Buy glass kit? Buy glass kit? Very cheap..." opening and closing this little kit with a "click," over and over again, probably thinking that, similar to the chinese water torture treatment, if they clicked the kit enough times, you would cave in and buy anything just to get rid of them.
There were also a few young men and boys who want you to throw coins into the water for them to dive and retrieve. The 45-minutes went quickly across the very calm strait and before we knew it, the group was back on the bus, waiting for another ferry to pull away from the Gilimanuk, Bali pier before disembarking...View image. Fares are around 4,300 Rupiah for passengers and 16,000 Rupiah for a motorcycle. The vehicles, buses and motorcycles all jockeying for position, the ferry lowered one of its double-ends and everyone noisily roared off. ...View image...
The next part of this day would be an additional four hours drive down the coast to Seminyak Beach for only one night. The actual distance couldn't have been much more than 60 kms/37 miles but driving on a two-lane road that wound through villages, towns, loaded with trucks, cars, buses and motorbikes took forever.
There were definite consolations for the length of time to go only a short distance. Instead of wall to wall mosques, there were now very picturesque Balinese temples. Every home...View image...and business has a little temple in front...View image, each village has an open pavilion, banjar, where important matters are discussed and then there are big Balinese temples. There was a picturesque but small procession at one point in the journey with Balinese people heading to temple for a minor ceremony.
Bali is also incredibly, unbelievably green...View image, and beautiful. We passed rice paddies, coconut palms, Frangipani (and other flowering trees), black sand beaches in the distance...View image... and lush mountains in the interior. Bali is a stunning island and it's no wonder that everybody loves coming here.
Through the center of Denpasar with a huge Hindu statue in the roundabout...View image, and past kilometers of "stuff" for sale. Individual Balinese house temples...View image...View image, Buddhas and Hindu statuary in all sizes...View image, and I would have killed to get off the bus, spend hours browsing and perhaps buy.
A brief lunch stop for my regular noodles and through crowded Seminyak to the beach......View image, a short five-minute walk away. Twenty-nine years later, ex-Marine and I were back in Bali...
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