12:19 pm saturday 9 october 2010
The boat lists endlessly on this water. I’m sitting on the third and top floor of our ferry from Bali to Lombok island in Indonesia. At 7:00 this morning after a sound sleep we woke to greet the day and to collect my motorcycle. Last night I arrived in Denpasar, Bali at midnight – a two and a half hour flight from Singapore. Nash met me at the airport and we quickly sped to Senur on the southeastern coast of Bali.
First morning motorcycle through the window.
The hotel was directly on the beach (though it’s one of these cheap travelers lodges that really shouldn’t be considered a beach resort). Within an hour of landing we were comfortably settled with beer in hand chatting on a little wooden platform overlooking the sea. A fisherman quietly cast nearby.
After collecting my bike this morning (a 200cc Honda Tiger) … at US$9/day … we blasted off towards the Bali ferry terminal about 60 km north of Senur. The road winds through lovely flora with the traditional Balinese architecture that is so reminiscent of India to me (or at least how I imagine how India would look). It’s an otherworldly sort of drive – volcanoes on the distant horizon, young ladies dressed in traditional sarong wraps carefully laying out tropical flowers as offerings to demons to stay away, terraced rice paddies and always the smell of cloves from the local kretek cigarettes that the men always seem to be puffing. We arrived at the Bali ferry at 9:40 with 20 minutes to spare before the next ferry (they run hourly). For roughly US$10 each we drove onto the ferry and parked beneath, near two enormous trucks and a shipment of baby chickens chirping away madly (I have no clue what they are for). We’re told the journey to Lombok is four hours. Once there we think it may be possible to drive clear across Lombok in about 2 hours to the next port, where we hope it is possible to settle into another ferry crossing to Nusa Tenggara. Though no one seems to have heard of this island – so we are not sure yet whether Nusa Tenggara is more of a collection of islands or province. At any rate, the plan so far is to get as far out as possible by nightfall (and then possibly more tomorrow) before turning around to meander and explore our way back to Bali. We’re not committed to any one plan though so it is unclear what will actually happen.
I do know that right now the bikes are strong and my belly is full (from a fish caught by local guys off the ferry as we sail) and the mountains of these islands we’re passing by rise up and are majestic and terrifying against this turquoise water. And the diving of the dolphins out here reminds me of my lurching excitement towards the unknown. -b
