Ferry/Bus Trip--Day 2

it was a beautiful morning in lombok (which, in indonesian, means chili). b and i snapped some pictures as we zoomed by things on the bus.

 it was very green.

 i kept trying to get pictures of the big gunung rinjani (volcano) that's famous on lombok, but i could only see it with my eyes. trying to capture it from a speeding bus proved to be too difficult.

 so you'll have to settle for the scenery from the side of the road.

 rice fields.

 it was good to see they still eat bakso in lombok.

 signs that looked just like the signs we would see in solo.

 the sun was so bright and off-set the greenery nicely.

 everyone was stirring by now.

 we got to the bus station in mataram and then the vendors came on to try to sell us food and drinks. we were strong enough to resist.

 we got our breakfast (as part of the bus-ferry trip) and went into the station to eat it.

 more cactus!

 it turned out that our bus station stop in mataram would last about 4 hours--so we decided to explore a bit.

 we did some shopping at the station.

 and then we walked across the street to a traditional market. as you know, we love a good pasar!

 it was interesting to see what was the same and what was different in this pasar (as opposed to solo).

 sate i think. except this sate looks like chicken feet.

 beautiful fruit.

 fun kue.

 oh, and the lombok! we loved seeing all of the chilies.

 it was a pasar ramai (lively market).

 

 gorgeous! i love seeing strings of chilies--whether mexican or indonesian.

 we discovered these huge blocks of chili paste. they looked like big blocks of cheese or ceramics clay. 

 b and i loved these! if only you could take these back home.

 

 a horse-drawn carriage.

 a great t-shirt. 

 these little buses are always brightly colored.

 s thought it was so fun when a man in the market tied up her hands. it was good she thought it was fun, since he did it to keep her hands off of everything!

 so many carriages. i don't remember seeing so many. thankfully, there are pictures to remind me.

 we always love looking at birds.

 when i saw this batik store, i had to go in. for a long time, i've wanted to get some pekalongan batik. pekalongan is a small town in java famous for their intricately-designed batik.

 once we got back to the bus station, we found this guns n' roses bus...and naturally had to take a picture of it. b was a big fan of gnr when he lived in indonesia as a teenager.

 wah!

 they cleaned at least the outside of our bus. the inside seemed about as clean as before, but the outside was shiny.

 we got back on our bus around 11am and headed to our final ferry terminal.

 this was another crowded ferry ride--although this ferry to bali was much nicer than the one to sumbawa. perhaps because lombok to bali is a more traveled route? 

 we walked up to the second floor of the ferry.

 the scenery around the harbor.

 again, we had some tvs to entertain us.

 the scenery was beautiful. i wish we could have had more time on lombok and sumbawa to explore.

 b and roro talking in the coolest place on the boat. the ocean breezes felt so nice.

 wah!

 this was the bumpiest of ferry rides. the swells were higher.

 cathy enjoying the ocean breezes.

 the thought that would come to me as i was there looking out into the water, and the thought that still comes to me as i see these pictures, is how impossibly blue the water is. it was so, so blue. 

 look, land!

 we were often pretty confused about what we were seeing. was it bali? was it another island? hard to tell.

 i like this one. 

 and this one. b brought us out to see the volcano.

 we enjoyed seeing the "safety first" sign on the ferry. it seemed a bit antithetical to indonesian living. 

 here we are getting close to docking in bali. this was another long ferry ride (about 4-5 hours), but it was scenic. 

 the final leg of the bus-ferry journey was a 1.5 hour ride from the harbor to denpasar. we got back on our trusty full-size bus and pulled into the denpasar bus station. it felt great to arrive there. b negotiated a taksi ride for us to our hotel (which took longer than we would have liked), but we finally got there and got settled into our rooms. boy was it nice to have a private toilet (western style), a shower, and a bed!

 at check in we got these lovely fruit drinks. such luxury!