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Jaydeep · Member Joined: 02 Mar 2015 Posts: 37 Location: Gurgaon

Welcome back guys. And another sorry, for delaying this beyond imagination. Here is a short refresher on last 2 TRs:
- A 9 day trip to Indonesia, covering Jakarta, Jogja, Banyuwangi, North Bali, Lombok & South Bali
- Bookings made on the weird low cost – full service airline Malindo Very Happy

- A long layover at not-so-great KLIA2
- Bumpy landing at CGK, followed by a really quick VoA
- Wait at Jakarta Gambir train station, and then a nice train ride to Jogja
- Visit to the Borobudur temples, and a jeep ride around Mt. Merapi only to witness the power & destructions

So, continuing from there – it was 28 Sep, and we had a train to catch from Jogja, taking us to Surabaya, connecting to another train there towards our destination – Banyuwangi. We reached the station at around 15.30, completed the formalities & waited for our train, munching some random stuff – a round around the station, and I did make a note of locker room that may come handy for some of the travelers.

The RID - Rail info display

The ticket printing kiosk - punch the e-ticket no to get the actual boarding pass

The train came right on time as expected. It was around 4 hours journey, and it went eventless, I kept enjoying the scenery outside till it got dark, and then it was a sleep time. The Surabaya train station was another surprise – it’s a beautifully done station with a couple of superstores nearby, and nice greenery inside. And of course very very clean, with guards deployed on all platforms – it did not have any foot over bridge for crossing, you have to go right across the rails to reach last platform, and guards do assist you in that. All in all, it gave us an impression that the country has deployed its manpower rather wisely to keep the majority occupied – a useful thing with such a large population.

Entrance to Surabaya station

The interiors of the stations

Train interiors

We had our dinner, and waited for next train Mutiara Timur Malam, which was a relatively slow train that would leave Surabaya at 22.00 hours & reach the port town of Banyuwangi at 04.25 hours the next day. It got delayed a bit, and we were at our hotel by 05.30. A sleep for 4 hours, and we were ready to explore – we headed to the city & found a tourist information center. An inquiry there, and we were on our way to Baluran National Park – the little Africa as it is called. The road to the park was beautiful, alongside the coast, and the park itself actually gave a feeling of being in a Nat Geo show Razz

Road to the national park

The savanna - little Africa

Mt. Bauran - another extinct volcano standing in the middle of the park

Some wildlife

A view from Bama beach, the extreme border for the national park

We returned to hotel by 7, had early dinner and slept for another 4 hours. The next destination was Kawah Ijen – the crater of an extinct volcano… It was a tiring trip, though the climb was just 3.5 km, it was arduous because of the volcanic ash & sand all around. But the efforts were worth it – the view from the top was amazing, and then climbing down to get to the actual crater was even more beautiful. The only sad sight was the laborers who collect sulfur from the crater & transport it to the city – getting paid very poorly.

Cimbing up the mountain

The infamous blue flames - totally worth it

The liquid sulfur

View of the crater

That is prohibited - but still everyone goes down the crater. And those are sulfur fumes, not fog Very Happy

The hard life - these guys make 3-4 rounds each day to collect the sulfur

Well, that made our day Smile

We reached back hotel by around 10.00, got freshen up and left for the port without much rest.

A bit of mess & beautiful north Bali
The next destination was Gilimanuk – the west side port on Bali, and a 20 minutes ferry ride from Banyuwangi. The ferry was simple, you can actually see the beautiful landscape of Bali once on Ferry. The tickets were cheap, and quick.

The port terminal

On board

Gilimanuk bus terminus

Rate card - bus would cost 38k, the bemu guys were charging us more than 100k

And then we experienced the first unplanned contingency of the trip. By the time we reached Gilimanuk bus terminal, the last bus to Lovina had already left, and those Bemu rides (the 6 seater autos, in which 9 people sit Razz

) were charging us half a million IDR to get us there. Nowhere to go, we decided to wait a little longer – which turned out to be 2 and half hours, and then a guy approached us. Here is what happened:
The guy: “Hi, you go Bali? Denpasar?”
A friend: “No, no”
The guy: “I driver, charge 50k per person, Denpasar”
Another friend: “No – we go to Lovina”
The guy: “hoo, Lovina? My home. Car outside. 50k each”
We had a short discussion among ourselves.
The guy: “you want coming, I wait outside, near port. Guy here don’t like me (referring to the Bemu union)”

Finally we decided to check his ID card, and if everything sounds fine, go with him. His name turned out to be Rehman, a resident of Lovina actually. And our nice trip started – as it would prove, it was worth waiting just to meet this guy.

By 18.30 on 29 Sep, we reached Lovina, with the plan of having half day tour of Lovina tossed up. Tired with the Ijen trek & then travel, we just decided to have some rest. The next morning, out of curiosity, we went on a dolphin watching tour – it was nice, though more of a family / couple sort of thing.

Finding dophins

Finally found Very Happy

And then we called up Rehman again – some negotiation, and he agreed to give us a full day tour of North Bali, and then drop us to Padang Bai, the port city on eastern cost of Bali for just 650k. The tour was just great, black sand beaches, huge lakes, hot water spring, a kind of stupid monkey forest and then onwards to Padang Bai.

Holy hot water springs

The budhhist temple

Amazing weather, and serenity - Lake Tamblingan

Another beauty hidden within the nature - waterfall at Gitgit

Pura Ulun Danu - a Hindu temple

It’s a really small town, with just a couple of good bars & a few restaurants. We explored some of it on foot during the night, and found that there was nothing much to do.

Padang Bai port

On board, for good 5 hours

The cargo terminal at Lembar

And the passenger terminal

Lombok – Not what we expected
Having experienced the state of public transport at Gilimanuk, we decided to book a direct ferry+bus combination right at Padang Bai to proceed to Senggigi, Lombok – a supposedly upcoming party destination after Denpasar. We left by a ferry at 09.00 hours to start a 5 hours long ride on endless sea towards Lembar, where we would find our bus to Senggigi. The ferry was comfortable – lot of seats, free access to almost all areas, and a movie being played on a large screen. The time was passed with little difficulty as the climate of great, and by 14.30 were on the bus to Senggigi.

It was undoubtedly the most serene & peaceful place on our entire trip – not what we had expected… We were looking for an active nighlife, full of youth! But nevertheless, that did not disappoint us. We had a great night at one Happy café, and a great morning on the clean beach with crystal clear, calm water. And then was the return leg… that is to be covered in the next part, and I promise a few good pics in that Very Happy

, so stay tuned Wink

Comments, feedbacks, inputs welcome as always!

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Fascinating, Jaydeep!
I was wondering if like some of us (Your Truly included) you too got caught up in the humdrum of daily official work and personal matters so as not to share your memories with the group.
We have heard some scary stories about Indonesian aviation, and the rail network was also a bit of an exotic, until your TRs. While the trains look a bit dated (but nice, at the same time!), the Surabaya station looks nice!
`Little Africa': interesting!
A trip to a volcano crater...after Mt. Merapi: wow!
An exotic set of shared taxi rides, watching dolphins, beaches, mountains, forests: you had it all: kudos to your planning skills.
Thanks for sharing another lovely report with us.
Cheers, Sumantra.

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Beautiful pictures, thanks for the TR
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