From Bali to Java

We had initially thought of flying from Bali to our next destination of Yogyakarta, a town in Central Java.  Ultimately, though, we decided to embark on the adventure of the 18-hour overnight bus/ferry trip, which cost about $24 and turned out to be just fine (other than the fact that our driver drove like a crazy person).

We left Kuta for Bali’s central bus station in Denpasar, and were surprised to see how orderly it was.  There was basically a platform for each bus, with posted schedules of bus times, companies, and destinations at each platform.  Crazy!  The bus itself was even more impressive – air-conditioning turned up so high it was actually cold, seats that were practically recliners, a blanket and pillow on each one, wastebaskets in the aisle.  There was even a sign that said the bus had WiFi, though it didn’t seem to work.  I might have thought that was just a marketing lie, but we could see the router at the front of the bus.  Given how fancy the bus was, it was actually a surprise that there weren’t TVs.

After about thirty minutes of driving (and we left exactly on time!), we stopped and the conductor hopped off.  A minute later, he returned with stacks of small cardboard boxes and distributed them to the passengers – it was snack time!  Each box contained a little pastry, a package of something that tasted like saltine cracker sandwiches with chocolate cream, and a box of jasmine tea (like a juice box, only a tea box).  The tea tasted like perfume, and we’d later learn that this perfume-y jasmine tea is something of a staple on Java, but the food was decent.

The drive from Denpasar to the dock was about three hours, and took us through the most rural parts of Bali I’d seen.  The scenery was beautiful, with banana and palm trees everywhere, bright green rice paddies on the right and hills in the distance, nearly deserted beach and crashing waves on the left.  I briefly considered (actually, I considered it pretty seriously) jumping off the bus to just stay in Bali.

I stayed on the bus, though, and then got on the ferry, which held cars and buses on the bottom deck and had a passenger lounge and deck (as well as concessions!) upstairs.  The ride from the western tip of Bali to the eastern tip of Java took about one hour, and the views of the hilly islands were gorgeous.

As the sun had set during the ferry ride, we didn’t get a very good first look at Java.  We stopped at around 9:00pm, though, for dinner.  The conductor passed out coupons to everyone on the bus, which were good for a buffet of rice, sauce, chicken, tempe, rice cakes, watermelon, and tea.  I was surprised, although maybe I shouldn’t have been, that we were the only foreigners on the bus or at the rest stop, and we’d only seen one white guy on the ferry.

I slept on and off for most of the rest of the ride to Yogyakarta, but every time I opened my eyes, we seemed to be in a town.  Basically, there was no rural part of the bus ride; it was urban areas, with a few rice fields scattered between, the entire nine hours from the dock to Yogyakarta.  Shockingly, we arrived at our destination around 6:00am, 2.5 hours early – the expected 18-hour journey took only 15.5!