Day 10: Transit to Labuan Bajo

Today we set out on our epic journey towards Labuan Bajo. We know we won’t reach until tomorrow afternoon. It all seems a wee bit daunting after hours and hours of research, but I think we know enough of the parts that we can try to do it ourselves.

Part 1: Public Boat to Bengsal Harbour

The public boats that leave Gili Air can leave as early as 7:30, but each boat won’t depart until they have 30 passengers.  We want to make sure we get one of these boats, so 7:10 a.m., there we are at the boat dock. Coffees in hand, backpacks ready, flipflops ready (so we can prove to ourselves that we can board this boat from the water unlike the last time when we almost fell over), we get on the boat without any dramas and reach Bengsal Harbour.

Part 2: Shuttle Bus from Bengsal Harbour to Mataram

No sooner than we set foot on the sand at Bengsal Harbour than we are immediate accosted by vendors trying to take us somewhere. We already had a game plan to get us a cheaper rate to Mataram. Vendor says 50,000 (which we expected), Pallavi calls out 40,000 – 2 people – more profit, and they immediately accept. They tell us to go down the way to a café and they’ll pick us up at 9:30 (its only 8:15). We get to the café and order breakfast. What else are we going to do while we wait? What do I get? Porridge. What does Pallavi get? Ant omelet. Something tragic happened to her omelet and she pulled out not one ant, not two ants, not three ants, but some poor company of ants who had met their maker in the pan! I told Pallavi it was just extra protein. She said, “I don’t know where those ants have been.” Fair point. Even the 2^nd replacement omelet had a few ants! Bad breakfast complete, we finally get on the shuttle with two other foreigners – where Pallavi realizes that one of them has lice! How do you #nolice when you are faced with them. Undecided, but so far it looks like we are still lice free, so whatever hexing we must have done worked! 1.5 hours later, we finally get to the bus station in Mataram – and it’s in the middle of nowhere!

Part 3.1: Shuttle Bus from Mataram to Bima (Bus Station)

Trying to haggle and get a good price in Indonesia is hard. It seems that although the individuals are happy to try to make as much they can off at you, they don’t want to do it at the expense of their fellows. As soon as we arrive at the bus station in Mataram, we are set upon as if we are fresh meat.
Pallavi finds a friendly looking person, who walks us around as we explain that we want to go from Mataram to Labuan Bajo or to Sape. After a bit of to and fro, we come to 290,000 Rupiah pp to Sape. Pallavi says we’ll think about it, even though he goes ahead and writes us a ticket. Either way we have to get cash, so we walk off to try to find an ATM. After 15 minutes, we find an ATM. Pallavi withdraws cash and we go inside the associated bank to sort through it. I asked Pallavi for the ATM card so I could put it away. No ATM card! It’s the first time we’ve used the card, and after searching through everything for about 15 minutes, we come to the sad conclusion that the ATM must have eaten it. Tragic moment! Pallavi asks the bank manager if they can open it up; but they can only open it up once a day, when they refill the ATM. After seeing the poor desperate look in our eyes, they say, well, we can refill it now! Out they go, in they come, ATM card in hand. Ta-dah! Phew! Okay, money – check. ATM card secured- check. Back to the bus station.

As we enter the bus station, we are approached by a new guy who asks where we are going and quotes us 275,000 when we tell him. Obviously we’ll go with the lowest price. We head over to the original guys and collect our stuff, saying we’ve got a better price. Apparently that just isn’t done! The 1^st guy gets into a rage, saying we had struck a deal, and the 2^nd guy is a cheat. The 2^nd guy said he didn’t want to underquote the 1^st guy, he didn’t know! Then the 1^st guy rips the tickets up, throws them in Pallavi’s face, and makes an aggressive lunge – to which Pallavi responds in kind (we are women in a Muslim country, after all – they won’t touch us), shouts we’ll make sure no tourist ever takes Dunia Mas again (Note: don’t take Dunia Mas. They are bad), grabs our stuff and we head over to the 2^nd guy. Now the 2^nd guy can’t sell us the ticket we want because he has to work with the 1^st guy. But he does sell us a ticket to Bima for 180,000 and we sit with him for 3 hours, wherein he plays my ukulele, teaches us some Indonesian songs, and finally we get on the bus.

Part 3.2: Shuttle Bus from Mataram to Bima (The Ferry)

We took the shuttle across all of Lombok until we reached the Ferry (where we finally caved and bought street food off the vendors who come onto the bus because we were starving and didn’t have enough provisions. They sell this weird thing called ‘Nasi’ – which is really rice & noodles, with some sauce and a piece of chicken wrapped in banana leaf. PS – didn’t get us sick, so I’d call that a win). This Ferry was very different from the long ferry we took before. This was a local transport – with entertainment! It’s only a two hour ferry – and there were two ‘areas’ (indoor & outdoor), and two performers. Performer #1: Bad Indonesian Karaoke Man with shimmering pants. This fellow had managed to convert a stereo, plugged in a USB, and started singing. The crowd went wild in mock cheering. At least I think it was mock. All I know is that is was horribly amazing; however, one can only take so much, so we went into room 2. Room 2, we caught the performer mid-act. The crowd seemed mesmerized and he seemed to be passing around these metal balls. Then he collected some money, and the show ended and he moved to Room 1. Intrigued, we followed him! After some time seeing the whole act, we realized he was selling massage oil and accessories. However, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a Barker. He had the whole crowd engaged and must have sold massage oil to at least 1:3 people.

Part 3.3: Shuttle Bus from Mataram to Bima (The Overnight Bus)

All I can say is that the roads were so windy that even laying down we got thrown from side to side. Also, it was freezing cold. My poor little face towel was not enough to cover more than my torso, so I needed Pallavi to put her legs on top of mine to cover the remainder. Also, definitely expected to reach Bima at 5:30 a.m. NOT 3:30 a.m.