Another slow start but we moved ourselves and caught a bemo to the Hot Springs. The water was green, smelt of sulphur but was very warm and relaxing and the pool was far better than the one at Tirtha at the foot of Mt Batur.
Coming back we had to get a lift on a couple of mopeds. Me on the back of one, Oz and Beth on the back of the other. "You want mushrooms?" asked my driver as we sped through the village. We arrived at the main road and immediately bartered for a bemo back.
We packed and went to the Perama office. It appeared shut so we sat down at the next door restaurant to eat. Eventually our man and our coach turned up. We were escaping Bali just in time. Due to the Balinese New Year Perama was shut from 4-7th March and everyone stays at home on 5th March. The coach was large and comfortable but stopped every so often for the driver's sidekick to get off and make an offering to the gods. Just before we got to the ferry they served us with a box that contained cold spicy boiled rice, cold meat in some kind of sauce all of which was separated by banana leaves. A mouthful of rice was enough for me. At least the container of water was drinkable.
The ferry journey was short and I slept most of the way to Probolinggo. At 2am in the morning a helpful chappie furnished us with all the local tourist info. We didn't want to know as we were so tired. We did book a bus to Yogyakarta and a minibus to Ngadisari. The minibus journey turned out to be the most frightening and dangerous one of my life. Our driver insisted on trying to overtake all the other traffic on a very twisty and mountainous road up to Ngadisari. The fact that the road was a single lane didn't daunt him one bit. He kept his van about 6 inches from the vehicle in front, continually flashing his lights. At one point he even bumped the van in front as it braked for a corner. My money's on him not reaching pensionable age. Not that he'll get a pension anyway.
We arrived at a homestay and found that there were only 2 rooms left. One for 4 people and one for 2. The very small man on night duty, with coins of the world glued to his cap, was a little dim and didn't seem to understand we wanted a room for 3. He showed us to the room for 2, waking up a couple in another room in the process. Far too small. He then showed us the room for 4. This was split into 2 bedrooms and it appeared that one of them was occupied.
We finally got the dim nightwatchman to wake up his boss who let us have the upstairs room in the room for 4 for 20,000rp. We piled in, making as much noise as possible, Oz and I grabbing the futon and Beth the fold out chair. Half and hour later the people downstairs were woken up to do the dawn walk to the volcano. We needn't have worried about waking them. Oh, we didn't.
2012
That was Bali. I've never been back since. I did enjoy it and have memories of a lush, green, hilly place full of friendly people and dogs with limps. The sounds of Balinese wind chimes and the smell of incense was everywhere. We have some Balinese wind chimes in our back garden which remind me of this part of the trip. I think Oz and Beth bought them as a gift for us.
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