Sudah satu minggu!

I have been in this steaming pot called Indonesia for about a week now!

My dad left me for home last night; I lived in Canada alone for so long, I didn't thought I would miss him. But I miss him seriously, partly because we shared many heart-to-heart talks as adult during this trip; but mostly because my would-be guide/ driver/ beach cow boy suddenly turned lecherous as soon as my dad get in the airport.

Get ready for a long story!

We arrived late at night in DPS airport. Since dad and I hold different passport, the staff at custom asked my dad to line up in a different queue.

As soon as dad left me, the staff at custom whispered to me that he can help me extend my "non-extendable" visa, he then proceed to give me his number and his name. This country is just so magical, everything is possible!

Then I took a cab with my dad. Taking a friend's advice, we hired a blue taxi to Sanur and paid at the counter, this way, we don't have to barter with the cab driver. So far, so good.

We stayed at a midrange losmen/hotel; its decoration was artsy, but the facility is very rudimentary. There is no hot water for shower -- not that you need it here, and, the dranage sucks. The bathroom floods everytime someone takes a shower. Doing enough researches ahead, we knew there is no toilet paper provided and we brought our own. Thanks god, because true to the loonely planet guide, there is no TP provided.

Next day, we walked around the street, I was expecting it to be a small town, but it still seems kind of busy. We keep getting serviced offered, they are extremely polite about it, but it still gets to my nerve. Most of these tourism-industry workers speak enough English, but I still try to respond to them with what little Indonesian I speak. I must speak terribly, for example, no amount of "tidak, makasih" or "tidak tidak, sudah beli," will deter them from following and hornking behind us. Every warung and batik shop also call to us to invite us to eat or shop at their place. I felt a bit like a prey, a target, needless to say, our jalan-jalan (walk around leisurely in town) wasn't exactly leisurely.

My first mistake, I took something of an enthusiastic attitude towards the first polite indonesian who would have the patience to slowly speak back to me in Indonesian. I ended up hiring him as my guide in Bali, and he put us through the tourist package. First stop, he wants us to pay US $100 to see the Balinese dance, I politely tell him that he must be kidding us and we left. I noticed, through the corner of my eyes, he was exchanging glances with the staff at the balinese dance ticket office.

The rest of the day was like this. Whenever we pass through local looking shops, he tells us its expensive and poor quality in here. Then he took us to places where we are constantly required to spend money and on top of that, harassed by hawkers and beggers. In one of the scams, I bought a set of chess; the hawker show me a nice chess set. But the set he pushed into our car turns out to be a different set than the one I examined and decided to buy.

I asked the guide, in Indonesian no-less, how come there are so many (mangy) dogs in Bali but no cats, and he says, because dogs and cats fight. In towns where there are lots of dogs, there is no cat. And vica versa. I find out this is generally true.

They say, "an american dog has no idea what a dog's life is like." I say, those who use "a dog's life" to describe those who live a sub-humane life have no idea what a cat's life is like... in Indonesia. I saw so many mangy, begging, scared cats and tiny kittens in this week, I am completely heart broken. I grew up thinking cats are dignified animals, I am proven wrong. At least, they are not always dignified.

Then I found out I came to Indonesia at the worst time possible, it's ramadan (sp?), and when I asked to go to the language centers in Ubud and Denpasar, the guide says I will be wasting my time because all schools are closed. That was disappointing.

That night, I had a nice time at the beach with my dad. We just sat there and walk around a bit. It was the first quiet time I experienced since I arrived Sanur, so it was quite precious.

The next day, out guide took us to the ferry at Padangbai. En route, he told us " boys at padangbai are very aggressive, so go into office and buy ticket at once, elsewhere, its more expensive and sometimes they are not real ticket." I even thanked him.

He dropped us off in front of a "tourist info center," ASA we got off the car, we got chased into a "tourist info center" that swears left, right, up down and center that those ferry only run at 6am and 7:30, we already missed it, and the only way to get to lombok is to buy their $250/person "delux charter boat." I pulled out my two travel guides in two languages, published recently, both says ferry runs all day and ticket for one adult is $15 000rp. to show him, and he says, "no time, ferry leave in 5 minutes." I insisted to argue with the guy, but my dad insists to pay and catch the ferry. So we did.

We then got herded to a machine room and we were the only two waiting for the "Delux, airconditioned ferry" that costs $250 000 per person. We walked on, and later, more tourists came up. It turns out the ferry is not equiped with A/C, and everybody else paid $18 000rp. The touts (Anjani) gave me the "transfer" ticket.

Then comes time to get of the ferry, I asked a staff how to get off, because there is obviously no walk way. He says "tourist bus tourist bus." I asked which bus, he said something in Indonesian, he obviously didn't speak english. So I show him the Anjani ticket and he says, "tidak ada!" (there is no Anjani!)

We squeezed between the very tightly packed cars on board and walked off with all the locals, with the cars hornking behind us. I asked the police at the ferry is there such thing as "Anjani travel," and they pointed us to a few local guys with a shabby sign (cardboard with Anjani written on it with red ink). I asked the "company owner" if it is true that it costs $500 000rp to get us across, he says "that's right, because we have no other customer and we have to come pick you two up specially." Well, I told him all along, we only wanted to take the ferry, the hotel can arrange transportation for us. But instead of responding to that, he tries to sell us another transportation package for our trip back to padangbai.

We got on their "shuttle bus" and head for Bangsal from Lembar. The "shuttle bus" is a run down van with broken seat and no a/c. Three rough looking "staffs" were driving us, or rather, driving us crazy. One of them insists to squeeze onto the seat besides my dad and continue to try to talk us into hiring them again on our way back. They asked us who is expecting us at the hotel, my dad naively told them that nobody knows we are here yet in broken english. I snapped at him and told him don't offer too much details.

The trip was intense, we sped through rough mountains full of monkeys having sex in the middle of the road, there are many corners to turn, I was motion sick, and I still have to look at the road signs and also the map to make sure we are being taken to where we have been promised. I picked the seats closest to the doors, in case we need to jump off the car.


We finally got dropped off at Bangsal, thanks god. Near the ferry, one of the Anjani guys says to us (again!), "the boys are harbor are very aggressive, it's better if you go to Gili Meno with us, we have charter boats." I told him off for the 10th time of the day.

I thought, that was the end of the most scary experience in my trip, what I didn't know, is that the climax is coming.