Tuesday 1st October
Maybe photos will be forbidden...I will try!!
So are we back,
safely rocking in our little cabin on 2XS?
Well no…we are in a very nice hotel in Jepara, stranded…
This was the
view from the ferry terminal:
The ferry was
not like this at all; it looked like a small cruise liner – in fact you an see
it, looking large and solid, in the background.
But…there we were, at 10.45, expecting to leave at 11.00, and the time
came and went…I made lovely new friends, from Switzerland (French speaking)
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| Alain &Laure-Anne |
who had been
waiting there since 7.30am, with their toddler…
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| Laure-Anne & Mae-Lisse |
And still we
did not go. Eventually we were told it
was much too rough and that the ferry wouldn’t be going at all, although the
ferry from Karimunjawa was was ploughing its way merrily across the very same
bit of water… Maybe, they have told us, merrily, it won’t go tomorrow either. Or any day this week… So we are not sure how
to get to our poor boat…and we are running to a tight tight TIGHTER schedule…
Last night we
stayed in a nice green motel in the city centre
the
Segoro. All very pleasant, for approx.
$20, with a comfy mattress – well two comfy mattresses; they didn’t believe in
double beds… There was a big deep bath and a hot HOT shower, which made Pete
very happy. I found it very hard to get any of the water actually to squirt
anywhere near where I was standing in the big deep bath – it was very random,
and managed to wet every bit of the bathroom, including the toilet roll, while
avoiding the person standing directly in its path. (Pete was just tall enough to be in the line
of fire, so to speak.)
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| Borobudur detail |
Breakfast was
included and was very delicious – a rather fiery mixture of rice mixed with
crunchy peanuts, with hard boiled eggs.
Not what we usually eat but….bring it on!
The only thing wrong
with the Segoro was…we urgently learned a new and very important word…nyamook.
MOSQUITO!! Our Swiss friends had
been staying there as well, and they too became very familiar with this
word. The walls were dotted with squashy
bloodstains, and I added quite a few, with gusto, while Pete lay, exhausted, on
his bed (he is improving but its still not well…) I went out to reception to see if they had a
mosquito coil, and the young bloke on duty came out to our room with a very
large can of squirty poison. He went
about his task with grim determination and it is a miracle that Pete and I
didn’t die from the fumes. But at least
the nyamooks were beaten into submission!!
We had a few
hours to fill in this morning, so we took a taxi up the road to the furniture
shop area. Around Ubud there are
absolutely hundreds of furniture warehouses.
They are VERY creative, in Bali.
They make pottery, wood carvings, paper mache, picture frames, batik…
EVERYTHING.
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| Working in a total sawdust cloud |
But here in
Java they are just as industrious. The
woodwork was extraordinary. So ornate!
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| A handy little pavilion |
Some things
were so very beautiful
and very cheap
– this bench was around $70…
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| A stand for a glass-topped dining table.. |
others
breathtaking in their, ahem, detail…
We had a lovely
time posing on furniture
Until our
driver waved at us a bit frantically from the doorway – Pete’s watch had
stopped and we might be late for the ferry.
Well we would
have been late…had it been a happening thing…
We are now at
the Hotel Samuda, a few hundred metres from the ferry terminal. It is very nice indeed. About $27 per night, for a deluxe room (yes
with double bed…) No mosquitoes, a water view through the fish-embossed
windows. Tomorrow I will take a photo of
some of the amazing woodwork around all of the doorways.
We had a very
nice lunch. Bintang, NEARLY cold, and
seafood nasi goreng. Pete had a piece of
chicken and some chips with chili sauce; it all cost around $7, with room
service. We have a large balcony where
we can sit, if we so choose, and look out over the VERY calm sea, towards where
2XS lies waiting…
In the meantime,
another bit of Borobudur:
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| There were anti-vandalism signs everywhere which I suppose is a good thing... |
