1st October - stranded in Jepara (Java)

Tuesday 1^st 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)

Alain &Laure-Anne

who had been waiting there since 7.30am, with their toddler…

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.)

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. 

Working in a total sawdust cloud

But here in Java they are just as industrious.  The woodwork was extraordinary.  So ornate!

A handy little pavilion

Some things were so very beautiful

and very cheap – this bench was around $70…

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:

There were anti-vandalism signs everywhere which I suppose is a good thing...