drbruce
BlogTraveling. It's a large part of Indonesian life. It seems like people are always traveling. The gardener has to go back to Flores to see his sick father. The maid needs a month off because her sister is having a baby. Your child needs to see a dentist that is only available in Bali. Your visa is about to expire and you need to run off to Singapore. These realities (well except for the visa example) are pretty common everywhere in the world (ok, I never had a gardener or a maid when I lived in the US), but everyone has family emergencies that they need to go home for. When I lived in the States, I needed to attend a wedding or a funeral, but I could get a plane and be there and back in a few days. I read on a popular blog about Bali today that getting to Sumbawa was an easy thing, just get on your motorbike, hop on a ferry, cross an island, hop on another ferry, and you're there. Well, there's slightly more to it than that. I have to make this trip every ten weeks or so when the kids and I have coinciding vacations. They like going back to Bali which they consider home. So we make the long, winding trip back home. I'm going to work backwards from the direction of the bali blog. You can just reverse the process if you happen to be coming to Sumbawa from Bali.3:00 A.M. We wake all the kids up so they can eat something before we leave. Being the organized expat, I've packed everything in the car four days prior to leaving which only slightly irritates my wife who has to work around our personal items for four days while she shops and takes care of her normal business. Our teenagers are cranky and want to shower in case they meet a good looking boy on the ferries. My ten year old son is willing to go without changing his bed clothes because it's still night and he's planning on sleeping in the car anyway. The seven year old cries because she stayed up late watching her favorite sinetron about lost love and the sexual perversity of the rich and famous in Jakarta. My wife has to run to the gate to let our gardener in who will be repacking the car with the real essentials for the trip while I'm showering and having a quick breakfast. 4:00 A.M. Everyone is packed in the car. Freddy, our gardener, has all the keys to the house and tool shed and he packs May, the dog, in the tool shed so that she doesn't follow the car out into the road and become another casualty of the Indonesian road races. We wave goodbye to Freddy while I tell the kids to quit fighting about their seating positions and who smells. Despite my vows of not smoking in the new car, I light up a cigarette as we leave in the hope that it will help me stay awake until we reach the harbor at Poto Tano in the north of the island.4:30 A.M. I swerve wildly to miss a musang in the road and everyone wakes up and asks what music is on (Jimi Hendrix to keep me awake and remind me that once upon a time I had a life without significant others) and have I fallen asleep at the wheel.5:45 A.M. We arrive at Poto Tano and are first in line to board the ferry. There are two overloaded antique trucks waiting in a different line. The drivers look wide awake and watch the show as all of the kids decamp from the car and debate about whether we'll get in the ferry at the dock.6:00 A.M. The ferry unloads and we drive in first. The kids are excited. I'm relieved that the ferry is going to be fairly empty. The kids run up the stairs and find that we are on the ferry with the slides and children's playground set. I light up a cigarette and take a photo of the sun rising over Sumbawa. My wife immediately starts pulling out food for her and the children. She's brought me two packs of Oreos.8:00 A.M. We reach the harbor at Kayangan in Lombok. My goals are to get petrol at one of the stations that has nice bathrooms and isn't crowded, to get to the harbor at Lembar before 11:00, and to not have an accident while crossing the island.10:25 A.M. We reach Lembar, but they've changed the harbor, and I can't figure out where the car line is. After asking several official looking folks, we find that they have a small parking area for sedans. All the cars that are waiting are lined up in the front of the small space. I see that if I move behind one of the cars in the front, I'll actually be in the back. I take an Indonesian approach and park in the last front spot effectively making it impossible for any incoming cars to park in the lot. The fellow that took our money when we entered the harbor told us that the next ferry would depart at 11:00. The kids are wide awake by this time and fan out among the small warungs looking for snacks. I light up a cigarette and chat with the three guys in the Fuji Photo truck. Their coming back from a tip to Sumbawa. We talk about the weather in Sumbawa (it's really dry isn't it; yes I haven't had water in our house for three days now). They somewhat unobtrusively sniff the air. Apparently I don't smell all that bad as we continue our conversation. They suggest going up to Singaraja (how do you know I'm going there? Your plates!).11:30 A.M. We're on the ferry. Trucks and buses get on first. I'm the last sedan that they let on and it takes 15 minutes to maneuver my car in so that it fits. I have to crawl out the back window due to an inability to open the doors. I'm silently hoping that my car won't be the extra weight that sinks the ferry. My wife, ever thoughtful, rents foam mattresses for us to lay on the floor so that we can sleep. The kids run around for ten minutes and then immediately fall asleep. I lay down to rest my back, but stay wide awake for the next five hours of the trip.5:30 P.M We reach Padangbai harbour in Bali. As we decamp, we're pulled over by some officals. They want to see the car's registration and my license. Which license, I say, in my most friendly tone. Your international one the short pudgy official responds. Sorry I don't have one. Can you take one of my Indonesian ones? Apparently they don't get many bules with Indonesian licenses. We enter into a conversation about how long I've been in Indonesia. By this time, we're having a lot of fun, but holding up the other cars lined up behind us. He tells my wife that I should drive safely and sends us off.The conclusion besok.
Roy
Hey Doc, sorry for some confusion on my part, but I thought "blogs" as in Jimbo's blogs, cannot be responded. Frankly, I still don't understand why one would want a non response "blog" as I always look forward to discussion, rather than the simple privilege of posting without comments or other ideas.Reading your great story, and recalling how you titled it...from the Beatles, I can relate to that, and I think, in truth, you wouldn't want it any other way.You can tell me I'm wrong, but I'll never believe it for a second.
drbruce
The blog thing was that I wrote this originally for a blog that I have up in another place. I put it here as well, but forgot to take off the blog reminder.I'm putting the end up now.Hey , it's an interesting trip. I could be making the commute from Berkeley to Marin County like I used to many years ago. This has a little more flavor to it.
