It’s a 4:00am wake-up to catch the sunrise from the crater and we wake up to our alarms going off.
And then we go back to bed.
It’s a 5:00am wake-up to catch the sunrise from the crater and we make our way up the village road, past small homes, onion fields and people starting their day.
We walk for about 45 minutes before arriving at a bend in the road, which is a perfect location to see the sun rise over the mountains and the mist rise up from the crater. I cannot seem to take enough photographs to capture the beauty of it all. It’s stunning!
After a bang of a start to our day, we pack ourselves up and prepare for our long trip to Anturan, Bali.
We start with a 2 hour minibus ride back to Probolinggo. From there, we catch a 5 hour bus ride to Ketapang, take a 20 minute taxi ride to the ferry terminal and hop on the 1 hour ferry ride over to Bali, after which we need to catch another bus for the 2 hour ride to Anturan, along Lovina Beach, which is where we’re staying.
Everything is going well, up until we reach the ferry terminal in Bali.
It’s now 7:00pm and the last public bus has just left, so we get in the queue for a minibus. Unfortunately, it’s not so much a queue, as it is just Eric & I waiting by ourselves. The minibus driver tells us he will go once he gets enough people – at least 6 others – which at this point is okay by us because we haven’t eaten much all day and are starving.
We grab a bite to eat and then start waiting for more passengers.
And we wait.
And we wait.
It seems no one else is coming.
The minibus driver offers to take us to Anturan for 8 times the already inflated price, and since we can’t afford it, we decline.
And this is where it gets even more frustrating.
From previous experience, bus terminals are not always the most pleasant places to sleep, so we ask him where the nearest hotel is. He tells us there isn’t one nearby, but he’d be happy to drive us to one an hour away. We ask other people and no one will tell us… the ones they recommend are all far away, and of course they’d be happy to drive us to them, for a price of course.
We find it hard to believe that a town with a ferry terminal, a bus terminal, an army base and other large institutions doesn’t have any hotels, but it’s now 9:00pm and we’re limited on how far we can walk around to explore. So, with no other options, we buckle down to spend the night in the bus terminal.
We decide to sleep in shifts – one of us will get some sleep, while the other stays awake. Eric takes the first watch and pulls out his book, while I do my best to get a nap.
And it’s amazing how quickly the minibus driver is willing to negotiate now that we’ve made it clear where we stand. Eventually another passenger arrives and we’re able to reach a deal. It’s not perfect – but at least we don’t have to sleep on a bench.
We head out and would you believe it? Less than a kilometer away from the bus station we pass three different hotels.
Eric & I are not impressed.
But we carry on our way and manage to get to Anturan by 11:00pm, exhausted and ready for bed.
The owner of our guesthouse – the Bayu Mantra Guesthouse – is a really nice man and he sets us up for the night and we have a great sleep.
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