Eric and I wake up in a dilemma. Part of us wants to stay in Jakarta visiting with Lynda & Ian, but part of us also wants to visit the famous volcano Krakatau.
We eventually decide to pack a small overnight bag, leave our big bags at Chateau Lynda, and try to make our way to Carita, a small beach community on the west coast of Java. From there we are supposed to be able to catch a boat to view Krakatau.
We leave around noon, take a taxi to a local bus station and then take a local bus from Jakarta to Cilegon. From Cilegon we transfer to an opelet, which takes us to another bus station, where we then take another opelet to Carita.
The transfers from taxi to bus to opelet are quick and everyone is very helpful.
However, Carita does not appear to be how it’s described in the various books and websites we checked out, so when Eric and I get off the opelet, nothing looks familiar and we have no clue as to where we are.
This is actually a typical situation for us – getting dropped off in a town and not having a map – and we typically have no problems navigating to a place of recognition or finding a hostel. However, this time we are at a loss and there is no one around to ask. So we decide to hop on another opelet and go a little further along the road.
Eric gives the name of a hotel to the young driver and he says he knows where it is. He tells us the price and agrees to take us there. We hop in and he starts driving.
But after about 15 minutes, we realize we are now in a new town – Labuan – which is way past where we are supposed to be. We thought we were clueless before, but now we’re even more so.
We tell the driver to stop and we get out.
The worst part is that besides the driver not really knowing where he was taking us, he then tries to overcharge us for the ride by not giving us back the correct change.
If you’ve ever heard Eric’s “Taxi Ride in China” story, you’ll know what I mean when I say I saw a mild case of that. Eric makes it very clear the opelet driver isn’t going anywhere without giving us our money back and the young punk very quickly smartens up and complies.
After a frustrating day, we decide to stay in Labuan for the night and sort out the boat tomorrow. The hotel owner is a very sweet man, and when we check in he brings us each a cup of tea… I think he knew we could use one. We have a delicious meal of bakso at a local food stall, enjoy a nice conversation with a few of the other customers and then go for a quiet walk before turning in for the night.
The next day we head back to Carita and investigate hiring a boat to take us to Krakatau.
Through our hunt we find out the cost of the boat is way out of our price range. It’s the equivalent of about two days budget and then some. And since, there’s no one around to share the cost with, we decide to head back to Jakarta to the sanctuary known as Lynda and Ian’s apartment.
To their surprise we arrive back around dinner time and end the day over a lovely meal of spaghetti bolognese, fresh bread and caramelized bananas.
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