Posted by Chris on Friday, 23. October 1998 at 14:38 Bali Time:
In Reply to: overland overseas posted by Matinee on Friday, 23. October 1998 at 10:55 Bali Time:
Just came back! We wanted to travel from jakarta to bali by train/ferry/bus,took the night train (executive class on bima-train, 115.000RP/person, Dep. in jakarta gambir-station at 6.00pm, Arr in Surabaya at 6.00am) from jakarta to surabaya - and ended up there! The connecting train to (about which rr-people in jakarta talked)did not leave and will no more because the track is removed! So we ran into a privat taxi driver who inisted on driving us directly to denpasarin 12 hours. He wanted 300.000RP before bargaining but we went straight to the airport and found that all flights to denpasar were cancelled until the next day. So we took the next available flight in this direction which was 8 hours later to mataram/lombok. Due to a significant lack of sleep in the train (there were only reclining seats, the car was in a desperate condition, a/c worked at the lowest temperature, washrooms were ways from usable, broken windows), we spent the waiting time in the garuda executive lounge (our flight had only economy but we tipped the girl at the lounge desk)and had a relaxed nap for some hours. The flight was ok if you don't mind planes in a kind of "do-it-yourself-plane-repair" -state, but we were happy to get off. Sounds all like hell, BUT we enjoyed it quite a bit.
Any more infos needed, then email me,
Chris