The trip to Bali was really interesting, it just added more to the feeling of living in a country where people live and accept the chaos. I took the train at 9AM which will take us to the point where we will take a ferry and then a bus to reach Bali at 9PM. After 3 hours on the train, they asked all the passengers on the train to get off. So we got off and no one is telling us anything in English although they could see there were many foreigners. Some passengers started to help us, all I understood that there’s a problem but no details.
I stepped out and started talking to the locals in the village where we stopped and someone explained to me that there was a train that got derailed and they need to shuttle the passengers in buses to another station so we can continue our trip on the train. After almost an hour of waiting and another hour to get to the other station we were back on track. It was helpful that an Indonesian girl Linka was sitting next to me; she explained to me many things and taught me few things about Indonesia. Finally, we arrived on the point and to take the ferry, I talked to a young Dutch couple who spent only one day in Bali and crossed over to Surabaya and they were planning on going back because they were very frustrated. I had the same feeling when I first arrived in Indonesia but after many frustrations I started to be just like the locals and it made the traveling experience more enjoyable. I also thought and mentioned to the Dutch couple about my experience in the village and the people I saw there, so I felt I’ve been conditioned by then to deal with living in a society like this.
After the ferry we took a bus to Bali, we finally arrived at 2AM in the city of Denpesar, not big difference just 5 hours delay 🙂 And don’t expect that we received any refunds or any apologies from the staff, no it seems like business as usual. Once we arrived at the terminal, you will see a lot of people who want to sell you something. Of course I didn’t have a hotel reservation so one guy approached me if I needed a hotel but I told him no because I saw a hotel sign just a couple of blocks from the bus terminal. Any time you don’t buy from these people they keep harassing you till you buy or till they give up or you give up. I walked to the hotel and found it closed but the guy from the terminal kept following me on his motorbike, I know people here are just so desperate for money and that’s why they try so hard and make so much effort to sell something. So he told me to go with him and he will get me a room. You would think at 2AM in the morning I will just take the first room that I find but no. He took me to 2 hotels and then I picked a nice room and not only that, I bargained for the price and got it cheaper. I went to bed laughing about the whole situation how it turned out
