Overnight Bus

Up about 6:45, had breakfast, finished packing, then walked to the boat launch and waited for a boat. On my way to the boat launch, one of the horse-drawn carriages had a runaway horse, the horse and carriage racing down the small, dirt road, the driver running behind, hopelessly trying to catch it. Dangerous situation!

Two boat loads of tourists heading off the island this morning, the boat trip was much better this time, the sea was a lot calmer. Got to the mainland about 9:00, and took a horse-drawn carriage to the bus stop.

At the bus stop, everyone was trying to sell me ongoing tickets to Flores, but I declined. I wanted to check out flight prices, apparently very cheap. It's just as cheap to fly from Lombok to Bali as it is to take the fast boat.

Took a shuttle back to Mataram and got dropped off near the Mataram Mall, walked to Shanti Puri hotel and dropped my bags off. Talked to the hotel guy and Flores, he told me it was over 1,000,000 rupiah to fly, the guy at the bus stop told me the same thing. So, I booked an overnight shuttle for 150,000 rupiah, to Sape, on the eastern shore of Sumbawa, and he told me to buy the ferry ticket over to Flores at the terminal there, it was cheaper than buying a shuttle ticket to Flores, by about 10,000 rupiah. Shuttle leaves at 2:30PM today

Left my bags at the hotel and walked to the internet. Cheap here, spent almost two hours updating my journal, and e-mailing. Only cost me 9000 rupiah. On Gili Trawangan, same amount of time would have cost about 40,000 rupiah.

Went to McDonalds for lunch, then back to the hotel. About 1:30, the hotel buddy took me to the SWETA bus terminal. He handed me off to the shuttle company dude who took me to the bus. The bus doesn't leave until 3:00, he and I talked, apparently the hotel dude made a 30,000 rupiah profit off the ticket I bought.

I was the only tourist on the bus. It's an A/C bus, with toilet. The bus left about 3:40.

Got to Labuan, Lombok about 5:45, the bus boarded a ferry, which left about 6:00, and arrived in Sumbawa about 8:00. On the ferry, the locals kept talking to me, practising their english.

Long drive across Sumbawa. About 9:45, the bus stopped at some restaurant in Timbuktu (not real name) for supper. It was free, included with the shuttle price. I may have had a glass of tap water, not sure!

Buddy beside me on the bus slept with his head on my shoulder half the night. And an old woman in front of me kept dry heaving and spitting on the walls and floor.

I dozed in and out.