Lebaran Holiday: Part III of III

Here is how the end of my Lebaran Holiday went down. Hope you enjoy.

Day 10 — The morning of Day 10 marked the last time that we had a place to call home on Gili T. We were unable to book the speed boat back to Bali on Day 10, so we were scheduled to return on Day 11. This meant that we were without a bed for the night: much worse things have happened.

We all slept in and eventually got up and got all of our things packed away. We all went to a restaurant on the beach for brunch; I had the breakfast burrito. It, like all the other meals on the island, was fantastic. After that, Aaron and Trevor (who were spending one more night on Gili T) were nice enough to let us throw our bags in their room for the day/night. Aaron, Eli, Nate, and I ended up walking along the south end of Gili T that afternoon to take in the beach one last time. It was our last day on Gili T, and we wanted to enjoy as much of the good food as possible, so we ended up eating two dinners: one entrée of fish and chips and one entrée of fish curry. I really cannot stress how good the food was on this vacation.

After having a few Bintangs at the Thai restaurant, we meandered down to Aaron’s hotel room. The floor was tile, but he said we were more than welcome to sleep there if we wanted. Eli and I decided that we would do that instead of trying to find a comfortable place on the beach. I still don’t know if we made the right decision. It was a pretty brutal night of sleep, but nothing too bad.

Day 11 — I woke up really early on Day 11 from my night of “sleep” and went walking along the beach before our speed boat left at 11:00am to take us back to Bali. I did not quite make it to the beach in time to see the sunrise, but I did still get to see some amazing views of the sun rising with the mountains on Lombok in the background (pictured below).

We boarded the speed boat back to Bali without Nate. He had already made plans to go to Lombok and try surfing with some other BBS teachers for a few days. I was so tired from the vacation that I slept through the entire trip (which is no small feat with how rocky the waves were that day). Once we reached Bali, Amy, Eli, and Kavitha headed to the airport to try and fly back to Jakarta (Amy and Kavi) and Semarang (Eli). Cory and I decided that since we still had 5 days until we absolutely had to be back in Jakarta, we would go visit Malang and see what Brad’s home city was all about. For $27, we got on a van that took us from Bali all the way to Malang (pictured below: outside of van; inside of van).

The chairs were surprisingly comfortable; they were very similar to Village bus seats—there were just only 9 of them. The 3 of us took up the 3 seats in the back row. We started our trek around 6:00pm. Brad said that the trip from Malang to Bali (he took the same bus to start the vacation) took him about 16 hours. Cory and I had prepared for a long trip, but we were excited for the experience and the cheap price. About 2 hours into our journey, we stopped at a Chinese restaurant for our complimentary meal where they had set up a buffet of fried noodles, steamed rice, veggies, and chicken (pictured below).

We climbed back into the van and continued driving through Bali. Once we reached the western tip of Bali, we jumped on a ferry that shuttled us back to the east end of Java Island. The seats were comfortable enough and we were tired enough that the 3 of us slept almost the entire trip. All I remember about the ferry was the van backing on to the ship, parking, me passing out again, and me waking up as we left the ship. I have no idea how long the ferry ride was, but it could not have been longer than 90 minutes (that is a total guess). Once we got back on the road, I fell asleep again. The next thing I knew, we were in Malang approaching Brad’s house (he lives in a large house with fellow BBS teachers in Malang). We arrived in Malang around 5:00am. Given the one-hour time change, the trip only took about 12 hours. Very fast. We got to Brad’s place and rested for about an hour and a half more before starting our time in Malang.

Day 12 — Brad, Cory, and I went adventuring around Malang our first morning there. We went walking for a while until we saw a travel agency where Cory and I hoped we would be able to book a flight/train/something back to Jakarta. Malang is about a 2-hour drive from Surabaya (the second largest city in Indonesia) and we were able to book a flight from there to Jakarta for $52. After walking around some more, we stumbled upon this throw-back restaurant that looked like it was straight out of the 50s. For $4 I had an amazing sandwich (pictured below) that had (from top to bottom): shredded cheese, fresh slice of bread, onions and honey mustard, fresh slice of bread, grilled chicken and tomatoes, fresh slice of bread, roast beef and lettuce, fresh slice of bread.

After lunch, we went to a mall in Malang. I had my first difficulty with my phone during the vacation, but there was a very nice young woman at the mall who helped me get everything up and running again. Cory was excited because he was able to get a good deal on a large backpack meant for camping/hiking. After the mall, we went to a grocery store to buy food for that evening. We got some ground beef for burgers and a few other snacks. Brad and Cory were our chefs for the evening and did a phenomenal job with the burgers. They mashed onions into the beef patties and did it right by melting the cheese onto the burgers on the grill (pictured below: Cory and Brad grilling).

The meal was lovely and it was a great time to sit around and chat with some great people. One of the second-year teachers from our school, Ryan, was visiting a fellow Filipino friend in Malang at the same time, so we were able to hang out with him. I had spent some time with Ryan before, but not a whole lot. He is a great dude and it was awesome getting to know him better during my time in Malang.

Day 13 — We had planned for Day 13 to be of the relaxed variety, so we went to another mall in Malang hoping to grab some grub and then maybe catch a movie. I thought that there were no other white people (“bule” is the term for white person in Bahasa Indonesian) in Jakarta, but there really were no other white people in Malang. The fact that there were 3 bules at the mall together blew people’s minds. The glances/stares/photo requests are still fun for me, but I can sense myself starting to get a little annoyed with them. It will be interesting to see how long it is until I get really annoyed with the attention. Anyway, the movies available at the mall were awful. I don’t even remember any of their titles. So we went walking along the streets of Malang (pictured below).

There were a lot of individual stores on the streets and I gave in to my Indonesian addiction—buying soccer jerseys. I bought a Barca jersey for $3 (pictured below).

After walking around for a while, we stumbled upon a college campus in Malang. We went walking around and none of the buildings seemed too interesting. We ducked our heads into a couple of buildings, but they were your typical campus buildings: just a lot of offices. One man came up and started a conversation with us. Usually if someone speaks no English there is about 15-seconds where they talk, we listen with blank looks on our faces, and then they leave. This guy, speaking nothing but Bahasa, just kept talking. He was talking for a good 4 minutes while the whole time we are standing there saying, “Maaf, saya tida bisa Bahasa Indonesian” (Sorry, I don’t speak Bahasa Indonesian). It was quite humorous.

That night, Brad took us to a place called KL Express. It was a really chill place where there was a live band and we could sit around drinking beers and smoking some hookah. For this hookah, we got cappuccino flavored. I can’t really decide if I liked it or not, but it had a distinct cappuccino flavor which I thought was pretty cool. Anyway, the plan was for us to hang and eventually get some food there. None of the stuff there looked particularly appetizing, so we just sat there and drank one-too-many Bali Hais before calling a taxi home. Earlier in the day, Brad and Cory had wanted to grab some McDonald’s at the mall, but the only McDonald’s at the mall served only ice cream treats (not a rare occurrence at Indonesian malls). So Brad had the play of the night by asking the taxi driver to stop by a McDonald’s on the way back to his place. I lasted almost 7 weeks in Indonesia without getting any American fast-food (sans the KFC that the school has provided for us twice). But I do have to say, the BigMac and fries were very tasty (pictured below).

Day 14 — We slept in on our last day in Malang. We didn't have to be back to Brad’s place until 5:00pm to catch our ride to the Surabaya airport with Ryan (who was flying out at a similar time on a different airline). For lunch, we went to the local golf club where there is a very nice restaurant tucked into a gorgeous little area (pictured below).

The food there was terrific and it was a great way to sit back and relax with two good friends. It is crazy to think that I have known Brad since the UNI Fair, and that we never get to see each other because he is in East Java and I am in West Java. It is also crazy to think that I have known Cory for just under 2 months, and that I have been able to bond so well with him and experience so many awesome things in our short time together.

Cory and I got into the car that was going to shuttle us to the Surabaya airport and settled in for a long night of travel. The countryside around Malang is amazing. The city is surrounded by mountains, and the scene got even more beautiful on our ride to the airport (pictured below).

We got to the airport very early. We arrived around 7:00pm and our flight wasn’t until 10:30. It was another good chance to chat with Ryan and get to know him and his story a little better. We parted ways right at 10:00 and headed for our gates. Ryan’s flight had no trouble, but Cory and I were not as fortunate. Our flight ended up being delayed until 12:30am. The flight on the way to Bali to begin the trip was on time and the seat was plenty big enough for me to sit comfortably. Our Lion Air flight home was delayed and may have been the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been on an airplane. It was only a 1 hour and 20 minute flight, so it was nothing that was unbearable, but it certainly made me happy to be home when we finally got back to our apartment shortly after 3:00am.

I know I sound like a broken record player, but I am so blessed and so fortunate to be in the situation that I am. I have been surrounded by amazing people and been able to see a lot of amazing things in Indonesia, so far. I was skyping with my mom the other night and I told her, “Mom, this is crazy. I only get to do this (what I have experienced so far) 11 more times. I can’t believe 2 months have already passed.”

It is back to business in Jakarta, now. I was spoiled only teaching the first 3 weeks of school before a 2-week break. Now, I have 7 weeks of doing what brought me to this amazing country before I depart on my next adventure. As always, thank you so much for reading and keeping up on my whereabouts. It means so much to me to have everyone’s support while I am here.

God Bless!