We got up at about 5AM this morning to make the trek from Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia to Mataram, Lombok, Indonesia (a neighboring island). We got up, showered, ate a hurried breakfast and got in our pre-arranged ride back to the ferry landing at Padang Bai. 1.5 hours later, we arrive in Padang Bai, buy our tickets for the next ferry (8 AM), bought and then returned tickets for a ride into town for after we landed (the ride needed us to wait for the 9am ferry, which was going to make us late... they suggested we just find a taxi on arrival instead).
The 8AM ferry finally departed, right on the dot... at 8:45. We could have hired a speed boat for the crossing for a bit more money to make the crossing in 1/4 the time, but that speed comes at the price of essentially playing Russian Roulette with your chances of ever arriving. The boats are known for their lack of appropriate seaworthiness and safety gear (not a good combo). 4 hours and 15 minutes on the ferry later, we arrive in Lembar, Lombok (for those of you following along on Google Maps), only to discover there's not a single taxi in site. It seems there's an agreement that taxis are allowed in only to drop off, not to pick up. After asking around, we manage to barter our way into a ride into Mataram (our intended destination) for about $10 (it's a 25km ride).
At 2pm, we FINALLY arrive at our destination, the Immigration Office, where we'd desperately been trying to arrive at BEFORE 2pm, since we thought that might be the cut-off time for what we needed to do there. You see, our Visas expire in about 5 days, and we came all the way to this Immigration Office partly because it was kind of close to another place we wanted to go (the Gili Islands), and partly because we were told this was the office with the fastest processing times. Fortunately, when we walked in the door, the office was still open! Yay!
Alas. The counter we needed to use for our Visas was closed. They closed at 12 noon... TODAY ONLY. It seems tomorrow is a huge Muslim holiday (the day of the local Haj pilgrimage to Mecca). Tomorrow the office is closed entirely. This particular office, miraculously, is also open on Saturdays, though. Any luck there? Nope. Thank you random holiday we had no way of knowing about! Come back on Monday. Monday is Oct 29. Our visas are officially expired on Oct 30. Fortunately, the people who ARE still working in the office at this point are very nice, and assure us that coming in on Monday is not a problem .
Still... that means we're stuck in Mataram, a town with nothing in it for tourists other than this office, and which we had only planned on spending one night. 4 days is not enough to go to a different island and come back, and at this point, no other office can help us but this one. All other offices need you to come at least a week early, whereas this one does 3 day turn-around by default, and can do it same day for a small extra fee. They can do that precisely BECAUSE there’s nothing for tourists to do here, so their queues are very short.
Since the lady helping us was so patient, kind and understanding, Jime asks her if she can help us by calling a cab. No problem. We grab our cab, and start heading to the little hotel in the middle of nowhere that we had picked out (it’s sole “features” were that it was cheap, relatively well-reviewed, and close to other hotels). The cab driver turns out to speak very good English, and also was quite chatty. We tell him our story. We tell him how because of this holiday we didn’t know about, we missed our window by 2.5 hours, which now meant we were stuck in town for 4 days. He tells us we should absolutely get the hell out of this town and go to the beach in Senggigi. We wondered how far away that was, thinking that maybe we’d bite the bullet and arrange a ride there for tomorrow.
Instead, he tells us he knows Senggigi very well. It will only cost you around $5 to get there from here, and will take about 30 minutes. In fact, if we had gone straight there from the Immigration Office, it would have been $4. Jime and I look at each other… “Should we?” “You know? Fuck it. Let’s do it!” So off we went! Just for fun, he showed us the Mall (since we were right next to it at the time anyway) and lets us know we have now seen the main feature of the city.
And… here we are. Not only was the cab driver spot on with his estimate of the cost (we were on the meter the whole time), but he even knew the town well enough to recommend hotels for us, based on the cost we wanted. We are now at the Made Home Stay (pronounced, as if it were Spanish, as “MAH-deh”). It’s $10/night for a double bed with a fan, private bath, WiFi, and breakfast included. It’s right across the street from the beach. Somewhere around here, there will be snorkeling. I also happen to know there’s even a place SOMEWHERE around here where I can finally try a cup of Kopi Luwak, something I will only get to do once in my life, and can’t easily do in any other place in the world than Indonesia (only 500-700kg total of beans are produced per year, for many reasons).
In the end, it may not have been the destination we had in mind, but we could do a hell of a lot worse. If we are going to be stuck, we’re happy being stuck in Senggigi.
Fortuitous!
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