What would you like to do if you pretty much have 10 days in hand with relatively low work demands? Primarily I was thinking about traveling, see the world. But you know what happens if you’re doing 1 thing too much you just want to get out of it? In my case I’ve been planning my boss’ trip to US that i think I’ve had enough dealing with travel agent, reservations and all that jazz. Enough. I think I will need my own travel planner in the future.
So back to 10 days in hand, I decided to just go back to my home town. Not the usual way, which is with jet and got there in 1.5 hrs, but the long way, overland.
I started contacting friends about possibilities there are, train or bus. I thought train would be best as it’s safer and less tiring. But as if God blessed my intention I found a better way to do it. You see a friend of mine decided to quit his job in Bali and go back for good to Jakarta. Since he got stuff to bring back in a car, he had to drive back. Car was even more attractive. I was really excited.
The four of us left Bali early morning (4 am) on Dec 20th, rode in the dark up north to Gilimanuk port. We got there around 6.30 and queue. Glad there wasn’t much queuing, because according to people I chatted with, on busy days people could queue for 3 hours! We only had to wait for 30 minutes and board the old rusty ferry and sailed away.
We reached Banyuwangi port the next hour (we slept in the car), I was even still sick from the night before. And from this port I tried to take pictures, but mind you, can’t expect much from riding in a car that went 80-100 km/hr in cloudy days. Just would like to record what I saw during our trip.
15.30 we reached Surabaya, and hooked up with V’s friend. Very lucky, his friend got spare rooms for us to stay. Met with A, O, H, B. Great group, good host. I was just grateful. We had yummm early supper at Bu Kris, the main dish were penyet (tempe, chicken and empal). Very good.
Dec 21 at 8 am we were back in the road, heading to Tegal. We got good advice which route to take, so we were very confident. V drove around 6 hours (with stops in gas station to fill up the tank and empty the bladders), and we reached Semarang.
Had late lunch at a place called Penang, ordered noodle dishes. Of course we couldn’t miss lunpia, so we had another stop to get a bite of those. It was really yummy. Another stop was souvenir shop, and we headed to Terboyo terminal as one of us were heading to Magelang and since we can’t divert too far from the northern road she’s willing to just got dropped off at Semarang and she would take a bus from there.
On the road again. V insisted to drove all the way to Tegal, although he’s driven for 3 hours and it was getting really late. I already suggested that we could just drove up to Pekalongan and look for another hotel. Well we agreed not to drive at night and it was raining hard, so the risk was getting bigger. But he insisted. Had dinner at a place called Pringjajar. It was funny place, had around 1000 ads along the road, already advertising from 30 km away. Big place, they even had magic entertainment. The waiter didn’t perform at our table though, maybe we should’ve asked.
We finally reached Tegal (thank God), it was almost 10 pm, so we just picked any hotel, paid for 1 room and added an extra bed. We were all too tired, but I really appreciate my friends who were willing to sleep on the lousy extra bed. I insisted they needed the straight bed for their back, especially we had another day to ride.
Dec 22 at 8 am we were all set to hit the road again. But V had to meet another friend, and they took us to breakfast. Heavy breakfast of soto Pekalongan (I didn’t really like it, as it has tauco on it), gule kambing and sate. Ughh.. I felt bloated, even though only had small bites to be polite.
V continued to drive, he sure got a lot of endurance. We hesitated whether to go straight to Jakarta or make another stop in Bandung. But after many considerations which mostly were not so good (long weekend means many cars from Jakarta), we decided to cancel Bandung.
We couldn’t find any place decent to had lunch so we decided to get it when we reached the city. That was a very long wait, especially when we reached the end of Cikampek toll (finally) it was pouring rain, and as we all know when it rains it means heavy traffic in Jakarta. Welcome back!!
We headed to Sudirman, stopped at BNI tower and had our long awaited lunch at Bakmi Permata. Warmed ourselves and freshened up. We were nearing the end of our journey. I don’t know about them, but I felt slightly sad. I hanged out with them for 3 days, getting to know them better and we just get along together, even in the tension of some moments. Everybody was willing; everybody was there for each other. I’m lucky to have them as friends.
I didn’t wish anything for anything for Christmas, but not only did I got my overland trip, I had great friends to share the experience with. Thanks, guys!
