June 4: Take me to Bali or lose me forever!

Mt. Bromo will definitely be a highlight of the trip and probably a highlight of our lives as well... however the rest of the day went horribly horribly wrong. It's hardly worth writing about and I should probably just forget it, but what fun is that? Basically what was supposed to be a 5 or 6 hour day doubled into a 12 hour day traveling from Java to Bali. We were shuffled around and packed into various sweatbox buses that moved for 5 minutes and stopped for 20. Smoking was totally appropriate and musicians came on at every single stop to play various instruments and then ask for money. I'm not sure if it was a high or a low, but at one point, around 10pm just before we made it to the ferry to Bali, a guy came on with a portable karaoke machine and shouted into his mic the lyrics to what he considered music. All of us tourists on the bus (there were about 10 of us) looked around at each other and couldn't help but laugh. But underneath it all, our sore soppy bums stuck to the plastic seats, could hardly take much more. After the ferry from Java, we had officially made it to Bali. Pete and I had called ahead and arranged a taxi who drove us to our gorgeous hotel with a warm outdoor shower, AC and a cozy bed. The rest of the poor folk on the bus continued for 4 more hours to Denpasar... We are just about to go meet up with a girl who we met along the way and she will give us the rest of the story from that hellish bus.