Omaha! Omaha! Hut!

We’re calling an audible today as there is no good news on the volcano front. Planes still aren’t flying into Bali, so the airline is planning on moving passengers to a new hotel and trying again in tomorrow. That means our best case scenario is arriving at 24 hours from now, and then only if the volcano cooperates. The alternative is to improvise, and through a combination of flying, driving and taking a ferry, be certain that this time tomorrow we’ll be in Bali.

It takes a bit of convincing as my travel companions are fairly comfortably settled into their hotel room, but we see few redeeming qualities in Jakarta and ultimately decide to part ways with our fellow passengers and head off on our own. Our first step is a short flight to Surabaya, which gets us about two thirds of the way there in just over an hour. There, we manage to cobble together a rag tag group of travelers and rent a bus, for what Google claims should be a 5 hour drive to the ferry crossing at Banyuwangi.

Precisely 8 hours later, we pull onto a boat that looks like it was only recently dredged up from the bottom of the sea. It does have bathrooms however, and after such a long drive, someone is more than looking forward to squatting over a hole in the floor and working the flush bucket. While she is waiting, she entertains us with her best Grumpy Cat impression.

After a bit more than an hour on the ferry, we finally step foot on Bali, and are met by a driver from the house we rented on AirBnB. He tells us we have 2 more hours in the car to get to the village where we are staying, but as the sun starts to peek over the mountains, we at least know there is light at the end of the tunnel.