Day 8: TANJUNG PUTING - PANGKALANBUN - SEMARANG - SOLO
Friday, June 17, 2011
Today ends our little foray into Borneo and within a few hours we have to take a flight from Borneo to Java, before we make our way to Solo.
Nor do we need an alarm clock today. At 5.30 in the morning we began to wake up and order all things.
We have to recognize that we would have followed this adventure on the days that would have been needed. It has been an incredible experience, which we will never forget in our trip to Indonesia
They serve us breakfast in the klotok and we take it easy, savoring it, knowing that it will be the last time we can do it that way.
After breakfast we realize that we are almost arriving at the port and that now yes, our adventure is over.
We do the same route but the reverse of 3 days ago.
When we arrive at the port of Kumai, we say goodbye to all the people who have shared with us these days and this time we look back.
We get in the car that is waiting for us and that Rudi drives and we go to the airport to take our flight from Borneo to Java. Today we return to the island of Java.
We arrived at the airport an hour before our flight leaves and Rudi helps us with all the paperwork. He leaves us at the boarding gate and we say goodbye to him telling him that we hope to return and that we thank him for all the attention he has given us during these days.
In the end the flight leaves half an hour late and after having told us that here the flights are delayed or canceled very easily, we can not feel happier. We will only arrive 30 minutes late.
After a flight from Borneo to Java Just under an hour, we arrived in Semarang without problems.
Once we collect the luggage, we go to the taxi area, to order one until Java only.
They tell us that it will be 360000 rupees and the truth is that we do not feel like haggling (apart from that it is an official taxi and we do not believe it can be), there we go.
We have 2 and a half hours of travel ahead.
These are spent looking at the landscape, reviewing the guide ... and sleeping a little.
Java landscapes
The landscape is different from what we have been seeing these days, so it seems that it does not attract much attention.
We see that we are back in Java again, that is undeniable and it seems incredible that we can deduce it only from the landscape.
We arrive at the hotel at 3 in the afternoon and after checking in we go directly to the O Solo Mio restaurant in Alone, recommended in the guide. And without a doubt, they make one of the best pizza we've ever had.
We eat the 2 for 371000 rupees and we go to one of the car rental agencies named in the guide.
We have it near the Hotel Novotel Solo, so we walk and take the opportunity to get to know a little of the Solo city.
Once we arrive and ask, they tell us that it is impossible to take us to Malang.
Tomorrow's planning is to go to Malang, from where we will do the Bromo tour, stopping along the way in a couple of temples near Solo.
We know they are many hours away, but we do not understand why the refusal.
We ask 10 times and they keep telling us no. This is where our “fear” begins, because they just tell us to take a bus, but it leaves at 10 at night and we have to be there tomorrow night, since we have hired the Bromo tour and this one It leaves at dawn.
After touring 3 travel agencies, plus the reception of the Hotel Novotel Solo, Roger decides to ask directly to a taxi in the street, just in front of the hotel and what a surprise we take when we see that he does not give us a refusal for an answer.
We haggle a bit with a whole group of taxi drivers that we “win” with a few smiles and some other comments from Barça.
More practical information to prepare your trip to Indonesia
- 10 essential places to visit in Indonesia
- 10 essential tips for traveling to Indonesia
In the end the price is a bit high, but after the hotel asked us for 3 million rupees, we have agreed to pay Rs 950000 to the taxi driver for about 7 hours of travel, plus the visit to a couple of temples near Solo and the taxi driver's return to Solo.
So more or less we estimate that tomorrow's day will be about 11 hours, more than half of them by car.
Long live travel and vacations.
And with the accumulated fatigue, today we do not want to do anything else, so we go straight to dinner and to bed to rest, that bargaining and negotiations have left us k.o.
Today has been a day of transfers and we are exhausted. It is time to fall in our room at the Hotel Novotel Solo.
Tomorrow we go to Malang.
Day 9ONLY - CANDI CETHO - CANDI SUKUH- MALANG
