In Reply to: a indo story (long) posted by Allan on Sunday, 23. November 2008 at 20:10 Bali Time:
We did a night time train trip to go visit my wifes Aunty travelling from Surabaya to Cirebon where she lives, Cirebon is a coastal city located on the mid north coast of Java.
We left Surabaya at about 9pm, quick stop at Semerang and arrived at Cirebon at about 5am in the morning after about 8 hours travel, and this was the EXPRESS Train ! We paid about 210,000 Rp (one way price) this train eventually goes right through to Jakarta.
OK, we get off the train, everything is in total darkness at the station at this hour of the morning with hardly a soul on the streets.
So how do we get to my wifes Aunties place about 4 miles away ?
No taxis here !
We looked around and found a group of Rickshaws and there was a few there with the drivers sleeping in them !
OMG we must have looked so funny, the size of rickshaws vary a bit fron city to city, and here they were really small. There was a small seat up front with barely enough room for 2 people to sit, and the driver pedalling behind.
We had to hire 2, me in one holding our suitcase and my wife in the other. It turned out to be fun, as we were the only traffic on the roads (jalans) at this time of the morning.
Just imagine 2 indonesian rickshaw riders trying to race each other through the streets and laneways to get us to our destination.
I was both hanging on hard with on hand onto the rickshaw to stop falling out and the other hand holding onto oursuitcase so that would not go flying out ! LOL !
With a bit of imagination this could easily have been a scene out of a James Bond Movie scene, racing around the old oriental streets of Cirebon !
Anyhow we got to my wifes Auntys place OK, she was very happy and excited to see us both. A very nice elderly woman whom is struggling with kidney disease :( She was very welcoming and made us feel at home, even though her house is very meagre comprising only 2 small bedrooms, a loungeroom, tiny kitchen area, and the rear end of the house is really old with a squat toilet and bucket shower. You had to draw water from a old well which is actually situated inside the rear of the house !
have fun in bali everyone, and get to see more of indonesia if you can some time :) Cheers.