Planes, Trains, & Automobiles…..and Ships

In the next 72 hours we’ll hike to a 3726 meter summit and sleep on the side of a slightly active volcano (the same volcano that’s been dominating my horizon the last 5 days and taunting me). This island is a huge draw for diving. The extend of my time in the water has been limited at best – its just too perfect above the waterline. Everyone comes and dives and gets certified andsnorkel, and bla and bla and bla. I strut by the diving schools and immediately turn my head 180 degrees east and fix in on Gunung Rinjani.

Its the second tallest volcano in Indonesia….and if you ever took ‘Earthquakes and Volcanoes’ (aka ‘Shake ‘n Bake’ — aaka ‘easy jock course 101’) with Thomas Manley (aka P_ _ _ _ Manley) for an easy J-Term ‘B+’ you’d know Indonesia has just a few volcanoes. Anyway, Rinjani…big volcano.

So at dawn on Tuesday morning, while you guys are cracking beers and getting into Monday Night Football, I’ll be watching the sun rise from the summit of a volcano. Not a bad view. Just ask Thomas O’Neil Jr.

PLANES:
After three days on the mountain we get a ride to Mataram airport on Lombok (Scott: this is where the rubber band planes come in). Thirty minute flight from Lombok to Denpasar, Bali. Its twice as cheap to fly one-way ($27usd) between the islands then it was to take the 2.5 hour ferry (which we did). Get into Bali at 8pm and crash with our old cook Lilis.

AUTOMOBILES:
We spend the day in Bali ditching all the stuff we packed we don’t need. Why? Cause the holiday is over. Its time to start getting dirty. Fitz knows it. I know it. Fitz is ready for it. I’m ready for it. Repack and have Toya (best driver on the island) drive us the 3 hours out to the western tip of the island, home to the transit town of Gilimanuk – staging point for our assault on Java. Spend the night there and up at 6am….why?…

SHIPS:
…to catch the hour-long ferry from Gilimanuk (Bali) to Ketapang (Java). Then procure some mode of transportation to get us the hour south to Banyuwangi. At which point…

TRAINS:
…we navigate the local train station…and get ourselves on the 5 hour train…to some town I can’t remember the name of…where we sleep for the night…then wake up real early at dawn………and see It: Bromo….

I’ll be back online when I’m back online….

Thanks for reading.