It’s Just after midday here in Java and the pair of us are aboard the Mutiara Timur train from Surabaya heading to Ketapang. The torrential rains we had yesterday cleared overnight. Today the weather’s cloudy and overcast with the occasional patch pf blue sky – just to tease!

The Mutiara is made up of older coaches compared to the past couple of services we’ve used. Even so, ‘Executif’ is still comfortable and the air conditioning is set to a reasonable level other than deep freeze. The buffet car is of similar age, but at least we have one.

After leaving Surabaya we were back on a traditional railway with single track controlled by semaphore signals and absolute block working. Equipment that’s been serving the railways since the Dutch era. I’ll describe the journey at greater length when we get to Bali as it’s worth writing about. Java has 45 volcanoes and this line passes several. Seeing then emerge out of tge clouds as we pass really is rather spectacular. I’ll add some pictures just as soon as I can.

Right now, we’re between Probolinggo (the station for people visiting the incredible Mount Bromo) and Tanggul, passing through a landscape rich in rice paddies, Maize and sugar cane. The further East we go, the more rugged the countryside becomes.

16:55.

Having traversed beautiful Java through some wonderfully fertile and rugged countryside, we arrived at Ketapang in the middle of a torrential rainstorm! However, that didn’t dampen our spirits and after a short walk from station to port, we’re now on a ferry like this for the trip across to Bali.

00:00.

It’s just after midnight here in Ubud, where we arrived around half an hour ago after a four hour 20 minute journey by road from the ferry terminal at Gilimanuk. The road from the port to Denpasar, the Balinese capital is the islands equivalent of the M1. Unless stuff comes in by air or one of the other seaports like Padangbai, virtually everything that’s used on the island that isn’t home produced comes via Gilimanuk. The only problem is their M1 is a normal single carriageway for most of its length – and a single carriageway that follows the contours of the undulating island to boot. It’s chokka with lard-butt trucks of all sizes and cars – with scooters and motorbikes dashing in between them like minnows. It makes for a very interesting journey – especially in the dark!

But we made it. Now to get ourselves settled here in Ubud. There’s no railways on the island but there’s plenty of other things to keep my camera occupied, although tomorrow’s going to be given over to relaxing and getting used to the changes and developments in a place that was once so familiar.

See you tomorrow…

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