A Change of Plans

We seem to be doing this a lot lately. We've changed our plans again. Nothing dramatic, but we are going to forfeit our flight from Bali to Jakarta. A word of advice for would-be-travelers to Indonesia, don't fly from Bali to Jakarta unless you are short on time or have some pressing reason to get from one big city to an even bigger one. Instead go by way of bemo or bus.

After buying a copy of the Java Lonely Planet at a used book store here and pouring over it at Ary's Warung as the rain outside poured around us, we've decided that it is better to go from East Java to West Java instead of West to East and back to West again. (Jakarta, where we catch our flight to Malaysia, is on the far West side of the island.)

Our new plans are to bus to the western side of Bali and take the fifteen minute ferry across to Java. Java is loaded with National Parks and one that sounds especially interesting, Baluran National Park, is just North of the ferry dock. From there we'll make our way to the Bromo Tengger-Semeru National Park to hike around Gunung Bromo, a still active volcano, and then continue westward toward Jakarta.

Perhaps in retrospect we should have bought the Java book sooner; but carrying too many books around can be a literal drag. Anyway its par for the course. We're entering the unknown and this is just one change we'll make in a thousand.