Travel like a local – Bali to Java

As soon as we got to the bus station and went to the ticket booth, the price that was quoted was double the regular amount the locals pay. After a bit of a struggle, we managed to buy our 90000IDR economy tickets, which include ferry ride and go directly to Banyuwangi…so they said. We boarded a pretty modern bus, put our luggage in the trunk and it was all looking pretty good. After we started the journey, the bus stopped literally 200 meters away and we were redirected to another bus. We had to transfer our luggage and find some space for it in the „new” rusty vehicle. There was no air-con and most of the passengers were smoking one cigaret after another, simply throwing butts on the floor. There was loud, overwhelming music in the speakers  and although the bus seemed pretty full we were still waiting for more passengers, and finally departured  30 minutes later. There were yet more people to board. They just stand on the side of the road and yell at the bus to stop and the  driver did so every 5 min to pick up additional passengers. Then, the bus stopped again just on the side of the road for about 45 mins. It turned out that the passengers from the another  bus would be squeezed in with us. The crowd was sitting in the middle of the vehicle on the plastic stolls – quite a solution.  Meanwhile, another western looking couple was struggling to find a place for themselves on the bus. Our hearts were a little bit lifted that we are not the only tourists going through that misery.