To cut a long story short, we were imprisoned for 36 hours.
To get from Batam (a little Indonesian island next to Singapore) to Jakarta overland, we needed to get a 36 hour ferry. Fine.
The problem was, because we are on a budget trip, we were in third class. Our "accommodation" was in the bowels of the ship, just above the water level, and was a room filled with cardboard mattresses. It was also filled with grime, flies, rats, cockroaches (everywhere!) and smoking locals.
The floor of the toilet/shower was 3 inches underwater and someone had obviously had terrible diarrhoea as that floated across the surface.
After finding our toilets in this state, we went for a wander up towards second class. First problem, we were locked into the third class decks. We actually felt like we were stuck down on the Titanic but without the sense of impending doom bit. After a while of wandering, we managed to get out and up to second class where we found all the toilets locked and when we asked, were told that OUR toilets were downstairs but they had a burst pipe. For which they were sorry. Brilliant.
But on a positive note, we did manage to get outside onto the deck and even caught a faint waft of air con from first class. And we did get 4 meals included on our ticket. Dinner on the first night was half a fish and a cup of rice. Breakfast was a cup of rice and a small square of leathery pancake (?). Lunch was a fish head and a cup of rice. No prizes for guessing dinner on the second night too! Did I mention, there were 45 stowaway refugees too?
To get us through, we played copious amounts of cards and talked loads of rubbish. But we did make it, to Jakarta, Indonesia!
None of this was a lie or even an exaggeration. We should have just flown. From Bali, we're flying to Darwin. Definitely!
To get from Batam (a little Indonesian island next to Singapore) to Jakarta overland, we needed to get a 36 hour ferry. Fine.
The problem was, because we are on a budget trip, we were in third class. Our "accommodation" was in the bowels of the ship, just above the water level, and was a room filled with cardboard mattresses. It was also filled with grime, flies, rats, cockroaches (everywhere!) and smoking locals.
The floor of the toilet/shower was 3 inches underwater and someone had obviously had terrible diarrhoea as that floated across the surface.
After finding our toilets in this state, we went for a wander up towards second class. First problem, we were locked into the third class decks. We actually felt like we were stuck down on the Titanic but without the sense of impending doom bit. After a while of wandering, we managed to get out and up to second class where we found all the toilets locked and when we asked, were told that OUR toilets were downstairs but they had a burst pipe. For which they were sorry. Brilliant.
But on a positive note, we did manage to get outside onto the deck and even caught a faint waft of air con from first class. And we did get 4 meals included on our ticket. Dinner on the first night was half a fish and a cup of rice. Breakfast was a cup of rice and a small square of leathery pancake (?). Lunch was a fish head and a cup of rice. No prizes for guessing dinner on the second night too! Did I mention, there were 45 stowaway refugees too?
To get us through, we played copious amounts of cards and talked loads of rubbish. But we did make it, to Jakarta, Indonesia!
None of this was a lie or even an exaggeration. We should have just flown. From Bali, we're flying to Darwin. Definitely!
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