We should have been heading for Solo but for some reason Leighton suddenly announced, last night, that we were now going to Ngawi. He said by missing out Solo we would cut the following days 14 hour journey to Mt Bromo down to only 7. It seemed reasonable to have two 7 hour trips, however, we arrived at the non-discript shit hole of a town after only three and half hours so we couldn't workout how it saved any time. When we looked at the map Solo and Ngawi were quite close.
I can't remember much about the journey, according to Anne I fell asleep. It's quite easy to do it because we have so much room on the bus and it's quiet with the noisey ones staying behind in Thailand for the full moon party on Koh Penang. We've heard that Mike has been beaten up along with J.P Duggan who's also broken his arm in a seperate incident, Das fell off a bike and has seriously damaged his foot and Geof has burnt the back of his neck playing with fire. We'll find out the details in Bali when they all turn up in a few days time.
We arrived at the Hotel Sukowati which looked modern with good facilities at 3.30pm. Our room was ok but very small and hot and the air con was pretty poor. It seems the town was over a kilomotre away from the hotel and when I asked the receptionist for a map of the area he took me outside to show me a map of Indonesia on the wall. During our conversation a Greek from Melbourne, very proud of his association with it and its' culture, gave me the lowdown on the town. In short too far, nothing to see, don't go. I'm glad we took his advice within an hour the heavens really opened and I think there must be a god because Leighton got drowned and spent most of the night trying to dry out his passport with Anne's hairdryer.
We spent the afternoon drinking Bintang and, as dusk descended, watching the most amazing bat catching large insects outside the hotel reception. As he turned and crossed in front of the large moonshaped forecourt lights with his large transparent wings stretched out it looked like a scene from a Hammer horror film. I also saw a very large brown rat scurry across the hotel drive. When the ones who went straight off to town returned they confirmed the Melbourne Greek's assessment. Scooby who can always find danger but who alas has been very quiet since leaving the others behind in Thailand told us as we ate dinner how he stepped back into what he thought was dog poo but on looking down found it was a dead rat which had swollen in the sun and then exploded under his weight.
Needles to say that surprisingly the food at night was good. Went to bed with little to write home about. The bat was the highspot of the day for me but not Scooby.
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