Seminyak to Padang Bai
I picked up my western union transfer. It is great to have money but I am so nervous about carrying around so much cash!
I Ieft Seminyak for the second time and I cycled along some really busy roads. The traffic is gross. There were pretty much no quiet moments. The cars, and especially the trucks, let out big clouds of black crap out of their exhausts every now and then and I absolutely hate having to cycle through it.
I was moving along at a reasonable pace for the majority of the day, but towards Padang Bai the traffic was just at a standstill and I just had to weave my way in and out of the cars.
I wanted to get the ferry over to Lombok today, but the ferry takes 4-5 hours, it super slow but it's also super cheap. It runs every hour, 24 hours a day. I had to cycle about 30km the other side to get to Mataram and somewhere to stay. I thought about taking the ferry at night so I could sleep on the way and then get there nice and early to cycle.
I went to speak to the man at the ferry port and by this time it was about 2:30pm and I hadn't eaten anything yet. The man said there was a ferry about to leave that I could get but there was no food on the ferry and going another 5-6 hours without food was not an appealing prospect. I asked him about the night ferry and he said I wouldn't want to arrive in the dark because the port isn't safe at night. Lots of chancers hanging around and nowhere to stay in the harbour. If I had been with someone I may have risked it but being a solo female I didn’t think it was worth the risk.
I cycled up the road and found a side street with loads of food stalls. I bought what I though was chicken satay, because when I asked if it was chicken the man said ‘yes chicken’. It wasn’t chicken, it was fish. I like fish but it was a bit of a surprise! I wasn’t confident about the amount of time they had been sitting there. On the way in to Padang Bai there were some people selling fish. Just 5 fish lined up on a board, in the sun. Made me feel ill just looking at them!
I cycled back to the ferry and considered getting on, I was being so indecisive today! But I decided that 5 bits of fish wasn't enough to sustain me for 4 hour ferry crossing. So I cycled back the way I came and I found somewhere to stay for the night. I had only cycled 57km today but I was suddenly so tired. I was also covered on a layer of grime from all the motor vehicles.
After some spicy noodles and 2 wonderfully cold refreshing mango juices I lay down and fell asleep and when I woke up I only just made it to the bathroom before I lost all of my body fluids out of my bum. Until now I have had really bad cramping in my stomach for a couple of days but not much else. Well, it’s all happening now!