So when I left off, Adam and I had just arrived at what we thought was the rim of the crater in Bromo Tenggeru National Park. Our intent was to wake up early at 3am and hike to the top of Mount Bromo, the active volcano in the center of the crater, to watch the sunrise. Turns out we got sheisted by a tour operator (surprise!) and he only took us about two thirds up the crater. We had no idea though because it was dark when we arrived. AND it was dark when we woke up at 3am and started walking! THIS MEANS we had to walk 7km uphill to reach the actual top of the crater! The entire time we were like "why the hell are we still going uphill? Where's the rim of the crater?" Jerks! I almost died of exhaustion, and we thought we were going to miss the sunrise! The only thing that saved up was the fact that Adam forgot to adjust his watch to the right time the last time we jumped time zones, and we actually woke up at 2am!
So upon FINALLY reaching the rim of the crater and shaking off tout after tout trying to sell us 1km motorbike rides for $10, we started the descent inside and across the massive sand sea to the smoking Mount Bromo. It was still dark though so we had no idea where we were going. Then, like something out of a videogame, some small man galloped up to us on a horse and offered assistance for a modest $2. We agreed and he showed us the way. At one point, my body totally gave out so he threw me on top of his horse for the rest of the way. We finally reached the base of the volcano and climbed to the top as the sun was coming up. It was beautiful too. The light illuminated the mist that rolled across the sand sea, and the surrounding mountains radiated a bright orange. We could also see deep into the volcano and smell the acrid stench of the sulfur rising up from within it.
After pulling myself together I grabbed some shots. It was cold too! The mountain itself is about 2500m above sea level and the temperature was about 8 degrees. So we hung out for a bit before heading back to the rim of the crater to get breakfast. Afterwards, we decided to hike up the the highest point of the crater to grab the so-called "postcard perfect" shot of all three mountains lined up inside the crater. It was another hour hike, but we made it up and got the shot. Unfortunately, the tallest mountain was partly obscured by clouds, but it still looked great. Thankfully our trek back to the hotel wasn't that brutal thanks to the goodness of mankind willing to taxi us the 7km of mountain we were not spared earlier that morning.
Out of sheer insanity, we decided to check out of the hotel at 3pm that day and embark on another 12 hour bus ride, this time to Yogyakarta. The trip started when we caught an insanely overcrowded bus down the mountain. This bus was literally hemorrhaging people. There were four dudes hanging off of the back, four hanging off of the side and god knows how many on the roof. Inside it was a hot mosh pit of farmers and us. At the bottom we grabbed dinner with some French girls we met on the bus ride and hopped onto our next vessel for the subsequent 12 hour journey to Central Java.
This ride was pretty bad too. Even though we could recline our seats fully, we couldn't sleep for more than a 2 hour stretch. The driver was whizzing around cars and doing some serious nuts-in-throat lane changes. The driver's girlfriend also tagged along for the ride, and at one point, some random dude jumped in the back for about an hour then jumped out. We reached Yogyakarta at 5am, which, by the way, is the WORST TIME to EVER get into a city. Mainly because all of the hotels were booked, the touts were out in droves trying to sell us sunrise package deals to Borobudur and the few places that had room were trying to count the next 24 hours as a 2 night stay.
We ran into a few travelers that were in the same predicament as us and spent the next 2 hours together waiting for some of the places to clear out. Even after some places cleared out, it was still a while before we could find a decent room for a decent price. One place had red ants all over the bed! It also didn't help that is was the weekend of Nyepi, a major Balinese holiday, so a lot of places were booked for the next few days. We found a nice place though. It had no windows, but that turned out to be a blessing in that the sunlight could not bother us as we slept the entire day.
So that's it so far. We plan on spending the next few days here in Yogyakarta. It's supposed to be the best city in all of Indonesia, and it's only a short hop away from Borobudur and Prambanan, two of the most insane temple complexes in the country. We'll check those out tomorrow morning. Tonight I am just going to relax and thank Allah I'm not on a cross country bus. As long as he keeps his 4am call to prayers a respectable distance from my hotel window.
Addendum: So I mentioned how I burned my leg on a motorbike exhaust pipe a few entries back. Well, the burn has quickly gone from fleshy mound to Resident Evil (potentially NSFW link here). Luckily, we ran into a fellow backpacker who happened to be a nurse and she told us that what I was doing to treat the would was completely wrong, and offered to dress it up for me. Awesome. Hopefully when I remove the bandages, it won't look like friggin' monstrosity anymore.
Here's the pics I promised:
Sunrise on Gili Trawangan.
Fast boat back to Bali.
Kecak performance in Ubud.
Crazy McBastard kicking hot coconut husks all over us.
Monkey Forest in Ubud.
No, it's not cute. He murdered someone to get that banana.
These kids thought we were pretty cool. Very rural Bali.
Swimming in a secret jungle river grotto, Ubud.
Nyepi is on March 16 and is the Balinese day of silence. Everything on the island shuts down completely for the whole day, including the airports and streetlights. Either before or after, they have a celebration which includes floats and gamelan performances. I swung by a temple and snapped a few shots of some unfinished floats and gamelan rehearsals.
Sunrise from atop Mount Bromo.
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sweeeeet burn!!
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