Blogs from Bromo Tengger Semeru, Java, Indonesia, Asia - page 5

Another epic journey, but at least this one went pretty smoothly, just 10 hours and we nearly died on several occasions with our MAD mini van driver, who overtook anything and everyone, even when there was a extra large and fast lorry coming the other way, even Stu was holding on! But we arrived up high in the mountains around 9pm, checked into our home stay, which was very basic but fine for a nights sleep, well i say a night, it was about 5hours. We had a VERY early wake up call 3.30am to leave for the volcano at 4am, we had a 4x4 Land Cruiser Jeep, which took us right up to the top for a viewing point for sunrise and it was amazing (too many tourists though!), we were at 2770m up. The ... read more

Let's see. When last I left off, we were passing the time in Lovina bar, enjoying some Bintang and the sunset. It was easily the prettiest sunset we saw in Indonesia, so I've included a picture here. Around 6:30 we harassed our waitress for our bill, and made our way back back to the hotel to pick up our bags. We learned that the tourist agent who had booked our bus to Probolinggo was frantically searching for us. Apparently the 7 pm bus actually left at 6:45 and they were waiting on us to leave. We raced to the bus, enduring a scolding from the driver (she actually hit Wes!) and settled into our seats for the 7 1/2 hour ride to Probolinggo on the island of Java. A half hour into our ride we made ... read more

We were promised an air con minibus to pick us up at 8am for our long journey to Gunung (Mount) Bromo. What did we get? A rickety old minibus with an exceedingly grumpy, madman, chain smoking driver and air con which was warm and as strong as a baby's sigh! What made it worse was that whenever the driver wanted a fag (which seemed to be every 10 minutes), he rolled down his window thereby cancelling the effect of the very weak air con. Thanks to the crazy weaving in and out of traffic and high speed driving over speed bumps we arrived into Solo desperately needing a wee...good job we had to stop to collect other people for the rest of the journey to Bromo. In addition to ourselves, we were sharing a van with ... read more

There were two more sights I wanted to see in Java, but their remoteness made independent travel a pain in the butt: Mount Bromo and the Ijen Plateau. I had heard about a three-day excursion which also included onward travel to Bali. A gentleman I met gave me a leaflet, and promised me a hefty 30% discount if I booked through his office. I arrived at the office, and the guy behind the desk denied all knowledge of a discount. "Who said this?" he demanded. I didn't know the other guys name, but I remembered he was cross-eyed, and so I described him. "No-one like that works here I'm afraid. You'll have to pay full-price". Just then, my cross-eyed guy came into the office! I greeted him with a handshake and said "I came. 30% discount, ... read more

--- utery 01.05.07 / svatek prace --- ...cely den jsme prosedeli v mikrobusu. Zaplatili jsme si vylet s vychodem slunce nad sopkami v oblasti Bromo. Po snidani jsme vyjeli a dlouho po setmeni jsme skoncili ca. 2km od krateru sopky. Indonezane nam opet ukazali biznis. "Mate sice zaplaceny vylet s vychodem slunce, ale tady pod kraterem mame novou nabidku: bez priplatku muzete jit pesky k jicnu krateru, ale mozna nic neuvidite - byvaji mlhy, s priplatkem vas vyvezeme na mistni horu s nadhernym vyhledem...". Vysi priplatku jsme usmlouvali na polovinu... --- streda 02.05.07 / dnes vsichni pracuji pouze za uplatky --- Vstavame 03:30 a Jeepem vyrazime na sopku, bylo to super, kouknete na fotky! Dobrodruzstvi nas teprve cekalo. Sjeli jsme do udoli, tam nam rekli, ze je kdesi demonstrace a nas autobus prijede pozdeji, snad... ... read more