Blogs from Mount Bromo, Java, Indonesia, Asia

Writing to you tonight from Ubud, a lovely city in the southeast of Bali that celebrates everything about this island's quite charming culture. Though a lot of the culture here is basically a set-up for tourists, which admittedly makes it slightly less charming, I have to say that the accessibility of the whole affair is very...convenient (what can I say, we Americans sure do love convenience almost as much as we love cheap fizzy drinks in ridiculously large bottles!). Although comparing Indonesia and Philippines is like apples and oranges, the most striking difference is the pushiness of everyone in this country who is trying to make a buck (or several thousand rupiah, 9,000 or so of which equals one US dollar. Hello inflation!) off of the tourists. You constantly have to have your wits about you, ... read more

Alarm goes off at 03h00. Too cold/early for a (cold) shower. For the first time since Siem Reap(?) I wear my jeans. Breakfast is a cardboard box containing three slices of toast (read: bread), a pack of jam, a pack of margarine and a packet of water. I go back to the room to put a couple more shirts on and someone comes to find us to haggle a price on getting a jeep. Netta thinks I agree to pay too much when I get him down from 90,000Rp each to 100,000rp for both of us - I'm in her bad books for the rest of the day. The jeep ride takes us to the base of the view point and we have to walk/climb the rest of the way. The trip is made harder by ... read more

Today is the long journey to Mt Bromo. A hour bus trip which i shared with 6 student backpackers. 4 guys from Wales and a couple from Germany. We had some good banter along the way and for the most part it was an uneventful trip. I did see a tiny monkey dressed up in clothes dancing on the side of the road for money. We arrived at cemaro lewang late at night. We were pretty high up and it was chilly. The next day i got up at 3:30am to take a jeep partial up the viewpoint mountain for the famous sunrise view. After a short climb i reached the top and waited for the sunrise while taking tons of pictures. I met and talked with a number of other tourists including the dutch couple ... read more

I ended up booking an organised tour to Bromo because I thought it would save me a lot of time and hassle. It took about 12 hours to get to my hotel and after having dinner and a little read I had an early night because I had to wake up at 3.30am to catch my jeep to the viewpoint. Next morning after a short jeep ride and a 15 minute walk I reached the viewpoint where there were about another hundred or so tourists eagerly waiting for the sunrise. We could already see the outline of Mount Batok and Mount Bromo and as the sun came up the view just kept getting better and better. Every 10 to 15 minutes Mount Bromo would let out some more smoke and ash which meant that the view ... read more

Today's distance: 40km Time on bike: 4 hrs Yesterday's distance 35km Time on bike: 5 hrs Total distance: 825km First off, the news: "Mount Bromo's eruption in Indonesia's East Java province on paralyzed tourism industry as hotels were closed due to thick ashes, detikcom online news reported on Friday. Hotels of Lava View, Cemara and Bukit Cemara have not received any guest in the past couple of days as ash on the streets was as thick as 15-40 centimeters." I had no idea about this reality until about halfway up the volcano on a bicycle, while stopping off to chat with locals over a coffee. At that point, since there were only another 10 steep kilometers to go, I wasn't about to turn around. As it happened, there was one hotel still in operation: Yoschis Hotel. ... read more

Luxe! een middelbare-school vriend van Erica woont en werkt in Java, hij heeft zijn eigen meubel industrie met fabrieken in verschillende locatie's in Java en heeft ons uitgenodigd voor een bezoek, wat uitgelopen is tot een verblijf van 3 dagen in een luxe appartement met geweldig uitzicht en zwembad. Eindelijk werden onze kleren uitgewassen door bedienden wat uiteindelijk gestreken op ons bed lag te wachten om vervolgens nooit meer in aanraking te komen met warm water en zeep. Elke dag zijn we drie keer uit eten gegaan waar ik een waar culinair hoogtepunt heb mogen bereiken, voor Anka werd de vegetarische Indonesische keuken ontbloot en eindelijk werden de onverklaarbare gerechten ontcijfert door Reina (de vrouw van Oscar). Gado gado is de nieuwe hamburger voor ons leken uit de lokale keuken. Helaas, Aan al dit westerse toilet, ... read more