Bali Via Bromo. Volcanos, beaches and "ekonomi" class

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The first week of the Indo adventure is done and so far so good, although it does seem like it's been a little longer than 1 week, but I still havn't done as much as I thought I would.

It started with saying many good-byes and a few see-you-next-semesters and then a boat to Batam from Singapore (7:35am, Penguin Ferries, used an old return ticket from my Sumatra trip) and a taxi to the airport from Batam Center (60,000rp (fixed price), 20 minutes, this is the cheapest, shortest route. you also could go outside the centre and negotiate for a lower price) and then a loooooong 4 hour delay at the airport because of "rain"...there were 4 other planes that left to Jakarta in the time our plane was delayed...got to love that airline-specific rain. It was a good chance to catch up on some needed sleep. There is a 15,000rp domestic tax to keep in mind at the airport, they took my mosquito repelent away from me.

Because of the delay I missed my connection to a train in Jakarta (the Kurtajaya ekonomi class train to surabaya, 47,000 rp 15 hours - scheduled for 12) and had to stay the night in Jakarta on Jalan Jaksa (30,000 shared mandi at wisata something). But I got to tour Jakarta and get on the train the next day. Monas (the national monument, or "Sokaerno's final erection" 7500rp much less if you have your student ID card) where I was asked to pose with a family from Subawa. My self appointed "not-guide" was kind enough to point out all the sights around and offered to take me around the city, out of sheer kindness ofcourse (and a request for lots of money afterwords...gave him only 5000rp to his dismay, I had asked him not to come but he did anyway).

The Garuda national bird is an interesting thing - it has 17 wing feathers, 8 tail feathers and 45 neck feathers...numbers that seem to be painted everywhere on walls, driveways, door frames and alleyways. It's the day of independence (august 17 1945). These guys are more into their national day than americans are.

When I hopped on the train later (4:15pm, not 4:55 like the LP says), I was pleasantly surprised to find cushions on the seats...not something I expected. Granted they were completely shredded and provided no comfort whatsoever, but hey, better than a bare plank. Nobody spoke a word of english...but we managed to figure out that I was american but studying in singapore and that I was crazy. They were also very concerned that I had put my bag on the floor and after a mimed cutting action, they pointed to the luggage rack and pointed to their eyes - don't put it on the floor, someone will cut it when you sleep, put it up so we can watch it, was what I assumed they meant...made sense I guess, and I still had a whole bag when I got off the train, so can't have been all that bad advice.

Later I got adopted by the rather drunk karaoke singing train staff and their karaoke-machine-carrying-slash-prostitute-later-lady when I went to find something to eat. I got free nasi goreng sayur (veggie fried rice) and a coke from people who thought it was great fun that a foreigner was travelling economy class (everyone I spoke to said "you know that's an economy class train, right?" with a look of utter concern and disgust on their faces...I assume foreigners aren't that common on these trains). Some very loud and bad indonesian karaoke, a decent nasi goreng and one guy's attempt to get me to grope the woman later and I moved back to my seat.

I was stinky, filthy and tired when I got to surabaya at 6:30am. I headed into town and wandered around trying to find something to eat because I was starving, and an internet cafe. Nothing opened until 10. I did however manage to sneak into a 5 star hotel and have a 5 star shower in their 5 star spa...of which I claimed I was a member. Ahhhhh the luxury. I could get used to that I think 😊 Havn't managed to find a hot shower since 😊 Found internet (and Dee, who has not stopped smsing me since I asked her to use her caller ID to tell me what my phone number was) and then hopped on a bus to Probolinggo (connection point for bromo, dont remember the price or time, maybe 15,000, 3 hours) and missed the last bemo/minibus to cemoro lawang (at bromo, 15,000, 2 hours last bus at 4ish in low season...they will ask for 20,000) and got stuck at the "paramita" hotel for 60,000 - not worth the money and probolinggo is a waste of time, but apperently has good mangos.

Bromo - At the rim of bromo is a little town called Cemoro Lawang and it has 3 or 4 hotels and a bunch of homestays. I ended up at the Cafe Lava hotel and loved it! Linda and Chris were great, the food was good (granted I only had the Gado-Gado, but I had it 3 times at is was good every time) and the prices were un-beatable for what I got. It cost 30,000 (published 50,000) for a bed in a room with a shared coled water splash-with-a-bucket style mandi. It was exactly what I needed and was a sight better than the "old block rooms" of the other hotel for 40,000. When I walked in, there were 3 folks getting ready to leave, Simon, Chris and Tina all from the UK. I had the distinct pleasure of having lunch with them before heading off for a sunset hike to bromo itself. While I didn't get much sunset, and got a lot of soaking wet ina downpour, but the 2 hours I did get were great! The crater on the way to bromo is just black sand/ash that has come out of the crater over the years and is so fine that it's kind of hard to walk in. The crater itself is like something out of a post-apocolyptic movie, it's empty, barren and has a smoking volcano in it, very much worth the trip. There are three mountains that you see as you are waling into the crater, Bromo, the smallest smoking away, one taller one to the right and one really big one behind. The big big one behind occasionally lets off puffs of black smoke (as opposed to the white of Bromo) and is apparently actually "active" so they dont let you climb it.
I will let the pictures of Bromo crater speak for themselves.



Click here for the pretty pretty slideshow




That night I was the ONLY foreigner in the whole of cemoro lawang...it was the epitome of peacefulness - cold mountain air (I had forgotten what "real" cold air felt like) a book and good food.
The next day at 3am I got up, put on every piece of clothing that was even remotely dry, and my sleeping bag as a shawl (I think that sleeping bag was one of the greatest gifts I ever got, it has been a multi purpose tool on so many rips), and turned on my $3 no-name-for Chinese LED headlamp and set off for the lookout over the whole crater with a Cliff bar and bottle of water. The path was creepy to say the least, especially when I was alone. You just follow the paved road to the right when it splits and keep going round until the pavement ends. when it does, it seems to split at a gravel pile. Go left up the hill, it continues for about another 15-30 minutes and you will come to some shelters where I took my pictures from. It took me about 1.5 hours with a turnaround because I gave up when I hit the split because I didnt want to get lost...but then turned back around and tried again. I was told sunrise would be at 5:15 but it was more like 4:45 so be warned 😉
On the way up, there was lightning to my left and right and when I got to the shelters, there were storms coming in from the northeast and south east with the sun rising right in the middle, it was great, and stayed dry the whole time.
I dont think the pictures do the sunrise justice, but my words would be even worse.


I was back at the hotel by 6:30 and hopped back in bed until 9:30. Then had breakfast (Gado-Gado again) and headed down to probolinggo at 11:30...it only took about 3.5 hours (was supposed to be 2). From my smsposts at smsbloging.livejournal.com:

Dec. 8th, 2006 · 11:10 pm
Hotel lava (30000rp) was a good place. Linda and chris are good people. Bye bye bromo, bali here i come...except they are fixing the bus axel. Hmmm

Dec. 9th, 2006 · 01:27 am
Life moves at a veeeery different pace out here. I've been in the mullet bus for 2 hours now and i think we have yet to get over 10km/hr...maybe 5..[/quote ("the mullet bus" refers to the fact that the driver actually had a mullet...I thought that species was limited to north american hokey fans and rednecks, but nope, they have them in indonesia as well)

I would like to revisit my earlier overzealous estimate of our speed. The engine is off and we're rolling down a hill. there are people walking faster

and then before I knew it, Ihad been put on a bus to denpasar the second I got off the mullet bus...good timing:

Well that was interesting. Suddenly i'm on a bus to densapar for 75000 8 hours economy. Lots of running and probably getting screwed but no wait!

The bus ride was SUPPOSED to be 8 hours, but when does that actually mean anything in reality. After about 2 hours on the road we pulled into our first bus stop at Jember. Jember is a non-descript town with a non-descript bus station that does a lot of transfers to and from a lot of places in Java. If you had to get to Denpasar from Java, but there was no connection, head here. If you don't need to be here, you don't really want to be here 😊
To cut a long story short, after a few hours of waiting and wondering if we were going to get going again, I realise that my bus is currently in pieces waiting for a new petrol tank...which came riding up in a rickshaw about 3 hours after we arrived in Jember. 3 hours after that, we got moving again, finally.
It took 11-14 hours to get to Denpasar, roughly, sorry, bad memory 😊 I stank, it was 6am, someone had tried to pick my pocket, people had been throwing up and I was very tired but still had to get to Kuta. It took approximately 2 more hours to get there - transfer from the bus station you land in to the Tegal bemo "station" (more of a little back alley than a bus station) and then on to Kuta (ask for "Jalan Poppies" and you will get dropped off closeish)
I checked into Ronta Bungalows (40,000Rp, cold water, decently clean, had a sewage smell in some rooms, had mosquitos in the others) had a shower, ate for the first time in 24 hours and am officially in Bali.

Time for some R&R on the beach.

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Photos

Ekonomi Class
The cussions may be shredded, but at least they aren't wooden planks :)

The "Tourist" Attraction
I'm not the first and wont be the last tourist to become the attraction for the locals...like this family from Sumbawa.

Ah drunk Karaoke Singing Train Staff
This nice man and several other rather drunk staff managed to adopt me for a little while, feed me free food, give me free drinks and tried to get me to sing some bad indonesian karaoke. Needless to say, the singing part didn't happen.

5 star shower anyone?
I would just like to thank the staff at the Majapahit hotel in Surubaya...this was the nicest shower I've had, maybe ever.

Bromo
There is no way to do these things justice...

The Long Climb
There is a bit of a hike up a staircase to get to the crater, but it's worth every step

Cheapies at Cafe Lava
What do you expect for $3.50 a night? Cold bucket shower in a shared mandi and a bed that is clean...not too bad.

Spot the Mullet
It's a bad picture, but the mullet is there! I had PLENTY of time to stare at it while we were rolling down the hill painfully slowly.

Fuel tank repairs anyone?
Why my bus was in pieces I will never know. Should I be more worried that I had already been on it for 2 hours, or that I was going to get back on for another 8-10?

Ronta Bungalows
Cheap and relatively chearful. I got the mosquitos, not the sewage smell.