Five Grueling Days

---

Yogyakarta (Prambanan) - Tuesday, 16 December, 2014

Our second day in Yogyakarta begins our day trips to Java island's most popular natural and archaeological destinations. Prambanan is an ancient Hindu complex of Hindu temples built around 8 - 10 CE (AD) and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We arranged a driver from our hotel for 400,000 IDR for a sunset tour. Park admission was not included and was 225,000 IDR ($20 USD) each person. Every monument in this country seems to be 225,000 IDR for foreigners, which seems a little steep.

Our driver picked us up around 3pm at about the hottest part of the day, 95 F. He took us to Candi Sambisari (pronounced sandy sambi-sorry), one of the outer-lying temples, first. It appeared there were no foreign tourists about, only local school children. It was hot and there was no shade, we spent very little time there.

He then took us to Candi Kalasan. This temple had no visitors whatsoever but was also located right in the middle of a village. There were houses being built around it.

He took us to Candi Plaosan which was probably quadruple the size of the previous structures. It had two large shrines you could walk on. All of the stupas that surround the complex were in rubles. Only a few were reconstructed. Like the other temples, there were few tourists, mostly school children.

The next temple he took us was up this hill that gave us an impressive view of the region. He said this temple actually had the best views for sunset but that we wouldn't be hanging around long enough to see it.

Lastly, he took us to Candi Prambanan. The largest complex of temples in the whole group. This temple was busy and crowded, mostly with local tourists and more school children. Our guide told us that right now is a popular time for children to visit the temples because they all go on holiday for Christmas.

Apparently, according to CNN, the selfie-stick was popularized in Indonesia. Thousands of children at the temple spent the entire evening taking selfies on the monuments. When they weren't taking selfies, they were attacking tourists for photo-ops with them. We probably posed for something like 20 photo shoots. This is a thing in Indonesia. So now Curtis' sweaty image is on a ton of children's cameras.

Just prior to sunset, the hoards of tourists disappeared and there were probably less than 50 people in the whole park. We sat on the perimeter wall and watched the sun set over Prambanan. Very relaxing. We returned to the car just before it started to storm.

Yogyakarta (Borobudur) - Tuesday, 17 December, 2014

Our Borobudur tour required an early wake-up since it was a sunrise tour, 3 am in fact. The Buddhist temple, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located about an hour NE of Yogyakarta. It was built in the 8th century. It has six levels with unique narrative bas reliefs on the side walls of the corridors. If you walk all the corridors, the total length comes out to 5km and is called the Pilgrim's Walk.

We followed a path in the dark with a bunch of European and Japanese tourists up the temple to watch the sunrise. The sunrise tour costs extra because the park doesn't officially open till 6 am. This was nice since it meant less tourists and nicer photos. We left after the sun rose and shot some nice video of cats and a man climbing and tending to the coconut trees on the park grounds.

We got back to the hotel early by 8 am, enough time to get breakfast. Breakfast in Indonesia mostly includes fresh fruit (papaya, mango, watermelon, pineapple, soursop, and jackfruit), fruit juice, Javanese coffee or tea, breads, and hard-boiled eggs. Javanese coffee is fine-ground and poured directly into hot water; no filter. This makes the coffee dark and thick.

After a shower and nap, we returned back to downtown Yogyakarta to get more donuts from J Co, a local donut chain with the most amazing donuts. While at the mall, we went to a coffee shop to get some of the infamous kopi luwak. Kopi luwak is known as civet coffee or monkey-poo coffee. The civet is a cat-like creature that eats the coffee berries and poops out the inner pit. The civet's stomach enzymes do something to the beans to make them taste good. The beans are washed and roasted. This coffee is insanely expensive, about $300 USD a pound. We didn't drink any but Jen got a coffee float and Curtis got an avocado coffee latte. We did, however, buy 3 half pound bags for $20 USD each.

Yogyakarta & Mt Bromo - Tuesday, 18 December, 2014

Again, we woke early to catch our train from Tugu Station in Yogyakarta to Surabaya (Indonesia's second largest city). The train ride is about five hours. We arrived in Surabaya around noon and got a taxi south to the bus station. The bus system in Indonesia is fucking absurd. There are buses lined up with signs showing where they go. Tourists must deal with the ticket guys who inflate the price as much as three times what locals pay. Luckily for us, Surabaya wasn't that bad and we manage to get our bus ticket on an air-conditioned express bus to Probolinggo for 20,000 IDR each.

We arrived in Probolinggo about 4 pm. When the bus parked, the cabin flooded with street vendors selling snacks and drinks to passengers. We were careful to protect our belongings but one of them managed to steal Jen's phone from her backpack. After we got off the bus, we were bombarded by the shadiest and scummiest people in all of Indonesia. Our guide book warned us that Probolinggo bus station had the worst reputation for ripping off tourists. We spent the next hour or so getting Jen's phone erased and locked. Jen booked us a hotel in town, but we opted not to stay at it because apparently it was having some cockroach and ant problems and guests were reporting the place was disgustingly unclean. We called a nicer hotel on the mountain and contracted with a minibus to get us up there. Even the minibus was shady, they got a bunch of tourists on the bus and then kept raising the price for the trip. They told us 100,000 IDR and we told them to get bent, eventually all the tourists agreed to 50,000 IDR each. We reached the top of the mountain at about 8pm. Our hotel turned out to be 3km back down the mountain, so Jen pulled out the headlamp and we hiked in the dark back to our hotel. Half way there, a Balinese man and his family drove past and offered us a ride. This was a relief because Jen had to pee really bad and Curtis was carrying all the backpacks so it didn't bother her as much. We finally got to the hotel about 9 pm.

This was the worst day of our trip.

Mt Bromo - Tuesday, 19 December, 2014

We did another sunrise tour for the mountain. Our driver picked us up at 4:30 am. The drive took almost an hour. When we arrived, hundreds, maybe two-thousand tourists made the 1km trek to the viewpoint in hopes to catch the sunrise over Mt Bromo. Disappointingly, we waited about an hour and the fog never broke. No sunrise. Our efforts in vain, we walked back down the hill and met our driver who drove us to the mountain. He parked the Jeep on a wide stretch of plain where we were greeted with horseback riders to assist in our ascent to the crater. We opted against a horseback ride and climbed the steep 1km hill to the top. Mt Bromo is an active volcano and vents sulfuric gas. The view is incredible and watching the plumes of gas billow from the hole is entertaining. Jen did not enjoy the climb but was satisfied with the view at the top. After some selfies and GoPro shots, we descended back to meet our driver and returned to the hotel.

At checkout, we walked out to the main road and waited for a taxi or minibus to take us back to shitty Probolinggo. After a short time, we negotiated a 300,000 IDR Jeep ride back to town. Upon arriving, we had the pleasure of dealing with the overpriced bus ticket salesmen to for a bus ride to Banyuwangi. We ended up on a local bus that took an ungodly 4 1/2 painful hours for 65,000 IDR each, it should have only cost 30,000. It was dark by the time we arrived.

On our arrival, we caught a taxi to our hotel to find out we accidentally made reservations for the 5th and 6th of October. Jen accidentally dropped her wallet coming out of the taxi and was stressed she couldn't find it. The hotel, probably feeling sympathetic, gave us a room they hadn't advertised. The bellboy found Jen's wallet and she was ecstatic. She jumped up and down and hugged the attendant in elation. We shared our villa with what could have been the largest gecko in existence. A complimentary cockroach died in our shower and Curtis had to sweep the monster up into the trash. The hotel fogs twice weekly, which may have contributed to the unusual death of the cockroach.

Service is worsening as we approach Bali. It may be the laid back lifestyle or maybe the employees just don't like tourists. It doesn't bother us, but for future travelers to this area, be mindful they don't move quickly here.

Ijen Crater & Ubud, Bali - Tuesday, 20 December, 2014

We made arrangements for our 4:30 am trip to Ijen Crater. Tourists who want to see the blue flames from the ignited sulfuric gases must leave around midnight to reach lake. Our hotel provided us and our driver with a boxed breakfast and we left for the crater. The climb to the top is no joke. If you are not healthy, it can prove to be painful, really painful. It's 3km uphill. Jen's FitBit recorded something like 1.2km on the climb. Oh it hurt so bad, especially at 5 am. The air was slightly cooler, probably low 80s. Our altitude was about 3,000m (~10,000ft or 2mi).

The lake has miners who collect the sulfur deposits and bring them down the hill. They climb the hill twice per day and carry anywhere from 100-140 kg of sulfur balanced on two baskets on a plank on their shoulders. That's almost 250 pounds on direct pressure on your shoulder all the way down. In addition, they mine the sulfur by hand. Also, they all smoke. The fumes are nauseating. Surprisingly, even with all the tourists, the miners are playful and high spirited. We met two on the way up who taught us all about their craft. Curtis even had the opportunity to lift one of the baskets on his shoulder. It hurt him a lot.

Our miner friends took us down all the way to the pit. Usually, tourists aren't permitted to go down because the steep rocky path is dangerous; they gave us face-masks for the fumes. It is like a different planet in the crater, and it stinks. At the end of our trip, our miner friends asked for money (as was suspected). Although we hate cons, this con was informative and fun.

The hike back down was not fun either. Our feet hurt, we were dehydrated and low on blood sugar. In five days, we managed to cover damn near the entire island of Java, walked about 30 miles, and climbed about 2 miles in elevation. We returned to the hotel by noon and hurried out to the ferry to Bali.

---

Photos

Jen with School Children at Prambanan
That's a selfie-stick!