Advertisement
Published: January 4th 2009
I heart traveling by rail in Indonesia. It’s so much faster than traveling by bus or minivan on the narrow roads in Indonesia.
The journey from Surabaya to Probolingo by train took about 2 hours. I was lucky to purchase the one last remaining executive coach (Rp.110,000) to Probolingo.
From Probolingo station, I paid the becak driver Rp.10,000 for a 7km ride to the bus station. But instead of taking me to the bus station, he brought me to a travel agent who then arranged a tour to Cemoro Lawang, trekking Bromo and a trip to Jogja. All for Rp.300,000.
The 2 hour ride in the tiny minivan sandwiched by close to 20 people in a 12 seat minivan was unbearable. To make matters worst, I was spotted by a Malaysian Chinese man in the minivan who can’t stop blabbering about his astonishment of a single Malaysian woman traveling alone in the soil of Indonesia. What an ignorant little prick.
I don’t mean to be crude, but what irks me most about ‘tourist’ like him, is that they think they are so well traveled just because they have covered some tourist sites. How meaningful are these travels
when they don’t even talk to the locals, understand their way of life, sharing their dreams and aspirations?
If I wasn’t feeling so crappy about the icy cold shower and my spartan-like bed room, I would have really enjoyed Cemoro Lawang. I thought it was a very romantic place. With tea plantations, vegetable gardens, beautiful pine trees and zillion of stars that shines so bright in the sky at night!
However I did had a great time with the boys at Cemara Indah cafe. We drank Indonesian wine to keep ourselves warm and accidentally had Eddy fell head over heels with his mushy, I-miss-you smses.
Honest to God, I didn’t do anything to that poor boy. I cringe when things like this happened. Sometimes, I wonder whether my friendliness is a blessing or a curse…
Advertisement
Tot: 0.123s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 15; qc: 80; dbt: 0.0842s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Prasanna
non-member comment
Very useful
I am planning a trip to Mount Bromo National Park. This is a very useful piece of information. Appreciate you for sharing your experience. Cheers!