Borobudur to Bromo-June14-C

This post is VERY long.

We left our hotel at 5 am for borobudur in a mini bus.  I don't carry my student ID anymore, but I wish I did because entry into the temples is half price.  The temple was beautiful and reminded me a lot of Angkor Wat, with the stories in the stones.  It wasnt too crowded
and it was smaller than I expected which was nice because you could really take your time looking at all the intricate details. 

Restoration not quite complete!

We also stopped at a monastery where there practicing monks and a lot of beautiful Buddhist statues. My camera is horrible on my phone, but Melanie, the German girl who I walked around with, was taking amazing photos and she said she will share. 

Buddha statues at Borobudur

Amazingly intricate carvings in the stones building Borobudur.

All the stupas at Borobudur

I had some time to explore Yogya while I waited for my bus. As in any big foreign city, there is no shortage of crazy things to look at. There was a little chicken family who appeared to live in a tiny patch of grass between the stores and the main street. The thousands of tuktuk drivers sleeping or grooming themselves in their tuktuk on the side of the road. The crazy traffic that has elderly people walking, horse drawn carriages, biking tuktuks, cars and trucks , and the innumerable amount of motorcycles all on one road. I even looked down one alley and saw a small plane on the to of the building!

I decided to do a night train, because I think the only way I can climb Bromo is if I do it tomorrow, otherwise I could miss the first day of my retreat. I got on and was hoping it would be like the train ride before which was very nice and amazingly scenic with an awesome glimpse into Indonesian farming. Unfortunately the seats were not like before, they were benches. The air con was up so high that I had to put on multiple layers. And I had a bench mate. She was sweet, but when I had the chance I found an empty bench and layed across it. I guess it was comfortable enough because I had to be woken when we arrived in Surbaya.

Its 10 and I loaded another train to probolinggo. I have this train and (hopefully) a bus ride until I get to the base of the mountain I want to climb that over looks Bromo. The seats on this train are better and its not as cold. I have a guy seatmate this time that asked me if I wanted candy and then if I was single. I think he means ”alone”. I tried to get advice from him for finding a bus but he apologized and said he only knows a little English. He ” rented” a pillow for me and helped me to make sure I got off at the right stop. The next24 hours were a crazy mess. Heidi and I joke that we are masochistic when we travel. With being the planner I am I really don't know how I travel sometimes. I guess when traveling I just trust that it will all work out.

When I got off the train, I was at an empty bus station at 12 am. I had read I needed to go to the bus station, but I needed to climb Bromo that morning (as in in 3 hours). A lone tuktuk driver saw me and called a friend, then called a friend and took me across town. I had no idea where I was going. I got out and was greeted by about 8 men in a tiny tourist shop. There was a very nice one that spoke great English and although he tried to push the tours, he have me a lot of information about the next legs of my journey. he would take me and two other people at 2am to the base of Bromo,, then he would drop me off to hike while he took the other two on a Jeep tour. He have me a pickup time that I had to make and earned me that the hiking was long. By this time we would be leaving in a hour, so I decided to just hang out with them until 2am when we would leave. I went into the back to change and organize my bag.

 While doing this my stomach dropped, I couldn't find my wallet. I stupidly had not seperated my cards, my passport was in it, and I had just been to the ATM. I dumped everything out, not there. I walked the 20 steps between where I had paid the tuktuk driver and where I had emptied my bag, not there. The guys saw me and started to look as well, no where. I asked them to call the tuktuk driver, he came all the way back and we searched his tuktuk, not there. He had found my charger though and returned it to me.

So on little sleep, little food, and so much panic, I started crying. Not crying, bawling. The men did not know what to do. They tried to comfort me and make solutions with me, but I was a disaster! Then out of no where, one came in with my wallet in hand. He had found it at the side of the road, everything intact. I jumped up and hugged him, which was totally inappropriate in their culture, but I was so relieved. I gave the guy some cash and I then became like their little sister. They kept coming to check on me, asking, ” you ok now?” And saying, ” Keep smiling”. By this time, out was time to leave and I was joined by two Czech girls who were unfortunately having a huge argument over price with the tour guide. The tour guide asked me to talk to them, which was really awkward because I understood where the girls were coming from and the argument was VERY heated. I did my best to smooth things over and we were on or way to Cemoro Lawang, the base of Bromo.

 When we got there it was completely dark, I couldn't see anyone going my way (an extra overlook hike), and I didn't know if I could make the pickup. I still had not slept our eaten. I turned on my headlamp and just started walking. Luckily I met with a group quite quickly. They were three French, one Dutch, and one  other American. He and I laughed as we began our Fourth of July hike to see a volcano in Indonesia. They were a bit slow, so I got ahead of them. The hike was not nearly as hard or long as the tour guide had said. I reached the viewpoint, picked a seat around some others who had either slept there or started earlier, and shivered as the sun rose. It was a very lively group with a lot of couples snuggling to keep warm. I met with two other single travelers an English girl and an Argentinian man. We sat close together. Its funny how close you can get with passing strangers. We didn't even exchange names, but the three of us sat snuggled together chatting about travels and watching this amazing sunrise. It was so surreal!

Mt Bromo

The white around is fog filling the Caldera. The smoke in the top is coming out of the small active volcano. There is an inactive one to the right and a big mountain or volcano in the back ground. There was another viewpoint about 10 minutes rock scrambling up. It was muddy and I got pretty dirty, but the views were beautiful and the scramble was a good challenge. I couldn't stay long as I really wanted to climb Bromo, I said my goodbyes and hurried down the mountain. I then had to walk across this huge sandy Caldera and up a big sandy hill to some stairs. Most people took a Jeep through the Caldera and a horse up the sandy hill. At the steps everyone had to walk though and you could see it was very hard for many.

Walked about a half hour through the Caldera.

The hill and stairs to look into the vlcano.

These stairs were easy after the incline.

Volcano next to Bromo

The extra top climb.  It was very narrow and looked over the hole where ash was coming out of-so scary, but of course I had to do it.

Thanks to all my friends who I hiked with before and Melissa and the incline, this was not too hard and I finished all that I wanted to do by my pickup time. The Czech girls and I were taken back to the train station. I was heading (finally!) to Bali and they were off in the other direction. While waiting for the train I met with two Dutch girls and we decided to do the Train-Ferry-Bus-Hostel together. They were heading to Ubud while I was going to Seminyak but we both had to make it to Dempasar, so it worked well to go together. The train was late but stunning. My eyes and body were so tired but I didn't want to miss a thing. The houses, the people, the agriculture, were all so beautiful. That train ride is definitely worth it.

Goats walking down the train tracks

We then had to catch the ferry. We got on a bus first that loaded the ferry and would take us to our destination. On the bus we met an Australian who was doing a surfing sabbatical. The house he was renting was close to where I was heading so after the bus ride we shared a cab. Both the Dutch girls and the Czech girls from before were very funny. They were very confrontational and upfront but were also so sweet and welcoming to me. The Dutch were cracking me up on the bus ride because the were getting so frustrated with the Indonesian men that were playing music on their cell phones. I was trying to imagine how Heidi and I would have handled it!

Ferry view