Mount Bromo

On monday the first we woke up dead tired and packed ourselves to this minivan with other westerners. We drove around two hours towards Bromo. When leaving from Probolinggo in the middle of the night it was so weird seeing how much action there was still going on on the streets. People preparing their stuff and food for morning markets etc.

The drive was mostly uphill with SO many jeeps around! Finally we arrived to this Gunung Penanjakan (2770m) which is the best place for sunrise since you can see the whole Bromo area (Bromo, Semeru puffing up regular plumes, Batok and Kursi).

Us and two belgium girls started walking up the hill with one flash light to guide the way. We were so out of breath climbing in the middle of the night. Eventually we arrived to this view point and me and Steve ate our nasi goreng that we had bought previous night on the street. Then it was just waiting for the nature to wake up and the sun to rise. SPECTACULAT SUNRISE! Just amazing seeing the active volcanoes. The hike down to our minivan was easier. :)

 

The next drive took only 10 minutes. The tour had promised to drop us of in front of the stairs and now they told us that we had to hike there.. After fighting with this guy we had no choise than to start walking there.. First down this steep hill side and then throught the Sea of Sand. The closer we got we could see probably over 100 jeeps there. We were the only ones walking.

There were loads of people, horses running around and past us etc. The climb up to Bromo wasn't too bad since there were stairs. Up at the crater we could see this smoke rising from the inside of the volcano. Way too many people up at the crater, couldn't even move there.

The walk back took around an hour. In the minibus we started to get to know our group and noticed that everyone had been promised different things of this tour. Some didn't even have any receipt! We had asked to write everything down even that we had paid!

On the way back we tried to nod of and close to our hotel when I had just woken up our driver and this scooter boy crashed! The boy got up fast with marks on his elbow and leg. The left side mirror on the minivan broke and the scooter got scratches. Our driver paid him 50 000, shook hands and we continued. We got dropped of at our hotel with four others. We were supposed to eat breakfast there, surprisingly that didnt happen.. No one told us what time we would set off agan. They had told us that we would set off at 12 and arrive at 15.00 so we would have time to go jungle trekking and see coffee plantation and a waterfall. The others had been told that the journey to the next place takes 7 hours... Our guide book said 5.

After an hour and 20 minutes our new driver came to pick us up. We asked him to stop somewhere to eat on our way, little after two hours we finally stopped to eat with our group. A 21-year old Ben from Leeds, two girls from Belgium, one Lebanese woman, 40-year-old american woman and a hippie German guy and a girl.

We arrived at our destination at Sempol, around 18-19, more than five hours after we set off.

The place Arabica homestay was in the middle of nothing and you could only order a buffet for 60.000 (not the one where you can eat as much as you can...). The guy we bought the tour from had said that we set of again at 4 am. Wrong. The set of was at 1 am! So we quickly ate, showered (wasn't a hot shower like promised) and went to bed.

Probolinggo

On 30th of May we woke up at 10 ish and ate breakfast at the hotel and headed towards the Tugu train station to get the tickets to Probolinggo. We waited for an hour and got the tickets to 16.02 train to Surabaya (4 hours, business train) excicutive class for 272 000 each. From there a train for 2 hours to Probolinggo (business class) for 90 000 each.

We hadn't thought that the trip to buy the tickets would take that long! We rushed back and checked out and took a taxi back to the train station. Big fight before hand with the hotel people and the driver about the price.. He didn't agree on using the meter, but we wanted to agree on the price. We couldnt find any other taxis so we somehow managed to get him to drive us to the train station with the meter. And good thing that we did, since the original price that they tried was FOUR times the price than the meter ended up showing...!!

At Probolinggo we took one of these trishaws to some hotel the guys driving the trishaws mentioned and we had also spotted it on wikitravel, Bromo Pernai. We arrived there around 00.30 am, got a room for 120 000 with mandi (no shower, just water and a pucket). We walked along our street at 1 am and found many many places open where to eat. We went into this tiny place where no one talked any english and they wanted us to write down the order.. xD Luckily one guy there spoke like two words of english and helped us with the order and wrote it down. Everyone there were staring at us, again!

On 31st we already checked out at 10 am and went to eat at this really local place. No english was spoken yet again. We came back to get us bags when the woman at the reception asked us why won't we take the trip from there.. Soon her friend came to talk to us about his tour thing to Bromo --> Ijen Krater --> Bali. All inclusive for 1 250 000 each. Sounded pretty good and after a long chat to each other we decided to take it. We were really critical towards him and asked tons of questions since we had read that they are really trying to make business with stupid tourists..

Since there was absolutely nothing to do we sat in this restaurant for hours. No one spoke english and we didn't get anything we ordered but the food was still good anyway! We tried to get money out from the ATM's with my Mastercard but it didnt work anywhere! Scary! Thank god Steve's card worked!

Coming back to the hotel we spotted this Roti Canai place and shared one! Delicious! We went to bed quite early since we had to leave the next night at 01.45 am!

Bodopudur and Prambanan!

The next morning we had an early wake up for our trip to see the sunrise abode the Bodopudur temple. We paid 165.000 each with breakfast for the tour. First we drove around an hour to Setumbu hill and trekked about 10-15 minutes to the hill. Everyone was waiting there with their tripods in pitch black. At 5.30 am, still nothing.. At 5.50 we started to head back, massive disappointment but we cant control the weather or the clouds..

Check on google Setumbu hill sunrise to see what it coulda been! :)

Next pit stop was at the Boropudur temple. We bought a package ticket from our driver for 400.000 each to both of these temples.

Before the temple us and this Dutch couple had our "breakfast" which was an absolutely massive joke. Toast with hardly any jam on, rotten fruit (three slices of banana!!!) and a tea. Never buying "with breakfast" ever again.

For me the actual temple wasn't that spectacular than I had expected. It was also ruined by hundreds of school kids and also adults staring at us. Taking pictures of us when we walked past, pictures with us, selfies etc.. Some were having their english practical exams with us by asking questions from us. The kids probably had more pictures of us than the temple.

Next it was Prambanan (on the way there we drove past the Mendut temple also). At Prambanan there werent that many tourists and for me the temple was a lot better. The sight of all of them was really nice and also the weather got better! Even tho not too many people we still got asked into pics and selfies with locals.

We got back already at 12.30 and went to eat at Bamboo and then it was swimming pool time. After a big fight we managed to go eat together at this rock bar / restaurant. We tried to figure out whether to back track 5 hours and go see the Dien Plateau or not. After talking to this info woman we decided not to do it. The covernment had raised prices so much that it was ridiculous! We didnt wanna pay that much!! They had raised them from 30 000 to 250 000 to rip the tourists of!!! And that kind of money was big money in there! The biggest mistake new backpackers do is to compare the prices to their own money and forget the prices in the country they are at!

Hello Indonesia and Yogyakarta!

Our night at the airport was relaxed until we decided to start sleeping. At the same time also these work men decided to start working. Quiet airport and some heavy drilling. Loud drilling. We changed our place from these benches were we could lay down to this first class lounge with big leather chairs with a charging point right between our chairs. (Every traveller knows what a jackpot that is :D) We woke up at 4 am to go freshen ourselves up a bit in the toilets. We actually slept really well! We dropped our bags and went to eat breakfast (egg, meet, potatoes).

The flight took 2h 45 minutes and we were mostly sleeping to whole flight. We arrived in Jogja(Yogyakarta)  at 8.45am. The airport was tiny and soon we were out waiting a bus next to the airport. The bus expeariment was a bit different.. You paid your ticket and went into this glass box which was build of the ground and raised higher. The bus had a driver and this other guy to open the door and shout out the stop names. The bus just stopped in front of the stops and you quickly needed to jump in. There was also a guy working at every bus stop. If no one was coming into the bus the guy at the stop signed 0 to the driver which drove past the stop. The door in the bus was in the middle of it and just slided open.

Our first impression of Jogja was busy. Under developed and so much poorer than Malaysia. It was actually a bit of a shock to us.

We had decided to go to this Prowirotaman street cause there were more options with hotels with swimming pool which we were in desperate need of! First one we tried was a match! 175 000 / night (rupiah! That was a bit more than 50 malaysian ringgits). We went to eat at this Bamboo cafe which ended up being our favorite place and we even found it in our guide book.

Then it was time for pool what we had waited for 4 weeks! It was actually really good only proper sunbeds were missing and maybe some music. At night (after some rugby game..) we tried to walk to Kraton but we never found an entrance there. It's a sultan's palace within these walls forming a square around it.

Eventually we had to take this trishaw to the place from where we walked to this Marlioboro street with a night market. The whole place was so different to the places we had been in! This was massively under developed. People sitting and eating with hands everywhere on the ground! Street food stalls got a totally different meaning here. At the night market it was so so SO busy, loud and crowded. People staring at us and coming to talk to us.

We searched for a place to eat and eventually found one. Locals had talked about this art show thing which was a must see so we went to search the place. Really nice art work made with / By melting wax into old fashioned pen thing.. They coloursed the wax to make different colours.. After a while we left from the art gallery towards home with this local trishaw..

Since we had been travelling the previous day we wanted to have a gap day and didn't wanna leave straight to some trip.. So the next Morning we went back to Kraton and the Sultan's palace paying 26 000 (entrace and camera fees). The palace was a total waste of time. Nothing special really. So boring, one little room of nothing. Next we walked to the Taman Sari, the water castle, but didn't wanna pay in cause we were afraid that it's gonna be a disappointment too. Then we just hang out and went to this Banana cafe to read, write and drink beer. Went to eat at this different place and it ended up being shit.. :D Then earlyish to bed for the next day's trip.