So I think it is fair to say that today was the WORST day of our entire trip! We flew from Lombok to Surabaya then took a shuttle bus from the airport to the bus station. The bus station was a terrible place full of aggressive pushy men wanting you to take their taxis and getting angry at you when you just want to find the bus! Ed found a friendly security guard who pointed us in the right direction! We got on a bus to Probalingo and sat in front of this rather over friendly man Half way through the trip we changed buses again and this man saved us seats in front of him. We all fell asleep and now reckon that it was at this point in our travels that Ed's laptop, prescription sunglasses and my kindle laptop were nicked from Ed's bag! :( We only realised this had happened when we reached Cemoro Lawang! I just hope the guy that stole everything has a -2.5 eye prescription!
When we got to Probalingo, a man told us we should get off for minibuses to Bromo. We ended up in a man's shop who seemed to have the entire monopoly over transport to Bromo! He wanted to sell us a package but with all our bad travel company experience we just wanted to take a minibus. This obviously annoyed the man and we had to sit their awkwardly as we waited for the bus to come! Eventually the bus arrived, but it had not driven 10 minutes until we pulled up and the driver said we would wait until the bus was full which could apparently take 1-2 hours! Obviously no one was happy with this prospect but amazingly he had a "solution" that if we paid more we could leave immediately! Luckily it didn't get to this point and we left not too long after we stopped. The minibus snaked up the mountains into the clouds. Our bodies were getting colder but our feet were getting hotter as we'd sat right above the engine! It took about 2 hours to reach Cemoro Lawang- the closest village to Mount Bromo. When we arrived we got our bags and it was at this point that Ed realised our things had been taken. All feeling a bit down in the dumps, we tried to find some accommodation for the night. This proved a very difficult task! The 1st place we looked at was similar to a squat, the 2nd the single toilet (if it could be called that) was outside in the freezing cold, the 3rd was full and the 4th only had one room available at the cost of Rp1,000,000 per night!! By the 5th place we were getting pretty desperate! The room had two beds, asian toilet and bucket shower but it was relatively clean and within our price range so we took it!
We ate some lunch then went for a walk to look at Bromo from a nice viewpoint. Bromo is an active volcano which is constantly smoking and is next to several other cool volcanos. It's surrounded by a flat dusty plain and the view from the other side looks above the clouds with mountain tops peaking through- it was really beautiful particularly at sunset.
We fancied a light dinner, Ed and I opted for Tomato soup which was the strangest version of tomato soup I've ever had! It was literally raw chopped tomatoes in salt water! We both had serious food envy for Han's spaghetti bolognaise!
The following morning we woke up at 3am! Our sleep was partially interrupted by Han having a nightmare and screaming "Oh my God!" at the top of her voice! Definitely sounded like a murder to anyone sleeping nearby. In the cover of darkness we set off to walk to the viewpoint overlooking Bromo and the other volcanoes. There were gorgeous stars as it was a really clear night. We had expected the route to be very busy but as we'd left so early it was just us on the road with a random Indonesian man on horseback overtaking us every now and again. The route was flat for a little while and then the road started to get steeper until it developed into a thinner uphill path. We had to make several stops to catch our breath and sip on Sprite for energy! It took us just over an hour to reach the viewpoint. The sunrise was absolutely gorgeous. On one side the clouds engulfed everything below and the changed colour as the sun came up. On the other side as it became lighter you could start to see Bromo. After a while the sun cast Golden rays across its peak. When the sun was fully up we headed back down, grabbed our bags- nobody was up for a bucket shower, then got several long buses to head over to Yogyakarta.
On our first day in Yogyakarta we decided to take a little walking tour, recommended in the Lonely Planet book. We firstly walked down the main street which was full of stalls selling very similar things- bright batik clothing, cheesy t-shirts, bracelets and purses. We then walked past the old Dutch fort which was unfortunately closed.
The second day we changed accomodation to Tiffa Losmen which was a little cheaper. The room was fine but the bathroom seemed to have some sort of drainage problem and we kept having to open all the windows to get some breeze through! We aimed to complete the walking tour that we started the previous day. We firstly headed to the Kreton where the Sultan of Yoga lives. It was quite a strange place, the interior was unfortunately closed and there were huge clear areas in front of the building where it looked like there should have been grass but it was just brown dust with lots of rubbish! We had hoped that our next stop would be the Bird Market but we saw one shop selling birds and that was it! Another suggested site was the Water Castle although even now none of us know what we were meant to be looking at! It was a bizarre rubble building which had graffiti all over it! The final stop on this tour was the 'Arun-Arun'. It took us quite a while to find it as we got very lost but when we got there it's safe to say it was very much on par with the rest of the your- distinctly average. We'd walked for over an hour to see a dusty football pitch with two trees in the middle!
The third day was an early start was we got the minibus to Borobudur at 5am! It took about one and a half hours to reach Borobudur. We had to wear some groovy sarongs which were navy blue with white pictures of the temple.It was great to arrive so early at the temple as the sun was just coming up and it wasn't very busy. The temple is 9th Century Buddhist and is made up of 5 different levels. You can walk around each level which is covered in hundreds of stone carvings and statues of Buddha. The very top is covered in dozens of beautiful stoopas each encasing a statue of Buddha. We sat at the top eating our favourite Marie Susu biscuits enjoying the scenery. The temple is surrounded by palm tree forests and in the distance you can see Volcano Gunung Merapi. In 2010 it erupted and covered Borobudur in ash which took ages to remove.
Our next stop was Prambanan which is a large Hindu temple complex of around 7 different sized temples dedicated to different Hindu Gods. Their structures are a little like Ankor Wat but the stones are black and there are lots of stone carvings inside and outside. We explored the different temples and for the largest one we had to wear turquoise hard hats which Ed attempted to wear over his cap- not a great look!
After one final day chilling in Yogyakarta we took the train to Jakarta and had to say farewell to Han who flew back home! We then prepared for the next leg of our journey!
On our first day in Yogyakarta we decided to take a little walking tour, recommended in the Lonely Planet book. We firstly walked down the main street which was full of stalls selling very similar things- bright batik clothing, cheesy t-shirts, bracelets and purses. We then walked past the old Dutch fort which was unfortunately closed.
The second day we changed accomodation to Tiffa Losmen which was a little cheaper. The room was fine but the bathroom seemed to have some sort of drainage problem and we kept having to open all the windows to get some breeze through! We aimed to complete the walking tour that we started the previous day. We firstly headed to the Kreton where the Sultan of Yoga lives. It was quite a strange place, the interior was unfortunately closed and there were huge clear areas in front of the building where it looked like there should have been grass but it was just brown dust with lots of rubbish! We had hoped that our next stop would be the Bird Market but we saw one shop selling birds and that was it! Another suggested site was the Water Castle although even now none of us know what we were meant to be looking at! It was a bizarre rubble building which had graffiti all over it! The final stop on this tour was the 'Arun-Arun'. It took us quite a while to find it as we got very lost but when we got there it's safe to say it was very much on par with the rest of the your- distinctly average. We'd walked for over an hour to see a dusty football pitch with two trees in the middle!
The third day was an early start was we got the minibus to Borobudur at 5am! It took about one and a half hours to reach Borobudur. We had to wear some groovy sarongs which were navy blue with white pictures of the temple.It was great to arrive so early at the temple as the sun was just coming up and it wasn't very busy. The temple is 9th Century Buddhist and is made up of 5 different levels. You can walk around each level which is covered in hundreds of stone carvings and statues of Buddha. The very top is covered in dozens of beautiful stoopas each encasing a statue of Buddha. We sat at the top eating our favourite Marie Susu biscuits enjoying the scenery. The temple is surrounded by palm tree forests and in the distance you can see Volcano Gunung Merapi. In 2010 it erupted and covered Borobudur in ash which took ages to remove.
Our next stop was Prambanan which is a large Hindu temple complex of around 7 different sized temples dedicated to different Hindu Gods. Their structures are a little like Ankor Wat but the stones are black and there are lots of stone carvings inside and outside. We explored the different temples and for the largest one we had to wear turquoise hard hats which Ed attempted to wear over his cap- not a great look!
After one final day chilling in Yogyakarta we took the train to Jakarta and had to say farewell to Han who flew back home! We then prepared for the next leg of our journey!
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