Joey and I had signed up for a tour that would take us to Bromo, then to Ijen, and then to the ferry where we would head over to Bali. Getting to these places can be tough on public buses. I think it would require a lot of patience and time. At this point, these are two things we have little of. Even if a ticket to do all three things through a tour company is a bit more expensive, atleast the tour takes care of the 2 nights accommodation and breakfast.
The first day of the tour sucked. We left Yogyakarta at 9 and didn’t reach Bromo until 8pm. 11 hours on a bus is no fun! I guess we did meet a number of interesting people on the mini bus though! By the time we arrived at our hotel (which wasn’t the one Joey and I wanted to go to, but whatever) we were exhausted. I was unimpressed with the cold weather, and most importantly, the shitty menu that our “hotel” had. Honestly, anything but fried rice/noodles would be amazing. Indonesians do not deviate from their daily foods consisting of nasi campur (rice, fish and veg), nasi goreng (fried rice)and ayam soto (chicken soup). Most restaurants only serve these things, and if they do serve western food, you probably don’t want it. I think Joey and I have officially given up hopes on getting a decent western meal. Although, we have had some good pizza.
We got to bed by about 9:30 and set our alarms for 4am. Ouch. I was not looking forward to waking up that early. The group of us in the mini bus had managed to gang together and rent a jeep so we didn’t have to do the 3 hour trek to the look-out point. It was a bit more expensive to get the jeep, but I don’t like strenuous exercise any time before 12pm. In our group of people there was a really cool Spanish girl named Atina, two British girls, and a very annoying American guy. This guy just loved to hear himself talk about anything and everything, but especially he liked to talk about himself. I struggled to hold a conversation with him because of his constant interruptions. I felt bad for the girl who had to sit with him for the 12 hours the previous day.
Well he was back at it at 4:30am and was chatting away, mostly to himself. Most of us had not had coffee yet, so none of us were quite interested. The jeep ride was fairly uneventful. Joey was let down that it was a Toyota. Both of us were especially let down that we didn’t go off-roading, and because the guy driving didn’t really know what he was doing. When we got to the top of the lookout point to get our sunrise glimpse of Bromo there were tons and tons of people up there. We managed to find a place with less people and took a bunch of really awesome photos.
Our group was then herded back to the jeep where we drove to the foot of Bromo, where we would climb (actually, walk up a staircase) to the top of the crater. There was about a bazillion local men with little horses who were offering dirt cheap prices to ride the 500metres to the base, but honestly after 12 hours on a bus the day before, I felt I could use some of the exercise. One thing that really bothers me about these countries is that there is no control over people and making money. One guy a long time ago thought of an idea to use his horse to shuttle lazy tourists 500metres to Bromo, next thing you know literally 200 men with their horses come and try to do the same thing. They ask incredibly reasonable prices. There are just far too many of them, and I hardly doubt that any of them are making a good living by doing this. This is just one example of a business idea being taken on by everyone and their neighbour.
We got to the top of the volcano which was pretty neat. There was a big sulphurous cloud coming from the middle, but other than that there wasn't much volcanic activity. The view was gorgeous though. You could see all the jungle(whats left of it)rice fields and agricultural land for miles. We stayed up there for a bit but had to be down in order to get our mini bus so we could head on to Ijen.
Joey and I were the only ones in our group who were going to Ijen; the rest were heading on to Bali. Some Canadian friends we met in Sumatra had highly recommended Ijen for it's natural beauty and lack of crowds. It's also surrounded by beautiful coffee plantations.
That night we met our guide named Amos in the minibus as we drove to Ijen. The ride was slow going because the roads were so washed out. We started talking and Amos seemed really friendly. He was only 19 but seemed to already possess the skills to be a good guide. He liked his job because he got to practice English and meet people from all over the world. When we go to the hotel Joey and I went into the hotspring fed whirlpool. It wasn't exactly hot but it was nice anyways.
The next morning was an early one. Annoyingly so, it didn't have to be. Our door got knocked on at 4am so we could be up and ready to leave at 4:30 to catch sunrise. Joey and I get ready quickly and wait outside for what seems like forever. 5:15 rolls around and we still haven't left. Amos finally lets us know that we are waiting for another couple. Joey told him to go wake them up because we were going to miss sunrise. What we didn't know was that it was a muslim couple who were at the mosque for prayer. Amos apologized profusely for them being at prayer. What he didn't know was that we were pissed because if he knew we were giving them a ride to the base of Ijen and they had prayer at 5am, then why the hell were we woken up at 4? Sleep is a very valuable thing to Joey and I, especially because we had been up at 3:30am the night before!
We totally understand if someone is Muslim and needs to prayer. We have nothing but respect for them, but when you sign up for a sunrise tour, pray later! Don't make everyone else (It was only me and Joey, but still) wait. What annoyed me even more was that when we got to the base of the crater, they didn't even start climbing right away. I was very disappointed.
The walk up to Ijen was too strenuous for that early in the morning. I was hungry because the crap breakfast(who in their right mind thinks that chocolate sprinkles between two white pieces of bread constitutes as breakfast, seriously are you trying to give me diabetes?!) that our hotel provided didn't fill me up in the slightest. The scenery was beautiful and could have been even more beautiful if there hadn't been garbage absolutely everywhere. In parks like this you pay upwards of $3 for "park conservation" but they can't even pick up the garbage. The combination of lack of sleep and nutrition made me more sensitive to the garbage. I feel in Canada and other nations we spend a lot of time, effort and money to preserve our nature and lesson our carbon footprint. Then you come to these countries and they just throw garbage wherever they can. Such little compassion for nature sent me into tears. Our guide was so weirded out that I was crying. I told him everything was so beautiful here, but it's sad that their is so little control over waste dumping.
When we got to the top of the crater the walk up steep hills was worth it. In the middle of the crater was a huge steaming lake. You could see near the shore of the lake the sulphur miners who get the sulphur from the ground and haul it down the mountain. It looks like an incredibly tough job!
On our way back down Joey and I started asking Amos questions. I was quite surprised to see his views on things. He had said some contreversial things such as Muslims being superior to Christians because Christians don't prayer 5 times a day like Muslims do, and that he called African American people the N word several times, and to add insult to injury he said that all of them are mean and very violent. I don't blame Amos for having these views. He comes from a very religious family, and like other Indonesians, thinks that Westerners (black or white) behave exactly like the do on tv or the movies. How can you blame them if it's their only glimpse into our world? Most of them will never come to our countries.
After the walk and the talk I was mentally and physically exhausted. I was glad to be heading to Bali that day where Joey and I could get some rest! We said our goodbyes to Amos and headed on our way to Aussie wonderland of Bali.
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