Yesterday, I left Jogjakarta to see the Borno Volcano.
I left jogjarkata at 9:00 am, and we got to the park where the volcano was at 12:00 am. That's right 15 hours-in a small van. One with very dicey air conditioning, and suspension that wasn't very good, so the van kept bouncing up and down on the poor roads. The scenery that myself, and the 10 others in the van passed by wasn't what would be called scenic. It was a mish mash of continous third-world commericalization. Small restaurants, markets, auto repair places, general stores, etc that kept continuing and continuing for 15 hours, with occasional a low lying rice field and very modest homes along the way. We stopped for a break roughly about every 1-2 hours.
As mentioned, at Midnight, we reached the park, The plan was to stay in a hotel for a few hours, and then go see the volcano at 2:30 am. (it was a long walk to where we can view the volcano-supposidly by leaving then we would be back by Sunrise). I was excited to stay in a hotel after so many hostels-but this one was modest, to say the least. There was no sink in the bathroom, just a flexible hose that runs into the toilet. The walls are spoltchy. The bed sheets don't match, and there is a padlock to use to lock the door.
But for a few hours it was fine.
We left the hotel at 2:30 am to see the volcano at sunrise, which erupted a few weeks earlier and was still smoldering. We walked up a path (I went with a woman from the hostel in Jogjakarta). It was cold out, put the moon was out and lit they way, and there we're lots of stars in the sky. Walking up we could see the smoke from the volcano. There we're also many vendors selling things, such as breakfast, souveniers, etc. for the upcoming rush. After walking up a steep staircase and some unpaved road, we reached the viewing area at 3:30 am.
We we're the first one there-and nobody else was there, except for vendors selling roasted corn, post cards, etc. -you could just see the massive plume of smoke in the darkness,
We walked back to the hostel, and got some sleep until the van left-about 10:00 am.
Next we went to Elgin-where there is the blue lava which we could see.
The bus ride was only about 9 hours.
Once again, a minibus going over bumpy roads with bad suspension.
This time
(A) The driver first refused to stop for lunch
(B) The driver liked some type of cookie, or something, and there was a sale as some chain called Indiomarkt-so we stopped in at least 6 Indiomarkets along the way.
(C) We we're driving on some rural roads and the bus got a flat tire. So much to the fascination of the locals, we stopped and changed the tires. The locals stared at us and smiled. and talked to us in Indonesian.
We finally got to the hotel about-8 (only to wake up about 1) and see the blue lava.
