Selamat malam (Good evening) from Java and welcome to the second installment which is a day late as I spent 1.5 hours perfecting a blog yesterday and didnt realise that this page times out after 1 hour and deleted all my text. I learned the hard way :-)
Anyways I am in Surabaya north east Java, since yesterday afternoon after a hectic few days with pre 5am starts four mornings in a row, the earliest been 3am, all worth it by the way.
I left Yogyakarta last Sunday morning and got a minibus direct to the next location on my to do list which was Cemoro Lawang on the rim of the Tengger crater almost at 2,500m altitude.
The locals all wear ski jackets and gloves cos they can't deal with the cold but to be honest it was fine for all the europeans, even at 4am in the morning.
The attraction here is My Bromo crater and the sunrise over the crater which as the darkness lifts reveals such an amazing sight. Check the pictures because my explaination will not do it any justice.
Mt bromo with its sulphur smoke and Mt Semeru 12km in the distance which errupts every 20mins without fail. I mentioned in my last blog that I was thinking of climbing it but when I seen the erruptions with smoke accompanied by sparks I changed my mind although the guides where like "yeah we take you mister no problem"
The first morning I did the sunrise there was a heavy fog in the crater which didn't lift properly so I decided that I would return two days later for the perfect postcard picture that I wanted as it wasn't too far out of the way.
The advantage of travelling alone is that I can change my mind at the last second and go wherever.
I left Cemoro Lawang after breakfast and got a minibus for the 6hour trip to a village in the middle of a massive coffee plantation. Two English girls and two Austrians joined us on this leg of the trip.
The next destination was the Ijen Crater on the east coast of Java. Workers arrive at the Crater at 5am and extract the sulphur at the bottom of the crater. It is the hardest I have seen anyone work before and most of the men wear sandals and some in bearfoot to carry the 80Kg that their two baskets hold to the top of the crater and down the otherside. That is four of my backpacks on their back. They get 7Euro approx for each run they do which is limited to two a day as the clouds roll in at 1pm.The sulphur at the bottom of the crater is really overpowering and we had to retreat fast as it stung our eyes and was choking us.
After many pictures at Ijen we head to the ferry for Bali on the east coast and the rest of the backpackers get off but I stay on the bus and head back to Bromo for that perfect picture I so long for.
A Belguim couple then join the bus after their journey from Bali and we make it to Cemoro Lawang about 5pm to be greeted by a table full of very friendly, French, Spanish, German and Dutch people who nab us to share the jeeps that will take us to the Crater view point in the morning. The bigger the group the bigger the discount naturally.
3am start and well worth it as the morning was perfect and as you can see from the pics the views are amazing. I found a can of Guinness and had to put it in a least one shot. It was very bad by the way and one sip of it was enough and some Indonesian finished it for me.
After breakfast 11 of caught the bus and headed to Surabaya where we all said our goodbyes at the bus station. I catch a taxi and soon realise that I been overcharged so do a runner in the middle of the street. Totally disorientated and after a few failed attempts of getting direction or transport a local girl spots my predicament and comes to the rescue. Dhonna gets her minibus to stop and takes me to the local depot and make sures that I get the right bus into the city centre. Not only that but she also pays for my fare. I told you the Indonesians were a friendly bunch.
Oh and a policeman stopped 5 lanes of traffic to let me cross the street today also. The traffic in the city centre of Surabaya is mental and I have stepped out in front of 5 lanes a few times. The locals wont stop to let you cross but they will slow down. Roadrage isnt there thing at all no matter how close of a near miss.
So many random acts of kindness I keep forgetting them all :-)
At breakfast this morning a woman came over to me and put her child on my knee to get a photo. Was very funny and that has been the theme of the day. I feel like a celeb walking around Surabaya as it is off the main tourist route.
Java is probably the safest place I have travelled in. It's not like some other countries where you don't know if people are genuine. Even the people trying to sell their wares don't put you under pressure and when you say No they will still have a big smile and say "ok mister" :-)
I decided today to book a flight to Kalimantan (Borneo for those like me who didn't know its real name :-)) as I have a few days to spare and have done all and seen eveything that I wanted in Java ahead of time.
That's all for now folks, off to Sydney on Tuesday after Kalimantan so probably wont get an update before then.
Take care and enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.
p.s. I got serious sunburn at the Ijen crater hence the title. I blame a crazy Austrian for it as he wanted to run around sniffing sulphur and taking pics.
