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Bromo!
This volcano landscape is featured on quite a few postcards. I took a
train from Yogyakarta to Surabaya and then a bus to Probalingo where I
stayed overnight before the last bit to get to the edge of Bromo.
Probalingo is known for its tour scams and I´m very lucky that I
refused to pay for the bus up until I reached my destination as it was
obvious they had meant to strand myself and a Vietnamese tourist
(Ai - pronounced ´eye´) halfway up at a transfer point. They told each
of us that the other had already paid just like all the other passengers
( who were only going halfway up ).
The hostel was literally on the edge of the crater wall and the 3am
hike up to the viewpoint was quite an experience. Luckily Ai and I
( no pun intended ) were able to meet up with three Austrians
( Christiana, Christoff and Ralph ) on the trail and we all made it up
in time to see the fog block out the sunrise. There were about 150
tourists there almost all of which had taken a jeep up. They all had to
leave with the jeeps before the fog cleared but the rest of us were
able to get some great pictures.. Sure glad I didn´t take a
jeep up! The jeeps had all progressed down to volcano in the crater -
which we also did a bit later after we climbed back down and had some
breakfast. The walk across the crater floor to the volcano was surreal.
The dust was very fine and was easily thrown into the air. There were
stairs up to the edge of the volcano and massive amounts of smoke
billowing out from the volcano. The stench of rotten eggs given off
from the sulphur and steam was unpleasant as we were occasionally
engulfed by the edge of the plume.
I decided to go along with the Austrians as they had an interesting
plan for the next day. We stayed overnight at a hotel that at first
seemed out of our budget.. But they had backpacker rooms for 80,000 and
they let us go in the massive pool after hours!! We had trouble finding
food at 10pm and were lucky to find a street merchant with accompanying
curbside sitting blanket and table. The hotel was able to put us in
touch with a tour guide and vehicle for the next days adventure..
Ijen.. But we asked for a later start this time... Only 8 am ;)
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