making up syllables: 1m2tm: mt. bromo, indonesia

i was a little worried about the two day excursion through java into bali after reading some less than favorable opinions of them online, but it turned out to be pretty solid. my feeling is the complainers were pre-madonnas who expected smooth sailing at every turn. that being said, sitting in a van for 12 hours only to wake up at 3 am and then hike up some mountains only to get right back on a bus for 9 more hours is never an easy time. but definitely worth it.

we hit the road around 8am from yogyakarta. 'we' being myself, our driver, a couple from germany, a couple from czechoslovakia, and a dutch woman traveling by herself. the ride was, just to reiterate, 12 hours and we wouldn't hit our destination, probolinggo, until 8pm. the group was friendly enough but it was difficult to find a common language, even among the europeans. still, i ended up getting to be friends with the dutch girl because of a curious similarity. turns out she was living in korea for the past year as well on an exchange work program with samsung (she was rocking the galaxy s and the tab, perks of the job apparently). she was up in seoul but managed to get around, probably more than i did, so we could talk about places we had visited and foods we had eaten so it made the trip a little lighter.

when we got to probolinggo we were split up depending on what package we signed up for and, as luck would have it, me and the dutch woman/girl (i have no idea how old she was) were staying at the same place, yoschi's (★★★★, we got in at night so i was a little out of sorts. also there was some iffy business with the paperwork for the tour so i was kind of stressing out about where exactly i was staying but it turned out pretty well. probolinggo is way up on a mountain but there are a ton of hotels to accommodate the tourism, yet from what i could tell yoschi's was probably the most lively. it has a nice layout with a lot of outdoor garden space and good areas for you to sit outside of your room. the rooms are nice, private, but with a shared bathroom. we weren't there very long but the only real downside were the flies. they were everywhere and relentless. worse than any mosquito situation yet). after getting everything settled with my room i hopped into the restaurant for a late dinner. dutchy (at one point i did know her name but its been gone awhile now) joined by the time i got a beer. there was live music and a group of girls, indonesian but i'm not sure if they were local or on vacation, were gathered around singing along. it was a festive atmosphere and not a bad change of pace from the rest of the day but it would be an early morning so we were soon off to bed.

3am is never not early but its a real bitch when you've been in a sardine can of a van for a full day and all you want to do is relax. but we were up at 3am anyways so we could climb up a mountain to view the sunrise over mt. bromo, an active volcano. there were two options - 1. walk a few miles uphill to get to the volcano itself and watch the sunrise from its ridge or 2. take a jeep ride to a nearby mountain, walk a short way up the mountain side, and view the sun hit the volcano as it rose over the horizon. even though it cost a little more i opted for the second option. so off we went in our toyota landcruiser, which reminded me of my trips out west with dad and the bouncy terrain there. the sunrise, i will have to tell you, was beautiful. i'll have to tell you because i only got a few pictures before my camera ran out of batteries and turned off. whoops! though later, when we went to the volcano, i managed to squeeze a few more photos out of it.

between the mountain and the volcano was a sea of sand that the landcruisers crossed easily enough but we had to hoof it up to the rim ourselves. there were horses available (and back on the mountain) to take the lazy and infirm up for a small cost. sometimes the volcano is quite smoky, apparently, but on the day we visited it just had a few belches. at the top there was no rail or anything to hold you back and just a short little path to walk around, barely enough for two people to walk stomach to stomach, and as i was up there looking into the dark, smoky pit, i couldn't help but feel the urge to just jump down in there. like a nervous tic that you have to fight to hold back. i know i'm not the only one who gets that feeling when looking out over an unknown precipice. it's that void, actually and metaphorically, you're not supposed to stare into. like a game of chicken.

i walked back down and waited for everyone to gather so we could go back to the hotel. once there we had enough time for a quick breakfast before our vans picked us back up. we headed back into town before splitting up once again - some went to kalibaru, another volcano, and others, such as myself, went onto bali by tour bus. another nine hours, including a ferry ride and a lift on a bike, and i was in sanur, my first destination in bali.