So it was a fairly relaxing 12 days although there was a fair bit of activity. There were sunrises and lots of sunsets, I passed my PADI open water course for scuba, saw some temples in Bali, saw some rice fields, did snorkling and scuba in Gilli Air, got stopped by the police for not wearing a helmet in Bali (yes they do target tourists more), bribed a police officer to not have to go to court, and got sunburnt. I also washed most of my clothes (6kg) at quite expensive prices although I did negotiate some discount and my suitcase got fairly broken (this was the other front wheel not the one repaired already). Here are some pictures : Above - sunrise at Sanur beach - Bali Above - the cliffs at Ulawatu temple Bali Above - the police summons to court which disappeared after a 500,000 police bribe Above - Sunset at Tanah lot temple, Bali Above - sunset on Gili air The Gili Air swings around sunset Rice plantations near Ubud (Bali) Old World heritage Gunung Kawi temple north of Ubud (Bali) Pura Ulun Danu Beratan lake temple in Bali Sunrise over Mount Agung from Mount Bromo (Bali)
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At 1am I sat up and saw the van so I went and got my things I needed out of the suitcase and packed everything away. The others were ready so we drove off and I changed into trousers and thermal top for the cold expected as we were going up to higher altitude. We arrived after 2am, met our guide called Suki, were given gas masks and were soon climbing. One of the Swiss guys wasn't feeling well so had stayed in bed and the other was pretty fast at walking but didn't have a torch. The South Africans were a bit slower and the guide said we could push on to see the blue flame if we wanted so I headed on with the Swiss guy called Matthias and we walked past a lot of people on the way up including some taxis which were trolleys people sat in and got dragged up the slope by 3 people, it looked hard work.
We both got to the top and couldn't see any blue flame or lake so I got confused until I realised people were walking down and that was what we had to do. The people immediately in front were a big group who were slow and in the way but I eventually managed to scramble past them and scramble past more people which wasn't the safest way down but I got to the bottom well within time and there were only a few people around. There were plumes of smoke with yellow colour and people next to them with head torches. I later found out these were miners who were digging up the sulphur and I took a few pictures before moving higher up where there was a blue flame and someone standing near to it. It wasn't that visible because of the smoke and after a while the fumes came across so we needed to move away. I went back down where the miners were and carried on further to where the lake was but it was still dark there. There was another blue flame lower down but the smoke was in the way a bit so it wasn't that visible. I had a sit down as it was a bit out of the way and watched some of the miners work. I had seen them earlier carrying baskets up and down and I'd thought it had been food, drink or something else to sell but it turned out they were working carrying sulphur up. As I was sitting a miner came across to me with a small spike of sulphur which he gave to me and it was still warm and pretty cool. He wanted money but didn't understand when I asked how much so I gave up and gave him his sulphur back. I went back up top to the blue flame and it was much more visible so I got more photos. There was someone standing in front of it which was annoying but I got some ok pictures. The smoke and fumes changed direction and with the gas mask, my bag and everything it was difficult and as I scrambled to get away, I put my hand down for balance and hit incredible pain. My hand came straight up off a big pipe and it hurt a lot but didn't look as damaged as I thought it would be. I used water to cool it down and retreated back down where it was quieter and used a soaked napkin to keep my hand from hurting and to aid to recover. I heard someone shouting my name so I shouted back and it was Suki who was with Matthias. We all got together and Suki had taken Matthias to the blue flame and got some great pictures. My hand was still hurting but I followed Suki who showed us the miners, got some liquid sulphur and showed us how to shape it in the water. He is a miner himself when he's not doing tours so he knew the other people working there. We had a go at the sulphur moulding as well but it was hard and quite hot so ours looked pretty rubbish. Then we took it in turns to lift the loaded sulphur which they have to carry. It weighed 80kgs apparently and they only get 10,000 for each kg they get down to the car park area. I wanted a photo at the lake and after that we went back up as the other guys had stopped at the top. The sunrise came and we could see the lake and were lucky it was a clear day without much smoke so the photos were good all the way up. We reached the rim of the volcano again and Suki checked for the South Africans who weren't there so we headed back down and learned that a volcano nearby (Mount Raung?) had erupted a few years ago and this area had been burnt from the ash and we could still see some of that. We got back and Suki gave Charl some moulded sulphur, I gave Suki a tip and we headed back in the van after returning our gas masks. It hadn't really been cold enough for the clothes I was wearing so I tried to change back. At the hotel I tried to charge my phone but had dropped my 4 way usb charger earlier and it didn't work. I got my normal charger out of my suitcase and it didn't work either so I think they turned the power off. Charl kindly let me have a shower in their room and then I had some breakfast at the hotel as they didn't really monitor it. At 9 we all got back in the van, drove 10 minutes to the ferry bought tickets for 3 or 5 thousand and soon boarded the ferry but then waited 15 minutes or so for it to fill up. The journey was not too long but the boat needed space to land and afterwards we had to squeeze past the cars to get off. We all walked to the bus stop (300 metres) ignoring the taxi people and they found a minibus that took them some of the way to Ubud and would also take me to Denpasser. It looked like the Swiss were not joining us but they ran and caught it at the last moment and after 20 minutes the bus was full with other people. Our bags were on the roof and Charl was a bit worried but the journey went ok despite lorries slowing us down a bit and our driver didn't stop for a change so I got to Denpasser around 1pm having said goodbye to the others about 30 minutes before. The bus station was not very central and there were no buses going anywhere but I found an ok hostel called Gandhi about 2km away so I went there and booked it online to make sure. For some reason there was a Gandhi and a Gandhi 2 hostel which were the same place and it only had 3 or 4 dorm rooms anyway so maybe they had some bad ratings and had renamed it to try to clear that or something. The toilet was not good and the water didn't really work but I'd had a shower earlier so I headed out to look for internet or for something to see. I didn't find much just some cheap supermarkets, so I had some food and went to a medium sized park. I got back to the hostel later where they had scales and when I weighed myself I was down to 65kgs (15kg of my original weight). I decided to head more central and found a lot of places like the museum were closed. I found a park that was good with things setup there for somerthing and after walking further, I later found an internet place which was not great. Afterwards it was dark and I got some fruit and alcohol at a supermarket, then went back to the park in the centre which now had some kind of performance possibly for Christmas and I drunk a few beers while sitting on the grass watching the show, but they weren't very good or understandable so I headed back after a while and after a long day I went to sleep around 10.30. I got up at 3am and headed out to climb mount Bromo. First there was a short climb down and then a trek across a flat sandy plane due to the volcanoes activity. My headtorch was not working so well and about 10 minutes in a guy on a motorbike came to tell me I was going the wrong way and I should go on his bike (for 50 or 100 thousand). I checked the map and headed to correct my direction. I put the head torch away and used my phone as a flashlight which was better but meant I couldn't check my map without turning the light off.
So I carried on and it was quite a long walk but I was generally going in the right direction veering off and then correcting and I went past the temple in the dark. I got more confident and then came to a stream gulley which was quite deep. Luckily there was a nice place to climb down but then climbing up was hard especially as sand is not very stable. I carried on walking and another motorbike came up, "Mister mister you go wrong way, I take you there". These motorbike guys were like vultures looking for fresh meat to feed on, although he did actually help and again I checked the map and went the right way and came to where the cars all park. I carried on past and th path went uphill past some stalls not yet set up and wound around to avoid the mountain and a gulley. I next came to some steps where a torch light identified someone sitting down. I said hello and an American voice greeted me back and I kept on and climbed up the stairs and at the top there was a barrier which made me confused whether to go left or right as the map still showed a distance to the top of the volcano but the path just went around in a circle. Then I realised this was the top as the volcano had blown its top and going past this meant going into the volcano, so I took a few pictures in the dark before heading down to get away from the ash and fumes which is what the American had done. I checked the time and it was only 4.20am and I didn't fancy waiting for an hour here for sunrise so I decided to walk back. The walk back was similar, again I went off track, had to climb in and out of the gulley and eventually made it back to climb up and see a bit of the sunrise. I walked to the mountain with the views that the others had climbed but sunrise finished before I could get to the ascent part so I only had pictures from the bottom. The walk was easier in the light and there were jeeps going up and generally more activity including the stalls that were selling things. I was near the place with the tents when I met the 4 South Africans heading down as that was the top for them. Again there were lots of tourists there taking photos and some stalls selling things. I went and climbed up the path again and it looked like very few people did even though it was a path on the map and did have markings to show the way. Once I got to the next viewing point there were some people and on the road there was quite a bit of traffic. As it was light I saw a path up the mountain I hadn't seen yesterday and thought it might go to the proper top so I went up there and it wad quite hard going with bushes to get through. My trousers got wet as a result of water on the plants and I made it to a substation and pylon area and I continued uphill to the top which turned out to be the same viewing place I'd been to the day before (doh!). Going back down the last section of path was very busy with stalls and people who had driven up there and it seens they also drove to the road place which met another path to the viewing place at the top of the climbing section so that there were people everywhere except the climbing path. I put my music on for the climb down which was all ok and got back to the hotel around 8.00am. There was plenty of time before the bus at 9.30 so I had a shower and then wandered around town but didn't have breakfast as I was low on cash and they didn't have an ATM here. The place was small with a few tourist shops, places to eat and hotels/homestays. I met an American at the place to get the minibus and he turned out to be the one who was on mount Bromo earlier. I told him there were 5 of us at Yog homestay so we needed some more before we could go as again they left when full or people agreed to pay. He was in a bit of a rush to catch a train at 11 but there was still time and another guy arrived. I went back to do a few more things at the hotel and then went back to the bus place and there were 3 people now which meant we had 8 in total so were close. As I walked back again I saw a Chinese man who'd been in a group of three on the bus here yesterday and he wanted to go so I said we had enough and he said they would be ready to go in 15. I went back and the South Africans were all ready and went to the minibus when I told them so I followed and we started loading bags onto the roof to make space. A different Chinese person turned up as part of a group of 6 and wanted the bus so there was still space as the other 3 were not here and they would make 14. Turned out one of their group was still on the way from the volcano and others were not ready so we ended up with the 11 which was fine and it was 48,000 each. The drive back to Probolinggo was ok, I talked to the American who had found that train tickets not sold close to departure went really cheap as he'd got one for 30,000. When we got to Probolinggo however it was almost 11 so he'd missed his train. I went to get some money and when I got back the South Africans, 2 Belgians from the bus and 2 Swiss from another bus had agreed a tour to Banyuwungi with mount Ijen volcano as well. I decided it was ok at 270,000 and we got into the bus which was to take 4 hours with no stopping. And there was no stopping, except of course for all of the stopping. First we drove into the bus station and picked up a girl who squeezed into the front with me. Then we went back to the office and changed driver. Then we drove for 30 minutes and changed the van to a similar older model with a bit more space and I moved to the back which was ok but you felt the bumps more. We stopped again for lunch and the place was overpriced so I went down the road and had Ayam (chicken) and nasi (rice). We carried on and stopped again for toilet and I got back in the front to avoid the bumps and maybe sleep but it was too hot and there wasn't enough space and it was another 90 minutes before we got to the ferry place and the girl and 2 Belgians got out. The bus carried on for 10 minutes to the hotel where all of the others were staying. I left my suitcase in the van after switching a few things out of my bag and I walked into town. There were a few hotels nearby and then some food places before the road got empty for a bit. There was a small mall with a supermarket advertised but it hadn't been fully constructed yet and there was a games arcade and not much else there. I left and found somewhere to eat which was ok but not good enough to convince me to go back. After I managed to find 2 internet cafes but my phone wouldn't connect at either so it wasn‘t so productive. By now it was around 11pm so I started to head back and planned a nap at the mall but it was shut so I just had a rest for 30 minutes on a bench then walked back to the hotel where there was an electric socket I could use and an ok place to rest until 1am. I slept in a bit and got up before 7 to have breakfast which was bread with some kind of green spread and chocolate sprinkles. I've never seen that before and it didn't agree too well with me although I was ok. I did some research, got my things together and checked out around 8.15 which is slow for me. The girl on reception didn't seem to know much but agreed that the train could take me to Waru which is near the bus station in Surabaya where buses go to Probolinggo which is where I get another bus to Bromo.
The train station was crowded when I got there and it didn't seem easy to get a ticket so I queued up at a machine and they were doing filming there but they let me stay in line only we all had to freeze when they said action. So they said action and I held still for a minute. After the girl in front turned out to work there and wasn't buying a ticket but said she would help me and get a ticket to Waru. So I waited for a while and she went off and came back with a ticket for 11.30 which was too long as it was only 8.30 so I paid her the 10,000 and left to get a bus instead. Making my way to the main road was not easy as you can't walk through the station, there was no crossing over the railway and the highway was not walkable with my suitcase. So I ended up heading back to the hostel but then the train was coming so I had to wait at the level crossing with the crowds of cars and bikes who squeeze into every little space so that it was hard to walk through them. The barrier went up and it was a bit chaotic with such a crowd and the barrier went back down about 20 seconds later for another train, but I snuck across and got to the road where I took a minibus which took me halfway to the station and another took me the rest of the way for 10k each so 20,000 total. I was thinking of seeing if there were any buses to mount Bromo directly but when I got to the right area there was a bus leaving to Probolinggo so I got on and paid the 30,000. We arrived around 12 and people actually pointed me in the right direction for the bus to mount Bromo. Another person said he could take me there and back on a motorbike for 150,000 which could be ok as accommodation near mount Bromo was looking tough according to the internet. As for the bus, unfortunately I was the only one there and it needed to be filled up and when I talked to the motorbike guy he said there was a homestay here for 75,000 for the night or I could leave my luggage at his sisters. I was tempted but decided to wait and I played chess with one of the locals and it was a good game finishing in a draw. Then I had some food (nasi goreng which had some chicken) and around 2pm 4 south Africans turned up off a bus from Surabaya. They were heading in the same direction finishng in Bali and were 2 couples who had met in Thailand 6 years ago. I went for another walk to see if people may have arrived at the bus station but known where to go, but there was nobody. I did find a travel agent who could book a bus all the way to Denpasser in Bali for 200,000. She also managed to book me a room at Cemoro Lawang (near to Bromo) in Yog homestay which is where the South Africans were staying as well. I bought 500g of Salak (snake fruit) for 5,000 and it was ok but a bit dry, around 3.30, 3 chinese tourists turned up and they were happy to pay more to go now and the price was 65,000 , but 10 minutes later 2 more people arrived and we went for 52,500 each. The journey was about 90 minutes and we arrived close to 6pm and had missed sunrise, but we hadn't paid the 10,000 entry fee to the national park. We decided to go for a walk and met up in 10 minutes after getting ready. There was a viewpoint of the volcano and we took a few photos even though it was a bit dark and there was cloud cover on the volcano. I planned to walk to one of the two places and the others decided not to go as you wouldn't see much and they wanted to climb mount Bromo tomorrow so I went to climb to the viewpoint mountain today and they were to notify people if I wasn't back in 3 hours. I headed out I was glad in a way as it meant I could go faster and they didn't have torches or phones with charge. It was windy and cold as a result so I put my jacket on and carried on walking while it got dark and when I heard dogs barking I got out my torch to see the way. The road continued upwards to an area where stalls are normally set up and I missed my turning but went back and ascended the steps. Then there was a path to a place where people were camped and from there I had to climb up. The path was earth, rock and bushes and was a pretty steep climb in places which eventually reached a viewpoint balustrade which was strange as there was no entry point so I climbed over and walked up the path. The path later came to a road and eventually another path and then I reached the top but as it was dark there was nothing to see. I took a few photos anyway just to show I'd been there. The walk back down was similar except in the dark the climbing part was difficult and I went the wrong way and came close to the cliff edge. I listened to music afterwards and my head torch did a good job but I slowed down a bit as I realised I'd lost my gloves and tried to find them. They weren't to be found and I made it back before 9, almost 3 hours later.The guys had all had dinner and so I went to get some but at a cheaper place. There was one across the road but when I asked the price of the nasi goreng and the mie goreng she said 50 so I went elsewhere although she probably meant 15. I found a place called lava cafe which was cheap and I had both a nasi goreng and a mie goreng because people had said I looked thin after a Facebook post I had done on my birthay. I got back to the homestay and everyone apart from Charl had gone to bed so I packed for the morning to make leaving easier and then went to bed around 11. |
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