February 28, 2007

Mt. Bromo to Bali (INDONESIA)

Sunrise at Smoking Mt. Bromo and Arriving in Bali

I had to get up at 3am this morning to catch a jeep to Mt. Bromo. Understandably, it was a rough morning as our group didn't finish eating dinner together until after 11pm, and it was still quite a bit longer before sleep came. Not helping matters any, my mobile phone was still on Singapore time, which meant my alarm sounded one hour early. I felt bad because the Polish guy I roomed with was dressed and ready to go at 2am.

There was some drama at the park entrance for Mt. Bromo as the price we were being charged was 5x more than the guide books and information booklets suggested. We were staunchly divided between the people who didn't want to "bend over to such tactics", and those who figured a couple extra bucks isn't the end of the world. Things got heated as a Belgium traveler grabbed the ticket book, tore out enough for our group, and subsequently flung off a man who tried to stop him. Cooler heads eventually prevailed, and in the end we paid between what was being charged and what is standard. We all knew the entrance we were taken to was illegitimate, but there wasn't much we could do about it at the time because we had to rely on the driver.

The vantage point for the sunrise was stunning, but it was also quite cold, and I hadn't brought any warm clothes - Indonesia straddles the equator! I was able to rent a jacket (1USD) from my hotel before we left, but I was angry at being charged for something that should come standard.

While we were watching the sunrise there was a series of mini-eruptions off to our right at another of Indonesia's active volcanoes. It was the closest I have ever been to such an event, and it was exciting to watch.

By 6:30 we were back in the jeep and driving toward Mt. Bromo. It is nowhere near the largest of Indonesia's volcanoes, but people are able to get quite close and the surrounding scenery makes it one of the most popular. We had to fight through swarms of men offering to rent us horses for the steep climb, and rather than accepting our "no" they followed us up the volcano in groups. "Horse ride? Horse ride? Horse ride?", and so on...

There was a continuous billowing of smoke escaping from the basin of the volcano that was either photogenic or horribly engrossing depending on the direction of the wind. I was able to walk around the lip of the volcano for a quarter rotation, but I only had my Tevo sandals ("Jesus sandals") and I did not want to risk falling into the volcano. There was a 250m tumble on both sides, and the "path" of packed dirt was only 8 inches wide.

Next, we went back to the hotel and had some much needed breakfast before heading off to Bali at 10am. There was a bigger bus for this leg of the journey, but the promised eight hours turned into 13. The only positive aspect was we did not have to transfer buses for the journey as the bus went on the Java-Bali ferry as well.

For entertainment, there were local Indonesian boys swimming in the bay and collecting coins thrown by passengers. People would throw coins out to sea and watch the boys race one another to find the coin. They stored the coins in their mouths and chewed on them like spitting tobacco while an additional boy directed them from the top of the ferry. When the ferry pushed off, the last local boy jumped to the cheers of the passengers. We all threw rupiah bills for the stunt.

We arrived at the capital of Bali, Denpasar, at around 11pm. Rather than spending the night in the city, we arranged transportation to a place called Ubud in the middle of the island. This made the day even longer as we hadn't had dinner, we had been up since 3am, we spent an entire day on a bus, and then we had to find a place to stay for the night after midnight.

In the end, everything worked itself out, and nothing felt so good as lying down for sleep.