Gunung Bromo Day 122 (19th Sept)

Trip Start May 20, 2009
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Trip End Dec 22, 2009


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Flag of Indonesia  , East Java,
Saturday, September 19, 2009

Today I got my wake-up call at 3:30am, damn it was cold. It made a change, it was only the second time I have felt the cold in Java (also in Cibodas). I dressed up in 2 t-shirts, shoes, jeans, a fleece and my coat!! I met up with Lisa and Annie and after some good advice began the walking track to reach the crater of the Volcano Gunung Bromo for sunrise. The trek was all downhill and pretty easy going. Once we got to the bottom we had a straight walk to the foot of Bromo. The shadow of the volcano/mountain (next to Bromo) looked eery and mystical, like an imposing giant overshadowing the surroundings, made even more majestic by the amazing number of stars in the sky. After a further walk and fending off people offering us horse rides up Bromo we made it to the steps of Bromo, 253 steps to the top apparently. The views were great and I met the norwegian girls from the previous night. After getting plenty of postcard photos taken we saw the sun begin to rise, with a colourful sky and a vast mountanous landscape bearing over the flat plains (which where dark from the volcano ash left from the last erruption of Gunung Bromo) The start of Sunrise
The start of Sunrise
 . On the way back to the hotel I looked at the grey coloured Bromo next to its much greener, larger counterpart, a massive mountain which I forget the name of, which eclipses Bromo, but Bromo with all the smoke bellowing out of its large crater was a fierce little volcano (the smoke stank of rotten eggs!). When we got back to the hotel I was able to eat my breakfast outside the hotel, overlooking the national park of Bromo and relax with a nice breeze hitting me, not a bad view for dining!! Next I got a public bus down to Probolinggo, which took an hour and a half. Then after deciding to get a train to near the ferry port went astray I went to get a public bus to Denpasar, Bali. After negotiating I got the ticket for 85,000 rupiah. The journey was excrutiatingly long, stopping off all the time, I boarded the bus at 1pm and caught the ferry at 8:30pm, arriving in Bali at 9pm. From here it took about 3 hours to get to Denpasar, I was struggling to find accomodation everywhere in Kuta, 12 hostels were full!! Then this indonesian guy called Jimmy asked if I wanted help, we walked around looking for more hostels, but to no avail. I was cautious of him at first because usually in my experience when someone has wanted to help me in Indonesia they have wanted money. However he was geniune and offered me to stay in his room with his mate Andrew. Then me and Jimmy went to MacDonalds for some grub and by the time I went to Bed it was 4am.  My initial impressions of Kuta are that its really touristy with lots of drunk westerners, people who want to party, beach bathe or surf, it was completely different to Java, much more commercial and not that much of a backpacker place so I dislkied it, especially with all the the well-off middle aged people and families it made it feel like a beach holiday resort, which is what it is I guess. I look forward to Lo ina and the chilled out places of the North and north east (god I sound boring!!), probably because I am so tired from all the travelling of the last few days. In the last 2 days I have travelled 24 hours and got up at 4am to see Bromo before sunrise before going to bed at 4am the next day, I am exhausted!!!
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