Volcano no.1
Trip Start
Apr 16, 2009
1
67
124
Trip End
Ongoing
Probolinggo, Java, Indonesia
Monday, November 16, 2009
To combine some sightseeing with reasonably cheap transport we decided to book onto a 2-day tour from Yogya to Bali, with a stopover and sunrise atop Gunung Bromo - an active volcano in eastern Java. The volcano was indeed spectacular (although the sunrise was perhaps not worth the 3:30am alarm call) but the bus journeys before and after - 12 hours a day for two consecutive days - made pulling fingernails sound like fun. We won't labour the details, but needless to say the Javanese roads, whilst generally at least well paved were busy single-lane jobs not suited to maintaining a decent cruising speed and at least 50% of our time was spent in the oncoming lane overtaking a seemingly endless convoy of trucks.
A brief respite came on the 1 hour ferry crossing to Bali where we could stretch our legs and enjoy a can of Bintang beer that cost more than our lunch for two. We didn't care, we were desperate. Tune hotels, our new reliable favourite, had not allowed us to book online because we didn't have Indonesian credit cards so we had no reservation. Sure enough when we eventually hauled ourselves to the check-in counter at midnight it was full, so we checked into a pretty grotty place over the road and collapsed into sleep.
