ANDY AND ANA, BROMO AND KUTA, INDONESIA 5 JULY 2014

Bromo and a little stint in Kuta, twice.

Back on the train, this time to Probolinggo.  This is a small town which is the gateway to catch a local bus up to Mount Bromo (volcano which you can visit).  We’d heard allsorts about the local bus and had decided to stay the night in town to give us plenty of time to figure out what to do and next.  We stayed at a local hotel and tried to look for something entertaining to do in town and decided that eating was the best thing and that wasn't great!  So we headed across to the ‘bus-stop’ the next day and were told we just needed to wait for more passengers, standard Asian way of travelling so that’s fine.  We bumped into a Russian couple – Ilya and Irin- who’d also been told the same thing.  Only problem was that it was a mini bus that seated 10 and they wouldn't budge until there were 15 of us in it! 

The bus that wouldn't move, until it was filled with grumpy Western travellers sat on top of one another

So the wait began… We got chatting to Ilya and Irin and they were great company so time passed pretty easily.  After the first hour 2 others showed up for the bus, after another hour another 2 showed up for the bus.  So after 2 hours we were only an 8 man strong team and the bus wanted 15, people weren’t keen on paying any extra so we had to wait.  After 3 hours very few people came, we even lost one person in the battle of wills to get this bus up to the volcano. 

After much haggling and trying to reason with the driver we managed to depart with 11 of us in the bus after a 3hr30min wait and only paying an extra few pence extra each… Ouch!  There genuinely was no other way up to the volcano unless we hired our own car or got on a motorbike (and this is one journey not to make on the back of a local bike!).
 

Up at the volcano the next job was to find somewhere to stay.  There were few options that you could book in advance and the ones that you could were either full or the price of a mid-range hotel in a big city.  So we had a look around and chose the first place we came across, random empty house in the middle of a town which is built around the volcano tourism.  We were there with another couple and am sure a few others joined in later, a bit of a random wander but this is a tiny town so anywhere is fair game to charge tourists to stay. 

We’d arranged to meet with Ilya and Irin a bit later on to head up to the viewpoint which we wanted to go to for sunrise the next morning.  So after a short walk through town and some food we met up with them and headed up for a sunset/evening view of the volcano.  Back to town for dinner at the place every one eats (and people happy to be ripped stay there too! Cafe Lava) and then off to bed as we were planning to get up at 4am for the sunrise the next morning. 

Ready Rotton...

Standing to unnecessary attention - head torch in pocket!

Up early and head torches on, we met up with Ilya and Irin to start the walk up to the sunrise point.  We knew the way but it was still very dark with lots of strange noises around us… Anywho we made it to the first point to see why it was worth the early start.  I won’t dribble on here as the photos say it all.

First stop and the sun is starting to make an appearance

So is the lady who is selling tea!

Ilya and Irin, a very friendly couple travelling from Russia

We walked up from the valley below the clouds!

Not a bad backdrop, eh!

More is revealed as the sun rises

After walking between different viewpoints, it was time to head back down and onto the bus back into town.  We’d been promised that a bus would leave at 9am to take us back into town but this time were worried that there would be too many people to fit in, so made a hasty retreat and piled into the rapidly filling bus. Back in town and we had quite a long wait for our next journey.

As you can guess, we took a lot of photos

Mount Bromo in the foreground

I'm on top of the world... not really just on a ledge at a view point

We’d booked a night bus from Probolinggo to Bali, which involved an overnight ferry crossing between Java and Bali. So we headed back to the hotel we’d stayed at the day before and used their wifi and ate for what seemed like 12 hours, actually thinking about it, it was 12 hours! We headed across to the bus station to wait and found out the bus was delayed, then somehow cancelled, mechanical issues of course!  So we were left around 10pm in the evening with the guy who sold us our ticket driving us around town to find the bus (or any bus I think to post us on to).  After another hour a bus arrived, not quite what we’d booked considering what we paid but after hurrying another guy out of his seat to sit on the luggage two seats appeared. Prime position right next to some sort of hot exhaust leak and next to the toilets.

One is not amused

We had a meal break stop where everyone gets treated to a mid journey meal and drink before heading back onto the bus to try and sleep.  We crossed on the ferry whilst we dozed/tried to sleep through the bus fumes and arrived in Bali early doors the next day.  We took the bus as far as we could towards Kuta and then hopped off the bus to find a taxi for the final leg of the journey.

We only needed to stay in Kuta for the evening as our flight to Flores was booked for early the next day, so we had booked into a hotel near to the airport which was pretty swish by our standards J  We hailed a cab and got about half way when the driver decided that he’d got an alternative appointment which was more important and therefore couldn't take us all the way.  So he stopped on a road somewhere and negotiated with another cabbie to take us into Kuta.  At this point (sleep deprived and also after a very long day…) Andy had a little tantrum and told the guy that this was NOT OK!  So we paid him what we owed (actually quite a bit less than on the meter due to the inconvenience!) and jumped into cab number 2 all the way to Kuta.

Our own spa room at the hotel, I'm now wondering how Andy behaves when he's having a massage in private...

Tuna for dinner, yum yum

We arrived a little early to the hotel and our room wasn’t ready. We’d not been able to shower up at the volcano or the night before so were starting to smell of eau de body odour so asked to use showers.  The only free ones were up in the Spa!  So we had the Spa room to ourselves so we could have a wash (actually had a bath, shower and general preen and made the most of the smellies knocking around but drew the line at lighting the scented candles!) and feel a little more human before heading out to Kuta town for food and a mooch.

Balinese temple

Outside the temple, you can't go into that many of them here...

Still needing to top up Andy’s missing supplies, we headed to the malls (shopping centres to us lot) to search for a few items and have a well-deserved coffee.  Back to the hotel and it was time to relax and head to bed ready for our flight the next day.  We’d got up early to go and have breakfast out and found a nice place where they served Andy eggs on top of a massive plate of cheesy potatoes with ham in them, one happy lad.  

Happy breakfast

The hotel dropped us at the airport and we checked ourselves in.  After an hour we received the tannoy announcement that our flight was cancelled…apparently this happens a lot with the domestic flights between Indonesian islands. We retrieved our luggage again (Andy: it hadn't got lost - hurrah!) and headed to the customer service desk to see what was going to happen next.  To our surprise the deal was we could fly the next morning and be put up for the night or get a refund, easy (they clearly do this a lot!).  

Temple offerings... Some had cigarettes, drinks and food in them too!

Mitch Buchanan aka Andy Rotton running into the surf

Final Kuta dinner, ribs n soup a plenty

The banquet - you'll need to tilt your head as it's taken me an age to get this photo here!

So we said yes please to the next day travel and waited for our transfer back into Kuta for another short stop.  We spent the day heading to the beach, exploring temples and heading into the busy part where ‘all the tourists’ – aka us and every other person who says that – go.  One more Kuta dinner allowed for us to find a small local restaurant serving the best ribs and broth we’ve had - ever, meaty goodness and a funky little business by some local lads.

Next stop Flores...Fingers crossed!