Bromo

Time for something a bit more adventurous.... how about visiting three volcano's, of which two are active and walking right up to the crater lip of one why not ay! Its Indonesia, the land of natural chaos!

We woke up at 6am and caught the train to Probolinggo. We tried to sleep somehow but the seat was very hard. The more stops we got the the more people piled in and when we woke up we found our selves crushed between a family of five and chickens under our feet. Each stop people came on the train with their goods selling to all! It was non stop, no matter what the time. "Aqua, Aqua", "Nasi, Nasi, Nasi Nasi," "Pop me, Pop me" (pot noodles) was all we heard all day. If you were hungry or thirsty, in about 10 seconds someone will be next to you selling something, it was like a non stop market stall.

In the darker hours of the evening we arrived in Probolinggo. We missed the connecting bus to Mt Bromo (if there even was one) so we haggled hard with a taxi driver who took us up the mountain to Bromo.

After a bumpy ride and 3000ft up we arrived at the mountain village. It was freezing!!! There was five hostels/Hotels and only one had a vacancy! The room was the smallest we had seen and the worst, with two very small single beds, and no windows! The toilet of course was a true Indonesian style with a hole as the bowl and a bucket as the flush! We had no choice! The only good thing that day was a much needed dinner at a warm cozy little cafe with an amazing mountain view!

After only two and half hr sleep we got woken up by a knock on the door asking if we want to go on a jeep trip to the mountains. Whilst trying to negotiate the price from inside the room and getting some warm clothes on, we jumped out and got in the jeep. The trip up was amazing, though the clouds and eventually getting to the summit 4000ft at 4am.

We watched the sunrise and as the sky got lighter, we realised what view we could see. It was incredible, the sky changed color so quickly and we quickly realised the view of the active volcano in the distance. Back down the mountain we went trekking across and back up to the crater. It was crazy, basically an active volcano spilling out its fumes. The air around was full of sulfur and made it hard to breathe. We finished the trip by having some food at our new found friends hotel with views overlooking the mountains and then to sleep!