Our first port of call in Indonesia was Surabaya, in Eastern Java. We headed straight to the bus station, and walking through the bus terminal in Surabaya felt a different world away compared to where we had just come from: immediately far more rustic, but enticing. Indonesia seems to have its own distinct smell (maybe sweat mixed with incense mixed with the smell of a recent tropical downpour) and this is the smell that hit us on our arrival. And we loved the fact there was a woman dancing and singing in the middle of the bus station, maybe just to welcome us?

While sat on the bus waiting for it to leave for Malang, a city about two hours away, we were treated to a long procession of traders getting on both the front and back end of the bus, with an interesting array of trinkets they were trying to sell, including snacks, plastic jewellery, sticker books, atlases…even music, as one guitarist got on and strummed a few tunes. With so many traders there was a mini traffic jam in the aisle of the bus, which was of course overcrowded anyway….yes, we were definitely back in Asia proper!

The main reason for starting our Indonesian travels in Java was to see and climb a couple of impressive-looking volcanoes, so after one night in Malang - experiencing our first dormitory and our first taste of Java coffee, aka rocket fuel - we started off for Cemoro Lawang, the little village from where we would visit the first volcano, Gunung Bromo. What we hadn't quite realised was that Cemoro Lawang was literally on the lip of an even bigger volcano crater, although the drive up in the rickety local minibus should have been a clue that we were climbing up the side of one massive volcano: the stunning, yet hair-raising drive saw us go past lush vegetation, amazing feats of farming on incredibly steep slopes, and roads so steep that at times we wondered if our minibus would make it at all... the ensuing torrential rain shower and the mud slide I imagined coming our way made it seem all the more doubtful. But we made it to the top somehow, by nightfall, leaving the treat of the wonderful view from Cemoro Lawang for the next day, and feeling the marked drop in temperature as we donned clothes we hadn't had to wear since Russia and Mongolia.

And what a view: as mentioned this little highland village is perched on the side of a vast crater stretching 10km across, with Gunung Bromo being one of three volcanoes to rise out of the ancient Tenggar caldera. So the main attraction, Bromo, is a volcano within a volcano…crazy, when you realise the immense size of the 'Daddy' Volcano, making Bromo (2400m high) seem pretty small in comparison. It is said that the Tenggar crater was initially dug out with just half a coconut shell by an ogre smitten with love for a princess, which of course makes it even more impressive. (Always love a good local legend).

There was no rain that morning, just beautiful blue skies and sunshine, and we made our way up to the nearest viewpoint for a panoramic view of all these volcanoes, and before we set off to walk up Bromo itself: back through Cemoro Lawang, down the crater wall and across Laotian Pasir, or the 'Sea of Sand', so-called due to the 'sea' of ashen, volcanic sand you walk across to get to the bottom of Bromo. A rather hot 3km walk in the middle of the day across volcanic sand and then 250+ steps up before you reach the edge of Bromo's crater, but nothing too strenuous really and all worth it for what you greets you at the top: a view straight down in to the mouth of a very active volcano, with great plumes of sulphurous smoke rising out of bubbling water.

The local Hindu Tenggar people see Bromo as a very sacred volcano, and the volcano's mood is appeased each year with an annual festival, when Tenggarese Hindus pray for health and good harvests at the volcano. Apparently some local daredevils try to descend in to the crater, to catch the festival offerings (money, food, live chickens) thrown by others, and every few years someone slips and falls to a very certain death….this was very much on our minds as we peered down in to the crater, and particularly when we spotted someone in the distance walking around the edge of the crater - an even more terrifying a prospect when he draws near and we see he is wearing loose flip flops and carrying two huge sacks of rice. In the evening we rewarded ourselves with a sunset beer, enjoying the spectacular view over the volcanoes…who needs a roof top terrace when you have this?!

The next day we headed for Bondowoso, the base for the next volcano, Gunung Ijen (Javanese for 'Lonely Mountain'), in a vast volcanic region called the Ijen Plateau, home to highland coffee plantations and a few isolated settlements. It's an early 3am departure the next day to get there for sunrise supposedly - though this was rather hidden by the mist and light drizzle. Once that cleared nearer the top, after about a 2 hour climb, we were treated to amazing landscape and scenery…it looked like we had landed on another planet, or on the moon. The slopes of the volcano are covered in huge ridges, and at the bottom of the crater there is an incredibly blue lake. You can also see the bright yellow chunks of sulphur, which is mined by a few hundred men, who have the very tricky task of carrying it from the bottom of the crater to the top, while battling the extremely pungent sulphur fumes. We bore witness to this when we descended in to the crater ourselves (there were a few people doing this, not just us), a 40minute downhill climb to get a closer look at both the lake and the sulphur. It was worth the extra trek down, the lake really was an amazing turquoise blue, and although we wouldn't have wanted to hang around the sulphur too long, it really made you appreciate how hard these miners work, breathing in the eggy fumes while carrying a heavy load (we guessed up to 70kg) of sulphur up the steep crater and then down the volcano slopes the other side, all to earn a pittance for their efforts… seeing this certainly stopped any complaints of our own about it being a hard ascent back up. Simon didn't help their battered lungs by offering cigarettes in return for a photo (apparently the polite thing to do) but despite cigarette-touting tourists and the sulphur fumes, it was amazing how fit these miners seemed to be, and how they still managed to raise a smile despite a pretty harsh daily existence. The last photo accompanying this blog post shows one of the miners holding confirmation of how much their efforts are apparently worth - the equivalent of £4 for carrying 90kg of sulphur each time, or in other words, 9 of our backpacks….yes, I don't think I will complain about my (very small) backpack again.

Two volcanoes down, we headed to Bali for some R&R…more on that next time!