We stayed in a little hotel halfway up a mountain that was decorated like an old-fashioned ski chalet in the Alps - quite unlike anything else I've seen in Java (apparently one of the owners is German). We set off from there at 3:45am for a nerve-wracking journey up the mountain in a jeep to watch the stunning sunrise with a view of the volcanoes - Semeru and Bromo (and some others that I don't remember the names of).

We were above the clouds that engulfed the base of the mountains so the view was spectacular. Semeru is the highest peak in Java and the island's most active volcano - it belched a big puff of smoke out while we were watching, which looked amazing with the pink sunrise shining on it.

We had to wrap up warm because it is much colder there than where we had been previously - I hired a delightful sheepskin jacket for the occasion and bought myself a glittery Bromo scarf

Back down the windy mountain roads, we crossed the 'sea of sand' (like a flat desert of black volcanic ash) and then made the challenging climb to the crater of Mount Bromo. At the base of the mountain there were hoards of local men offering horses to take people up as far as the couple of hundred steps that cover the final stretch but I just walked - some of the horses didn't seem very tame, I saw one middle-aged Spanish guy get thrown off his horse halfway up and he actually got back on it!

It was much warmer at the top and it was interesting to watch the steam continuously pouring from the centre of the crater. Apparently a couple of Singaporean tourists were killed a couple of years ago when the volcano unexpectedly threw up a small chunk of molten rock!