Gunung Bromo.....aaaaaaaaahhhhh.. what to say what to say... It was just the most stunning place either of us have ever been. (I'm finding it very hard to concentrate with UB40 playing in this internet café..) Anyway, yes it was just gorgeous. Mt Bromo itself is an active volcano, but its set within the Teneger Massif (or something) which is a volcanic range, some still active, others not, that looks like something from Jurassic Park. Anyway, we arrived in Propellingo (the town nearby) at stupid o'clock, with the bus driver stopping, taking our bags out of the bus and putting them at the side of the road and telling us to get off, despite being asked to get dropped at the bus terminal with all the other passengers. I was rather skeptical and held up the bus by refusing to get off, but eventually the other passengers got annoyed with me and assured me it was safe. A cyclo driver who gave us a lift gave us several heart attacks by taking us down dodgy streets, to dodgy 'tour' booths and refused to speak English to us. Anyway, we eventually got to a hotel (not the hotel we wanted to go to but by this time we were desperate) which happened to be another lovely red light district establishment. I didn't know it was possible to have a red light district in a town so small that it only has one street, but apparently it is. The following morning, we organised transport up to Gunung Bromo (with one of those dodgy tour booth places) and set off. It was about a 2 hour journey, but with our driver going at about 5 MPH for the first half of the journey and stopping to get himself some lunch half way through, it took a lot longer. Our guesthouse was just mad..it was built right against the cliff that runs down to the volcanic floor and the views were unbelievable. This is actually the second time I've heard UB40 today. What the hell is going on? On the first day, we took the hour long walk down the cliff, along the volcanic floor, right to the foot on the crater, and then up the steps (it has steps!!) to the rim. The ash was so hard to walk in and got everywhere but it made you feel like you were on the moon, so it was all good. The climate up there is a lot cooler during the day so it was lovely and cool and just magic. The volcano is still smoking and you can look right into it. It was so mad. Oh, and it was so noisy too! You can hear all the lava making blurpy noises and really roaring sometimes.. hmm actually it was quite scary. We arsed around on the rim for hours until we could be bothered getting up and walking back to the hotel before the sun went down. Local guys sit at the bottom of the steps with horses in case you can't be bothered walking the whole way back, so Charlie the horse gave me a lift back. Thanks Charlie. We got a munch in and then sat outside for a while watching the sunset. It was bitterly cold and we had to borrow huge big mountaineers jackets from the hotel. Colin also bought a rather spiffing 'Mt Bromo' hat and gloves set. Because we were so high up, and because there were hardly any street lights about, you could see all the stars and Dad, you'll like this, not only could we see Mr Orion, you could see the Milky Way!! We are total geeks so this excited us a lot. It was gorgeous though. At the ripe old time of about 8pm, we went to bed with jackets, gloves, socks, wooly hats etc on. Brr it was stupidly cold. At 3am, we got our wake up call.. disgusting, and donned many more layers for the cold outside. We got a jeep (in the pitch black and fog) right down the cliff, along the volcanic basin, and up the tallest mountain in the range to watch the sun rise over the whole area. This is the best place to see the whole landscape from because you can see all the volcanoes at one time, plus it's all misty and the suns rising and well, its just very nice in general. However, we frooze our balls off, and the best thing about it was the pot noodle and the cup of tea that we got later on. The jeep took us back down to the basin floor and to the foot of Bromo again, so we could have one last look. We got a horse up this time but it was a little bit scary and my horses back legs kept giving way underneath it, and another guys tried to throw him off, so we decided it was best not to get another horse on the way back down. We had left a bit of a biscuit as an offering to the volcano and weren't pleased to see that it was still there the next day. Maybe he doesn't like biscuits? Colin got a bit hyper and started posing for photos on the rim. He's clumsy at the best of times but on the rim of a F***ING VOLCANO???? We went for breakfast and then caught the bus back to ker-azy Propellingo to catch another bus to Bali. Our driver stopped for his lunch again, while we all sat in the bus waiting for him. I was bursting for a pee, so I asked the driver if there was a toilet around. He ushered me into some random womans house (she looked a bit surprised but he didn't bother to explain) and showed me into the toilet. The room consisted of a basin (filled with water that they use to flush the toilet) and a bench. And that was it. I stood trying to work out what to do for a minute and then just ran away. I still don't know what the hell I was supposed to do. Anyway the bus to Bali was the worst yet, but the ferry was nice and we got to see the milky way again. Anyway, that's about it from me. I don't know if that was ever remotely interesting, in fact I'm tempted to just delete everything I've just written and say 'Bromo was nice'. BYE! Love Jennofrett xxx Wow! Ian just sent me pacman! Classic.