Hey Guys,

Well we have been super busy since we left you! We have travelled from Lake Toba back to Medan before catching a flight to Surabaya and have now travelled overland through Java and are currently in Bali. This means I've got quite a bit to talk about sorry (my blogs always seem to be the long ones).

We left the lovely Lake Toba for Medan on Saturday morning. This should have been a simple journey of a boat over the lake then catching the public bus from the pier to Medan, which it sort of was! However it became the worst journey on Indonesian transport to date. We got the ferry from our hotel to the pier quite easily, only to find that it was market day so the bus we wanted to catch didn't run from the end of the pier, so we got in a little oplet (mini bus) to take us to the bus station where it did run from. Although cheap, this mini bus did take a very long time driving round town before dropping us at the bus station. We then got on the big bus for Medan and it appeared to set off straight away (very unusual for Indonesian transport). However after driving around for an hour with more and more people getting on we eventually found ourselves back at the same bus station when it became full (very frustrating). The journey itself took forever, about 5 hours on top of the hour and a half we had already waited, all on the same bus with no air con, too many smokers and more people than seats; plus we only travelled 180km!

Medan was quite un-eventful as we arrived late in the evening and then flew early the next day. Neither of us were particularly taken with the city anyway despite a bit of better perception when we arrived first time. There was also the small matter of an amazing football game that we managed to watch in the evening which saw City as FA cup winners J

On Sunday we got up early and set off to the airport for our flight to Surabaya in Java. Now we have a small confession to make because we are slightly cheating in this next bit of the trip. Normally, although we do pay for day trips and activities etc, we try as hard as we can to use the same transport as locals do, partly to keep costs down but it also adds to the experience. However over the next few days we had pre-organised our transport and activities using a travel company called Perama, based in Bali. This is because realistically it would take us several days longer to do what we wanted, probably costing not much less and we needed to get to Bali to meet up with Gemma in less than 3 days.

So when we arrived at Surabaya airport we were greeted by our Driver (yes we have a driver) and our English speaking guide (embarrassingly we instantly forget their names so have been known as Fred and George for reference purposes), then set off to the town of Cemoro Lawang on the edge of the volcanic crater of Gunung Bromo. This volcano is one of the major tourist highlights of East Java, mainly because of its appearance. It took us most of the day to get there even with our own wheels but we found it quite nice to have an English speaking guide because we learnt lots more about the area and to be honest I think Katie is a bit sick of just having me to talk to. It was pitch black by the time we got there so we just checked in to the hostel and got a little bit of sleep before our 3am start the next day.

We had to be up at 3 because the best and most picturesque views of Bromo are in the early morning (sun rises at half 4 here because of a dodgy time zone). Once we were up we got into a 4x4 to drive up to a view point to watch the sun rise over the crater. Unfortunately the weather was not very clear so we didn't see the smoke of the volcano look bright orange in the sun morning sun but it was still amazing all the same. The crater itself is massive spanning just over 400 hectares and we struggled to take it all in as the sun rose. It was only at this point that we could really see the sort of landscape we were in as it had been dark for most of the journey the previous day. We knew we were high as it was quite cold and Bromo is 2392m, but we hadn't realised the whole area was full of agriculture and there appeared to be hundreds of fields on steep slopes lining the mountain side.

After taking in the views from the view point at a dizzying 2770m on Gunung Penanjakan, the mountain next to Bromo, we took the 4x4 back down into the crater. Once in the crater we were taken over to a Hindu Temple that has been built in the middle near the crater. This is a very surreal place as it looks like no life would be supported here. Apparently twice a year pilgrims come and make offering to the volcano which involves chucking a goat into the crater.This keeps them safe from the volcano's eruptions - not that safe it turns out as there was an eruption in 2007 and another one only 3 months ago!We decided against scaling the crater as it's still a tad unstable the surrounding land is very cool - all volcanic sand with absolutely no life - sort of like being in a desert, just 2000m above sea level!

Once we had taken in the scenery of the volcano and taken a silly amount of pictures we headed back to the hostel for some breakfast before jumping back in the car and heading over to the Ijen Plateau on the east side of Java. This area is famous for its coffee (particularly Arabika coffee) so after a long 4 hour dive we started to head up in to the coffee plantations. The road up into the plantations was treacherous to say the least - it was probably covered in tarmac about 20 years ago but re-surfacing clearly isn't popular in these parts! Once up in the Plateau itself, George our guide showed us some of the different coffee beans and told us about the area before we headed to our hotel which was in the coffee plantation itself. This was a rather odd place as it had a swimming pool and natural hot springs in the complex but it was really misty and rather cold as we were so high up in the mountains, not something I was really expecting in Java. We were also quite disappointed to discover a coffee plantation does not smell of coffee!

We had a small explore around but mainly just stayed in the hotel area and had to have another early night because we had to be up at half 3 in the morning to go climb another volcano (you would have thought one would be enough).

The next morning we got up early and headed up to the base of mount Ijen. This is even more volcanically active than Bromo and constantly smokes producing large quantities of sulphur in its crater.We have seen programs on TV at home about this particular volcano and the people who work there because they manually mine the sulphur and then carry it down the steep 3.2km walk we were about to go up. The climb itself was really very steep and it took us just over an hour and a half to get to the crater itself, along the way passing many of the men who go up and down the mountain every day carrying the sulphur.

I should probably explain why these men are so remarkable;

They climb the mountain from the village carrying 2 baskets held together by a piece of bamboo; then climb down into the volcano crater and break off large pieces of sulphuric rock whilst being surrounded by the smoke (sulphur dioxide), just feet away from the lake in the centre of the crater filled with sulphuric acid (ph0.4 apparently). They then carry the rock back down the volcano, roughly 70-90kg, across their shoulders. They do this 3 times a day and earn about 600 rupiah (4.5p) a kilo for this gruelling work! George helped us to talk to a few of them and we more than happily gave them a few rupiah (or cigarettes, an acceptable currency, which is why we have a few) for their time.

The scenery around the volcano was stunning as we could see quite a few similar peaks as well as the sea stretching out towards Bali from the other side. The crater itself was much prettier than Bromo, with its large lake and colourful yellow smoke coming from deep below. This volcano is much less popular than Bromo with tourists, probably because of the sheer amount of effort and expense required to reach it, but we are really glad we made the effort to visit.

Once it hit early morning we decided to head back down as apparently the smoke increases later in the morning - the descent seemed to take just as long as going up because it was so steep. Once back in the village we changed then got a lift down from the plateau to the port in Banyuwangi and then the ferry across to Bali.

It took Fred and George about 4 hours to cross Bali to Kuta and then we spent another hour stuck in the Kuta traffic while they tried to find our hotel (we think they were too polite to say they couldn't read the map!!)After a failed attempt checking into the wrong hotel (very embarrassing - even got the laptop out to get the booking confirmation!), we found the right one round the corner and have already made use of their swimming pool.Off out tonight for the first beer in three days - should be a good one.

Love Martin and Katie