Sheila writes:

We have completed our overalnd trip through Java - on a range of types of transport! The executive train from Bandung to Yogyakarta was definitely the best - with reclining seats, luch brought to your chair and an easy pace - allowing great views of the rice paddy fields and distant volcanoes. The second part of our trip through Java was less comfortable - with a 12 hour minibus trip to Probalinggo and a shorter (through scarier minibus trip up the still active Mt Bromo to our nighttime acommodation at the Lava Cafe, in a small village perched right on the edge of the volcanic caldera. We got there after dark - so our dawn trip by 4x4 jeep into the crater was a fantastic sight. The smoking crater of Bromo itself, with two other volcanic cones within the crater. We joined about 60 other people at the most amazing viewing point at Mt Pananjakan just as the sun was rising - and the colours on the volcanic cones were brilliant.

After our hairaising jeep descent of Mt Pananjakan, we climbed to the rim of Mt Bromo's crater to see the smoke issuing far below. Then an equally exhilarating trip by minibus back down to sealevel at Probalinggo (around 2900m in all). We were amazed by the way the villagers all over the slopes of the volcano planted every tiny space intensively - even slopes so steep they had tiny deep terraces and their access paths zig zagged excentrically. The slopes were just geometric art canvases of crops!

From Probalingo we took the public bus to the Bali ferry crossing in East Java and on to Denpasar - not arriving until 10.00 pm at night - quite something after our 3.30am alarm call to see Mt Bromo at sunrise that morning!

Ubud is a mixture of tourist trap and laid-back sleepy rice paddi fields. There are so many hindu temples here that everywhere you look there are offerings and decorations with sweet smelling incense. Apparently the many offering (small banana leaf packages of rice, flowers, sometimes biscuits, or fruit) which are seen all over the pavements and drains, are to balance the evil demons which like these low and nasty places.

Everywhere you look in Ubud you see amazing colour - mainly the batik shops - all adorned with flamboyant materials - either as sarongs or made up as beautiful dresses. Also the flags and banners advertising theatre, dance and shadow puppet shows. Off the main drag, which is terribly busy with traffic, the pace of life is slower and we can relax over a fruit juice - I'm tempted to try rambutan and jack fruit juices today.