Scribbles Abroad

After checking the surf reports, the waves looked as though they were going to take a short hiatus.  Instead of hanging around Bali, we decided to take the advice of our Couch Surfing host Jacopo and flew to Yogyakarta to check out Borobudur and Prambanan, two of Indonesia’s most famous temples, plus a couple of the volcanoes in Java.  We took only what we needed and left our boards and other stuff at Jacopo’s house.  We fit everything into my 46L backpack with room to spare.

We had a pretty intense itinerary planned for the next week.  We arrived in Yogyakarta at 6:30 in the morning and caught a cab into town.  Right when we stepped out of the taxi in Sosrowijaya a guy named Edgar was quite eager to help us find a hotel room.  After walking around and checking out a couple of places we checked into Hotel Monica.  By taking the time to check out a few hotels you can really be sure you get the most for your money, but what ends up happening is that you can get quite fustrated and tired.  Edgar then helped arrange a moped for us to rent.  He seemed to be everywhere, magically poping out and walking with us when we left our hotel.  He was ready to help us find a place to eat or get us information about the volcano tours.   I really didn’t like the fact that he was leading us around and getting all up in our business.  I though he was trying to rip us off or something.  Kahi explained to me that he was playing the middleman, helping us and getting a small cut from the hotel or rental company.  It was a little creepy but in the end he did make things a lot easier for us.

We were ready to head off to Borobudur, a 1 ½ hour drive from Yogyakarta.  After riding around in circles for about 10 minutes we were headed in the right direction. Whats nice about Indo is that if you get lost you can just pull over and someone will help you.  As we got closer to Borobudur we could see the magnificent temple.  Borobudur is one of the 7 wonders of the world and is the largest Buddhist monument in the world. For more info check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur.   It was really hot at the temple, I mean really hot, so we rented a umbrella for 50 cents.  The temple was built solely by human labor, making the monument so much more impressive.

These guys were doing a really cool horse dance in the front of the temple

Kahi’s taking over the world one ea25id at a time

In each of the higher-level bell shaped stupas contains a figure of Buddha.  It is believed that touching the toes or fingers of the Buddha within will bring you good luck.  Needing all of the good luck possible we gave it a try.

The exit to Borobudur leads you right into a maze of vendors and various souvenir shops.  We finally made it out of there and headed back to town so we could make it to Prambanan.
We ended up getting another flat tire on the way back to our hotel, this was number 5.  Luckily we were close to our hotel and were able to trade the bike in for another one.  Before we left for Prambanan we signed up and paid for a tour to Mt. Bromo and Mt. Igen, which began the next morning.
The drive over to Prambanan was only about half and hour but we got a little lost and drove around in circles for a bit.  We were in a little bit of a rush because we got into the temple 10 minutes before it closed.  Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple in Java and is very impressive.  It was actually really nice that we got there late.  There weren’t many people, the sun was setting so it wasn’t hot and the temple was beautifully lit with the sunset behind it.

I really wanted to ride on one of those backward tricycles, which were lined up on the side of the streets.  We found a guy that was willing to take us just around the block but once down the block he just kept going.  He took us all the way to the Kraton (Castle).  We didn’t tell him to stop because we were having such a good time.  At the Kraton we stopped by a Batik house and bought a couple Batik paintings.

Our driver got a really good work out biking us around.  We went quite far and some of it was up hill.  By the end of our tour he had built up quite a sweat.  I wanted to take one of these bikes home with me, it’d be fun and a great work out.

The next morning our Bromo-Ijen tour began at 9 am.  The tour included transportation in an air-conditioned minibus to Mt. Bromor, then to Mt. Ijen, and then to the ferry over to Bali, plus two nights in a hotel with hot water and breakfast.  We were surprised when a packed minibus picked us up in front of our hotel.   I guess we didn’t realize how popular Bromo was.  The ride from Yogyakarta to Bromo was 10 hours and the air-conditioner in our bus wasn’t working.  It was soooo hot!  It really sucked.  So there I was sandwiched between Kahi and this girl Ingrid from New Zeland for 10 hours.  It was one of the roughest moments we’ve been through.  At least we got to stop and stretch our legs a couple of times.  At one of our stops some boys were playing soccer accross the street.  Kahi joined them for a little and scored a goal.  Our bus was so hot and humid that when we unpacked our clothes from our bags later that night they were moist.  It was pretty nasty.  Next time we need to make sure that when they say air-conditioned they’re not talking about 85 degree air blowing on you when its 90 degrees outside.

We finally got to Bromo at about 9:30 at night.   It was quite cold up in the mountains, but it was nice and refreshing after that sweltering bus ride.   We went to bed as soon as we could because we needed to wake up at 4:00am to begin our journey up to the viewpoint so we could watch the sunrise over Bromo.  We opted to take the Jeep which was an extra $8 each or else we would have had to wake up at 2:30 am to being the 3 hour hike up the hill (no thank you!).  On our way us only one jeep passed us, so I was thinking it wouldn’t be that crowded.  Boy how I was wrong.  I guess we got there late or something cause it was packed.  It was difficult to get a good viewing spot.  We had to stand on the railing to get a good view.   Bromo is actually only one of three main peaks inside the massive Tengger Caldera.  The tallest of the three is called Semeru which lets out a puff of smoke and ash about every 20 minutes.  The other two are called Batok, the one closest to us in the photos, and Bromo the most active of the three.

Our luxury tour included a first class breakfast of water, wheat bread with butter, and a mini banana

After the sunrise we drove to the base of the Bromo Cauldera.  There were a bunch of guys with “mini” horses and you could pay to ride them to the stairs near the rim of the creater.  I’ve never ridden a horse before so we rode a couple to the top.  The horses we’re really small and looked even smaller when Kahi and I got on them.  It was hilarious!

We got a ride to the stairs and walked up to the rim of the creator.  From the top you could see into the volcano, which let out a steady steam of smoke.  You could stand at the very edge of the volcano, you just wouldn’t want to fall in.

This one’s for Noel!!!

As soon as we got back to the hotel we needed to pack up so we could head to Mt. Igen.  The drive was 6 hours, which seemed like nothing after the 10 hours of hell.  We finally arrived at our new hotel which was in a small town an hour away from Mt. Igen.  After dropping off our things, our driver took us to a nearby waterfall to do some sight seeing.  We had to walk a little ways and walk through a small river to get to the waterfall.  The water in the river was warm as the area is very popular for its hot springs.  The waterfall was gushing and you could see the mineral deposits that had built up on the adjacent rocks and trees.  On our way back to the hotel we decided to walk instead of take the car and were treated with a walk though a small village.  The local children were really excited to see us and were overjoyed to get their picture taken.  They kept saying “satu lagi!”  which means “one more.”  We took tons of pictures with them.

Our hotel had a natural jacuzzi that pumped water in from the nearby hot-spring.  The water was little yellow brown in color and looked a little nasty but we jumped in anyway.  It actually felt really nice.

We woke up at 5 the next morning to being our journey to Ijen Crater.  (TALK ABOUT WHAT IJEN IS)  It was a 3k hike to the rim of the creater and a very steep 1k down to the crater base.  The hike to the crater rim was a windy dirt path that was very steep as well.  As we were walking up the crater, guys were walking down with their loads of sulfur over their shoulders.  Everyday these guys climb up the mountain, load their baskets with around 80Kg of sulfur then hike down to sell their load.  Kahi gave carrying one of the loads a try but it wasn’t easy.

This guy was smoking and he kicked our butts at hiking Ijen plus he was carrying 80 kg of sulfur

Weighing out the sulfur

Once you get to the rim of the crater you reach the most challenging part of the trek, the journey down to the base of the crater.  Its steep and if the wind changes direction you choke on the sulfuric gas.  Many of the workers are doing the trek barefoot or with shoes that are falling apart.  You also see the stunning pale blue lake that fills the crater.  Its unreal!  If you travel to Java this is a must.  At the bottom of the crater you could see the sulfur bubbling up from cracks in the crater and how they harvested the sulfur. Kahi lended a helping hand and poked around at the sulfur.

When we were at the bottom of the crater the wind changed and we got smoked out.  The gas burns your lungs and stings the eyes.  I have no idea how these guys do this day after day.  It’s got to be so hard on your back, knees, lungs and every other part of your body.  There were several times when we were walking down the mountain where we almost slipped and fell on our a$$ and there they were flying down the mountain with no problem.  Oh yeah, did I mention that they’re carrying 80kg on their shoulder!??!  The crazy thing is they’re only getting paid about $5 a day!  Yet they still have smiles on their faces and are more than willing to take a picture with you in exchange for candy bar or some other snack.  The hike was not easy but it was one of the most amazing experiences of our trip so far.

After hiking the tour bus dropped us off at the ferry port to Bali.  We were headed back there to explore the north coast of the island.

Kahi’s favorite hotel in Yogyakarta

This guy was cruising near Mt. Bromo.  He was bundled up very nicely.