Mt Bromo, Java

Wednesday - 8am pick up in minivan to transport us and luggage to Probalingo, a town hub for trips up Mt Bromo volcano. We arrived at Probalingo at 4pm, changed to a different minivan to be taken up the mountains winding roads in the dark fog. Helen and I sat in the front so we had a great view!! Slept at a hostel that im describing as a 'dive'*, where nothing had been cleaned, the bathroom had soil from an air vent spilling down the wall from the ceiling, the toilet was yuk n we had an ant invasion somewhere between the minivan and the hotel room (luckily for me n hel, this only involved dutches bag). Plus I needed food and was served bad* noodles for dinner. (*please note this is a replacement word for blogging purposes, I am sure u can think of worse ones to adequatley describe the 'hotel' once u see photos or hear the description).

I hate it when locals take advantage of the fact that tourists will be booking on a tour, so no effort is made with service or accommodation. And the tour we were sold ended up having different accommodation to the one we were shown back in yogjakarta when we booked it (we were expecting something like this would happen).

Thursday - Up at 3 the next morning for sunrise at the viewing area on the top of mt nr by for a couple of hrs then on to climb mt bromo.

I got a horse ride up to the start of the steps (the horses were there, he hill was steep, it took 10 mins and cost about 70p!), climbed the steps alongside a 60yr old man, he over took me, i over took him and so on and so forth (altitude is a killer!) then at the top j enjoyed suffocating by sulphur. It's free n everything! Just breath in the egg fumes at the top of the volcano as they blow towards you. Beautiful.

All that aside, amazing views, you can go right past the railings and commit suicide in the volcano itself should u wish (I should point out I'm writing this sat at Bali airport the day after a flight cancellation so apoloies if I have a bitter edge in my narrative), but I'm sure you'd have horrific injuries first on the way down since the sides are so steep. If u keep your sanity at the top, and you make it back down the steps you get to drive across the salt planes at the bottom in jeep. Its fun. To stand on the filled in crator of a once humongous volcano that now houses 3/4 smaller volcanoes itself. After all the excitement, it was back to 'hotel' for a 10am pick up to take us back to probalingo.

Upon arrival at the tour office we were suprised when we were given money back (50,000rp) since the trip was meant to include a ferry n bus to lovina, Bali. However 'suddenly' this section coludnt be arranged. We got a bus to the ferry (6 hrs) then bought our own tickets for the hr ferry journey n out the otherside at 8/9pm when it was dark. we had to negotiate with a bemo driver to take us to lovina. Luckily there were 5 of us because normally you have to pay for the entire bemo or wait for more people to come. I couldn't see much chance of more ppl coming but a French couple did. That sold it and the bemo took us to lovina for the 50k we were refunded. A beautiful start to Bali.