Bromo - Kalibaru

July 24

8:52am Jakarta time 

My alarm went off at 3:15am and I was out of bed by 3:17am. I had a shirt, my long sleeve running shirt and my running jacket on. I had a bandana covering my head and ears and I had long pants on. It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be when we walked out of the hotel. We loaded into the jeep and we were on our way. 

The ride up was narrow and winding. It was also very dark. Marion and I were squished in the front seat with the driver and Sinne, Camilla, Henne, and Katie were squished in the back on long seats. It was about a 45 minute drive up another mountain that was past the volcano next to Bromo. 

On the way up, Katie was telling us how she didn't really feel too well. She said, "I think the worse possible thing could be getting diarrhea on top of this mountain." I said, "There could be much worse things like getting robbed or murdered." Katie responded with, "Well, I can replace my belonging but I can't replace my modesty." It was really cute. Plus, with her British accent she makes everything sound so nice and proper. Even when she's taking about diarrhea or vomit. Gotta love it.

When we got to the top, it was around 4:10am. The sun rises around 5:30am. So we had a long time to wait. At this point, it was dark, freezing, and extremely foggy. By the end it was light, freezing, and extremely foggy. Unfortunately, we didn't see too much. However, Marion and I did end upstanding near some Indonesian students and having a long conversation with them. The highlights probably included them asking to take a million photos with us, and then them showing us a video of them doing the Harlem shake in their dorm room. It's on you tube and its hilarious. I hope I can find it. Needless to say, there was no sunrise. Just dark fog and then light fog. But, it was worth a shot! I can safely say that is the most expensive fog I have seen considering I paid $7.50 for the trip up there. Since all my sunrise trips haven't worked out, I wasn't too surprised or too disappointed. At least I can say I tried. And, I got a great photo of Marion's magnet with what we should have seen.

On the way back, we could see a great view of the larger volcano next to Bromo and we got to stop and take photos of that which was nice. Unfortunately, Katie wasn't feeling too well. She ended up dry heaving for a bit. Luckily she had not eaten anything yet so there was nothing for her to puke up. Jillienne is also not feeling great. I'll probably jinx it by saying this now and who knows if it is even true but I am convinced I now have a stomach of steel. 

On the way back, I had a scary thought. When another vehicle was coming toward us I totally thought okay go to the left. But at home, it would be the right. Not good. 

I had a warm shower (felt amazing!) and we had breakfast and then took another trip in the mini buses back down the mountain. I think the best words I can find to describe the trip is like a roller coaster ride but probably way less safe. It's a right squeeze with 2 way traffic and we definitely don't have seat belts or anything. 

At the bottom of the mountain we got into our large coach again. We are headed to Kalibaru (we will see where Java coffee is grown and harvested). Unfortunately this means we have about a 6 hour drive to get there. We do have 3 stops though so it will take longer than 6 hours total. At least I will have time to sleep since I was up so early! 

11:31am Jakarta time 

It rained pretty hard for about an hour earlier. It's really the first rain we've seen on this lag of the trip. 

I'm really going to miss looking out the window and seeing SE Asia. It's so beautiful and colorful and lively. Home is so boring. But maybe when I come home Ill find something beautiful about home too. Although I am pumped to get out of Asia because I can't stand anymore Asian food, I will definitely miss it. 4 more days on tour in Asia...

11:50am Jakarta time 

It's pretty crazy how as westerners we come over here and try to find clean food and clean water. But in reality, a lot of the people who live over here don't even have those luxuries. So many people bathe and drink from polluted water. Quite often there will be food sold on the street that you always see locals eating but we can't eat it because the ice isn't safe or the knife isn't clean. Some people don't even have running water. Scratch that, most people. This may come off sounding rude but the way people can survive here off of almost nothing (especially compared to our lives at home) is actually kind of amazing. Panji said that only about 2% of Indonesians have the money to travel outside of the country so I'm sure they just don't even know any different. It doesn't really seem fair. 

3:18pm Jakarta time 

We just arrived at our hotel in Kalibaru. And holy monkeys! This resort is amazing! It's so nice and its really beautiful too! Unfortunately, it is raining which really sucks because there are trees and plants and gorgeousness and a pool all around us. It's not just raining, it's down pouring. But, we have been very lucky so far so I can't complain too much. Hopefully it downpours today and gets it all out so we don't have rain on the rest of the Bali part of the trip or tomorrow so we can see the coffee plantation. I'm excited about going to Bali. I feel like it will be very different from the rest of Indonesia and I am ready for a change again.

We now have until 7pm to do nothing... Time to catch up on the blog I guess.

Later the next day

Well, I did some blogging but the chanting from the call to prayer for the Muslims was so loud and horrible sounding that I ended up listening to music to drown out the sounds most of the afternoon. I wonder if the Indonesians who are not Muslim ever get annoyed or if they are just used to it. In Nepal the call to prayer was just a bell. Way nicer sounding...

For dinner I had chicken steak with mushroom sauce which was chicken, not a steak. It came with veggies and fries. They call the fries fried potatoes. And, it seems to be a theme that the food here is not normally served hot. Which is actually kind of gross. I think they make it earlier in the day and just use a heat lamp or something? Either way, not the best tasting food. The chicken was okay, but not better than any mushroom sauce I would be able to get at home.

That evening I mostly hung out with Jillienne and Katie in their room. Jillienne has been having really bad stomach pains all day and luckily, she was finally able to go to the bathroom. All she ate all day was rice for dinner. 

The other highlight of the evening was supposed to be the shower. Everyone was raving about how amazing it was. It was in the bathroom but on the side of it there were plants growing (I think they were fake though). The water was actually a stream and it didn't take long to get your hair wet or wash your body. But in my opinion, it was a shower. 

This resort is the largest and nicest we will stay in on the trip, but the rest of the trip is also resorts. And beaches. And Bali! So it is now time to relax. Maybe I will snorkel. We will see how the weather and visibility and beach is.

Tour of the coffee plantation tomorrow!