Malang - Bromo

July 23

10:06am Jakarta time 

This morning Panji took us to walk around Malang for an hour. There's not too much to see her. But it was still interesting to me. Jillienne wasn't too fond of it and thought it was a waste of time. She seems really disappointed with the Indonesian part of the trip. The one thing I am a little bummed about is that we are going to Bali but not the nice part of Bali. Panji said the most beautiful areas are South Bali and we are going to North Bali. Panji is from paradise so I'm sure the Bali part will be fine, but maybe not like Koh Phangan. We shall see. 

We saw the city hall which was a big white building with a large fountain in front of it. The fountain had a bunch of lotus flowers in it. Panji said that at one point it was completely burned down because when the Dutch were trying to take over, the Indonesians didn't want them to have it. So they thought logically... If we can't have it, you can't have it either and they burnt it down. Clever ones!

Tobacco and sugar industries are the biggest in East Java. But here, they smoke a different type of cigarette with cloves in it. It smells really nice actually. 

We then went through a flower market and an animal market. The flower market was huge. Just street after street. There was every kind of plant you could ever want to find. They even have mud squares with grass growing on it for people to buy and lay out on their garden. The animal market was ridiculous. Literally cages lined the streets as far as the eye could see. They were full of every kind of bird possible, cats, dogs, these animals that are like a cat/pharrot/dog mix that make a special kind of coffee, lizards, we even saw a bat in a cage. There were little chicks that were dyed different colors so children will want to buy them! I've never seen anything like it before.

We then had half an hour to walk around the city center which really didn't have anything in it. There was a church, a mosque, a nice park, and a McDonald's. other things as well, but that was pretty much what we saw. McDonald's was a good bathroom stop. 

We now have an hour drive to lunch and then I think another hour to the village we need to leave the bus behind in. We then have 45 minutes on small mini buses to get up to our hotel in Mt Bromo. Panji said the hike is only an hour and a half and not too bad. He does it in sandals so I will just wear my shoes, not my hiking boots. Tomorrow morning I am going to take a rover to a view point at sunrise to view Mt Bromo from above. Panji said normally climbing isn't an issue but he's a little worried about it because there is a special festival now where the locals climb it and place offerings in the volcano. So that could be cool to see.

11:30am Jakarta time 

Sudanese Javanese and Madurese are the 3 different cultures on Java. Madurese and Javanese are on eastern java. The Madurese are considered more rude/open. The Javanese are mostly in Yogyakarta and the Sudanese were in Cianjur but I think mostly western java. Panji made it sound like they all have different cultures and languages but I'm not positive.

1:48pm Jakarta time 

It took us about 2 and a half hours to get to the restaurant on the side of the highway. I hadn't had rice in a few days so I ordered Nasi Cap Cay which is rice with vegetables. It's apparently Chinese. It was okay. Everyone has been raving about the Indonesian candy bar "Silver Queen" so I had to try it. I think the main ones have milk chocolate and cashews but I also saw milk chocolate and almonds. I got a dark chocolate with cashews. Tasty. 

Everyone is popping motion sickness pills for our drive up to Mt Bromo. I have never been around so many people with motion sickness before. It's like literally half the people in the group. Hopefully we make it in time to get the hike in today. We should. 

Panji said after Mt Bromo it is mostly resorts and we begin the relaxing part of our trip. Indonesia has actually been pretty laid back compared to the rest of my trip. It seems like we have a lot of down time with really not that much to do. Which I guess I really am fine with considering how exhausting I know go go going all the time is!

6:21pm Jakarta time 

We just climbed Mt Bromo. It is definitely busy ha. There were so many people around. It is the new year on their calendar here. Panji said it is mostly Hindu people. For the new year they climb Bromo and throw offerings into the  volcano. Most of the celebrations will start at midnight tonight and continue through all day tomorrow. 

We transferred into a small mini bus that brought us up to the hotel. We can see Bromo from the hotel. The roads to get here were very steep and windy. Also vary narrow, unlike in the Cameron Highlands. We are at 2,500 meters above sea level now. When we got here water bottle tips exploded off and bags of cookies and chips were fully expanded with air. It was about a 40 minute ride in the mini bus. The scenery was beautiful as well. And we were driving through small towns or villages. It was pretty cool. Because of the celebration though there was a lot of traffic.

When we got to the hotel we had about 15 minutes before we began the hike to Bromo. In a spare moment we had, I asked Panji about the significance of Ramadan. On the bus earlier I was thinking how I really had no idea why Ramadan is celebrated. He said that it is a month when the Muslim god asks the people to remember the poor. So because the poor don't have much food and only eat leftovers in the morning and night, they fast all day for the month. It is also supposed to be healthy for you and make you stronger in the body, mind, and spirit. I had no idea that was the purpose behind Ramadan and I think that's actually pretty cool! It's a nice thought at least. The people here though are Hindu and do not celebrate Ramadan.

We started on our way to Bromo. We could see it right away. And I will not lie. I had no expectations for this and I had no idea what it would look like but it was stunning. Absolutely beautiful. It was so flat and the sand is darker. Then there are volcanos rising from the ground. Very very cool. There is a temple at the bottom of the volcano as well. 

We walked down a large hill to the sand. Then we walked across sand for a while, mostly flat. Then we started a climb upward. This was actually kind of difficult because of the thick sand. I felt like for every step forward I took, I slid back half a step. But, eventually we made it to the bottom of Bromo. This was exciting, except there was still 243 stairs to climb to get to the top of the volcano. No one actually told me this. I counted them myself. 

There was a steady flow of people climbing and descending the stairs. There were a lot of people climbing up with things to offer to the volcano as well. Live chickens, fruit, vegetables, live goats (although we didn't see that get thrown over), money. Pretty much anything. It was really interesting. And, there were people standing all around the top throwing things down. Then, when you look down, there were actually people in the volcano, catching things people were offering. They said they are supposed to catch them and throw them down at midnight, but Panji thought some of the people looked suspicious because they were wearing hijabs like Muslim women wear. He thinks they are going to take the stuff and resell it later.

The volcano was smoking though. There was a ton of smoke inside it and from far away you could even see the smoke rising from it. I thought I heard Panji say something about it erupting in November and they evacuate the town but I could be completely wrong. It isn't a lava volcano either.

We then descended the 243 stairs and walked across the flat, sandy landscape only to have to them climb the hill up to our hotel. It was dark at this point (even though it was only 5:45pm) and we could see the temple area being lit up with many lights. There were also fire works starting to be set off down near the temple. 

I think tonight will be a very noisy night.

Also, on the way down when we were at the base of Bromo, we had a few Indonesian students come up and want to take photos with us. Like I said, you feel so famous haha. It's like the paparazzi is following you everywhere you go. I actually still hate when we all walk together because its such a big group of white people and we draw so much attention to ourselves that way. I know it can't be avoided though.  

Funny thing. When I took my shoes and socks off, my feet were covered in the dark sand. It's really fine and definitely got through my shoes and socks! 

11:04pm Jakarta time 

For dinner I had a club sandwich. It wasn't terrible but it tasted like mayonnaise which I hate and makes me want to puke. All I could do was tell myself to suck it up because at least I wasn't eating noodles or rice. Then Jillienne and I ordered Pisang goreng (fried banana) with cheese and pineapple fritters with cheese. The fried stuff was too much for me. I had to unwrap the pineapple from the fried stuff to eat it. I just told Jill to eat the banana. 

At dinner, Panji explained to us about planeterra and the change 4 change program. This is the first time I had even heard about the change 4 change program. It's really cool! Basically all the CEOs collect travelers extra change and send it to planeterra. If its $5 a trip and about 20 tours a year that's $100 per CEO. And then, there are over 700 CEOs world wide! Very cool idea. I still would love to work for g adventures. I think it is such an amazing organization. 

I also asked Panji about hijabs and burkas. He said there are over 30 different Islamic sects and they all have different rules about them. In Indonesia it is not required but in the Middle East, it obviously is more strict. 

Tomorrow 6 of us are getting up at 3am to head to a view point for sunrise overlooking Mt Bromo. Should be interesting. Who knows if the weather will be good (not getting my hopes up based on my previous sunrise experiences) and we may or may not get stuck in traffic because of the new year. Adventures! Yey!