Bromo, Yogyakarta, Borobudur and LOTS of driving

Our time on Java was definitely spent tired by all of us. The first day we left from Lovina and drove all the way to the town by Mount Bromo, Cemoro Lawang. Our driver on that stretch was pretty good and spoke pretty good English also. The scenery was quite nice, a bit repetitive though. Rice paddies and corn fields and then a bit more rice and corn and to finish it off let's add in some corn and rice!

There were lots and lots of towns too, hence Java is the most populous island in the world. About 60% of Indonesia's 240 million (the 4th most populous country in the world) call Java home. To put it into perspective, Java's population density is over 1000 people per square kilometre. In British Columbia there are about 5 people per square kilometre. We pulled in to Cemoro Lawang at around 7:00 that evening (we left Lovina at 8:30am). Java is jammed full of volcanos so we decided to go see the one with the most fame...Bromo.
The regular trip to Mount Bromo is a sunrise tour. You first go to the nearby Mount Penanjakan to watch The sunrise by Bromo and then head back down and climb Bromo. We were unaware of the time change between Bali and Java so we ended up waking up at 2am instead of 3am. At 2:30 we were ready to go...but no one else was. We asked some people what time it was and they replied 2:30. Darn! We were supposed to meet the jeep at 3:30 but the dumb time change made us wake up an hour early. Once 3:30 came around we hopped into one of the hundreds of Toyota Landcruisers and made our way to Penanjakan for the sunrise. Overall the sunrise was a bit of a disappointment. It was really cloudy so there wasn't much of a sunrise. I didn't know what to expect for a viewing area, but I was kind of thinking of a big open field where you sit and watch the sunrise. My expectation wasn't quite matched it was a fenced off cement platform jammed full of people. The hundreds of Indonesians there freezing half to death in the 6-7 degree temperatures (not quite what they're used too) kind of took away from the non-existent sunrise. Once the sun had risen we did get a pretty nice view of Mount Bromo, mind you we were getting trampled by people at that time. After we were done at the viewpoint we headed back down to the jeep and set off to climb Mount Bromo (it's not much of a climb, just more of a walk). Once we got to the steep uphill there was a long set of stairs. The stairs were definitely the worst part because there was no way of passing people. It was a VERY slow walk up those stairs, some people were evidently REALLY struggling, because it was causing a domino effect on the whole staircase full of people. At last we made it up to the top of the stairs and onto the rim of the volcano. Wow! I peered over the edge and there was a huge pile of smoke steaming up from the inside. It was so cool, I have never been up on top of a volcano before, let alone a steaming one.

Then we made our way down and headed back to Cemoro Lawang. once in Cemoro Lawang we got into a minivan and got driven to Probolinggo. From Probolinggo we got into a different minivan to Yogyakarta. I would like to note that we left Probolinggo at around noon. Our driver really wasn't good. He wouldn't stop to let us eat, and when he finally stopped it was at a restaurant with no prices and a menu completely in Indonesian. Eventually he stopped at a supermarket and we bought kraft singles and wonder bread...real nutritious! The car was having some problems too, at 9pm the car broke down and he had to call a mechanic. It took an hour an a half to get it fixed! Then we were back on the road and we arrived in Yogyakarta finally at 2am. The trip was supposed to take 8 hours but it got stretched into a 12 hour ordeal.
We got some sleep that night and explored Yogyakarta the next day. While we were walking we found a really good air-con store with tons of Indonesian souvenirs. After an hour or two of shopping there we headed back to the hotel and arranged a trip to Borobudur for the next morning.
5am pick up...another early morning! We arrived at Borobudur in about an hours time. Borobudur was built around the 9th century and took approximately 75 years to build. The giant stone stepped building is 35 meters tall with several levels, the bottom ones covered in reliefs while the top three had lots of stupas. We had a guide that explained to us lots about the meanings of the reliefs. The stupas near the top were pretty amazing, there is a Buddha inside every one of them. Borobudur was pretty cool but what really took away from it all were the hoards of school kids running around and constantly asking for photos. The obnoxious megaphones were also very irritating. But I'm glad I saw it, I really like old temples of that. Sort so it was nice to tick another one off my list.

On my way out of Borobudur I bought a mini stupa and some flip flops. The next morning we flew out of the surprisingly small Yogyakarta airport back to Kuala Lumpur, my favourite city in Southeast Asia. I'm sad to leave Indonesia for all the nasi campur (mixed rice) and sate (grilled chicken skewers with peanut sauce) but I'm super stoked for roti in KL and Thai food after that! I also won't be able to speak Indonesian anymore (...well I could but people would look at me like I'm stupid and not understand a word I'm saying!).