java 3

from surabaya i took a local bus to the bus station, which was about 15km from the center of town...then a bus to the city of probolinggo (sp?)...somewhere in probo the bus stopped in front of a travel agency and a man got on the bus and asked if i wanted to get off there...i said no, i wanted to take public transport, and he said they had public transport...he said it was "only" 50,000Rp (about $5USD) for transport to cemoro lawang, which is where i was heading next...my guidebook said that this sort of thing happens regularly in probo...buses drop foreigners off at these travel agents, who then force you to pay ridiculously high fees for not so great transport...the guidebook also said that it should only cost me about 15,000Rp to get to cemoro lawang, so i knew something was funny...he kept saying that it was public transport, and i'm sure it was...anyone could take their transport, but only foreigners can afford that...i knew that even though prices go up, they don't triple in two years...when i looked outside, i could see the sign that listed all their 'services' as well as all the foreigners waiting, so i opted to stay on the bus, all the way until the bus station, from where i could catch real public transport...when i got to the bus station, it was indeed possible to catch local, public transport...for 20,000Rp...which made a whole lot more sense...i asked the price before getting on that minibus, and was told that number, but it didn't surprise me at all when the guy collecting money on the bus tried to raise the price by telling me that was only to an earlier village...i simply refused to hand over more money, and repeated that i had been told 20,000 by people who knew i was going to cemoro lawang, not the earlier village...when we arrived, it was pretty cloudy, but a bit of the landscape was still able to be seen...

cemoro lawang is on the edge of a very old crater...in the middle of this old crater are three smaller, 'younger', cones and craters...one, gunung bromo, is a steaming crater...around these three craters is a sea of sand...nothing but sand...to me it looked a bit like i think the moon might look...really hard to describe, but AMAZING...anywho, the thing to do is either be on the lip of gunung bromo at sunrise, or be at another viewpoint and watch the sunrise as it hits gunung bromo...to do this, you have to get up pretty early in the morning...so i spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering a little, finding a path i could use to make my way down to the sea of sand...i went to bed early...and spent a very cold night trying to get a little sleep...(remember, altitude = chilly nights)

even though i went to bed early, waking up at 0300 was NOT EASY...i made it out the door with my head torch going strong, and made my way to the head of the path i intended to take...at this point, i turned off the head torch and looked up...incredible night sky, full of stars, and total quiet...as i made my way down the edge of the old crater, and across the sea of sand, i repeated this...turning off my headtorch and standing still...just enjoying the fabulous sky and total quiet...(until i started to hear the jeeps, which weren't very quiet at all)...there was a cloud laying on the bottom of the old crater, so i had to walk through that, which was a bit odd with my headtorch...in the dark, walking through a cloud seems a bit like rain is coming across the light...but of course it isn't...anwho, after a while i came across other folks (i had taken a path no one else used but local horse riders) and together we found the proper way to go to get to the steps to take us up to the lip of bromo...there aren't too many steps, and they're not big...but most people stopped a couple times on the way up to catch their breath...that surprised me, i didn't think the steps were very strenuous, and i KNOW i'm not in shape...anywho...the sunrise from the crater wasn't any great shakes, i've definitely seen better...BUT, i loved looking around the landscape in general, and seeing the morning light come across...amazing...i had expected there to be a crowd of people, and while there were other tourists, i never felt crowded...not at all...and everyone remained pretty quiet, sortof in respect for the amazingness we were seeing...i loved it...after a little while up there, i went back down the stairs, and went back across the sea of sand the way i had come...i made it back to my guesthouse by 0715, and packed up my stuff, bought postcards and got ready to go...

then i waited...and waited...i hoped to catch the first minibus to probolingo, and the guy at the bus station in probo had said it left around 0745...but it didn't...it left around 0915...not really a big deal, since i had no specific itinerary to keep...there is no specific spot in cemoro lawang for people to catch a minibus, which results in about 3 of them all trying to get the earliest customers...i ended up sharing with a french family, a pole, a brit, and a couple dutch...along the way we picked up a couple more locals...again, the guy tried to raise the price on all of us, but none of us went for that...as we drove into probo, i tapped the driver on the shoulder and indicated the bus station, which was where we all wanted to go...he nodded, and kept going...the next thing we knew, the minibus had stopped in front of yet another travel agency, and we were told we could get out there...all of us said no, we wanted to go to the bus station, which, we reminded him, we had already told him, AND i had pointed out...he tried to collect our fees at that point, and we also said we weren't paying until we got to the bus station...the travel agent tried to ask where we all wanted to go, but we all said we just wanted the bus station...so our driver didn't make a commission, and the travel agent didn't make any money from us...i suppose they do this all the time...as we got to the bus station, our group split up, as we were going in all different directions...i stayed with the french family, as we were all headed to the same place...we found our next desired bus, hopped on, and only had to wait about 15 minutes before it left...

the adventure started when our bus arrived in bondowoso...we had expected to be able to catch a minibus to sempol, and from there, find transport to another volcanic plateau...but, at bondowoso, they told us minibus service was finished for the day...they pointed out another bus that could drop us a little way ahead, and perhaps from there we could catch onward transport...so, that's bus #1...we got off, and asked around, and found another bus to take us a bit farther...bus #2...at that point we were in sukosari, and met up with another french couple headed to our same destination...now a group of 6, i was the only non french speaker...i could understand a bit, having had french tutoring in the past, as well as studying (though not nearly enough) through high school...it was definitely an advantage to have a bigger group, as well as to be in a group where a language other than english could be used to discuss things...it turned out that the french mom was quite good at bargaining, and obtaining discounts...we asked around the street in sukosari, and she found out from someone that there was supposedly a public bus to sempol in an hour or so, but that sort of information wasn't for sure...anywho, soon enough, a car of sorts pulled up, and we were able to negotiate a ride to sempol...the back of the car was totally open, with just a seat at the very back...but the entire area was filled with pillows...we all piled in, with all our bags, and made room for everything and everyone...the other couple locals in there looked at us with amusement, and i don't blame them...as far as local transport, the pillows actually made it one of the most comfortable rides i've ever had...which was a good thing, given that the road was AWFUL...the worst road i was on in all of indo...TERRIBLE...potholes, pavement falling apart...a plain dirt road would've been far better...i hit the roof several times...thank goodness, as all of you know, i have a hard head:)...we made it to sempol after dark, and started negotiations to continue along the road, up to pos paltuding, which is a park post, and the starting spot of the hike we all wanted to do the next morning...our guidebooks all said we would be able to find accomodation at the post, and it seemed everything else listed was full...the first offer made by the drivers seemed reasonable to me, since there actually isn't any public transport between sempol and pos paltuding...you always have to hire something...but apparently no one else in my group thought so...in the end, after a break for dinner, and lots more negotiations (and discussions between us in french) we got a ridiculously good deal to go all the way to pos paltuding...oddly enough, the road the rest of the way was actually quite good!!

we arrived at the post, took a look at the rooms available, and decided that we'd all share one room...there was a large bed, and two smaller beds...the couple shared one of the smaller beds, i got the other, and the family shared the large bed...we paid our park entrance fee, the tariff for our room (it surprised the park ranger that we all chose to share the same room...we're all cheap, hee hee!) and chatted a bit with the researchers who were in another room in the same cabin...

early to bed, early to rise...we didnt get up in time for another sunrise, but we did get up early...then we started a 3km hike...kawah ijen is in the middle of the ijen plateau...kawah ijen is a crater lake, volcanically active...the lake is a gorgeous blue, and there is a sulfur vent in one corner...we walked UP 3km, to the lip of the crater...it's a steady, fairly steep hike...an easy path to follow, which was nice...we could all feel our hearts pounding the entire way...(i kept thanking my lucky stars for having done the trekking in nepal...i knew that i would eventually reach the top, no matter if others were faster)...looking out over the lake was awesome, despite the wind blowing the sulfur clouds all over the place...

i decided to go down into the crater, to get close to the sulfur vents...there is a path, though it's not easy to make your way down...and thank goodness the french dad had given me a mask, because i definitely needed it as i got closer and closer to the vents...i added a scarf i had in my day pack, tying it around my face and nose...and yet, the sulfur wind was so strong, i could still feel the burn in my nose and throst...i was able to see the vents, the incredible yellow colour, the incredible smell...a few pictures, a bit of wandering around closer to the edge of the lake (in which i could see the heat bubbles) and i decided to go back up...as i got back up to the top i looked at my rings, both of which are sterling silver...they had both oxidized quite a bit and were rather dark...a hike to another view point, then all the way back down to the park post...

one of the reasons people go to see this crater, beside the amazing view, is to see the workers...locals make the climb up the outside of the crater, go down in, close to the vents, and fill their baskets full of sulfur, climb back out, go all the way down and to the company office...they do this 2-3 times a day, and work every other day...they're paid per kilo, and we figured out they make about $10USD each day they work...the stunning part is that the average basket load is 80-100kg!!! it's actually a pair of baskets, connected by a bamboo rod, they carry it over their shoulders...i tried picking up one of the basket sets, and barely budged it...these guys are STRONG...and small...they carry the sulfur to the company office, where it is weighed officially, and from there to the "factory/processing plant"...

as the french family is the curious sort, we found the factory, and decided to walk around if we were allowed...and we were...just one giant room, with different areas for different activities...some people took the blocks of sulfur, knocked off the ugly grayish areas, and put the rest of the pure yellow stuff into bags...others took the parts that were knocked off, and put them into large pots set into concrete on top of wood fires...looking into these pots, we could see the sulfur cooking/melting...it's not pretty...yellowish, brackish...and bubbling...one guy was in charge of keeping the fires going hot...another guy had the job of ladling out the melted sulfur and putting it through it's first filter, from which it drained into another pot, which was also kept HOT...a guy ladled from there through two more sets of filters, from which it drained into a large, metal bucket of sorts that sat on a dolly...one guy pulled that dolly to the largest area in the room, which was covered by white tiles, kept cool by water...the mostly pure hot sulfur was scooped onto these tiles, much like you do with sugar, when you are making candy glass...it cooled quickly because of the water...then yet more workers broke it into large pieces, which were then smashed into smaller pieces in yet another area...it sounds confusing, i suppose...these smaller pieces were then packed into more bags, and, like the plain yellow blocks i already mentioned, were shipped off to somewhere...i got to try my hand at picking up the bigger pieces of mostly cooled sulfur and smashing them down on the floor so they broke into smaller pieces...fun:)...we were completely impressed with all the hard work that was done in this factory...and with few, or no safety precautions...no face masks, and only a couple people had gloves...it was stunning...we were able to walk whereva we wanted, and were in there so long in fact that the workers started ignoring us and just did their jobs as normal...the french father is a professional photographer, so he was thrilled with all the pictures he was able to take...the father later bought a pack of cigarettes for the factory workers and gave them to one of the guys, indicating they were for everyone...i haven't seen people move that fast in a while, as all the workers came flying over to get their cigarette...it was awesome, and the smiles on their faces were amazing...

we spent an extra day at pos paltuding, it was super relaxing...the french father wanted more pictures, and i just loved how chilled out everything was...nearly all the tourists were french, unlike the rest of java and sumatra, where you are much more likely to be seeing dutch folks...when in doubt at kawah ijen, speak french! the french couple opted to move on, so the french mom decided we should have a discount on the room...it wasn't looking good, the park ranger said the government set the rates and it wasn't his choice...so she said that if he wanted to be proper, then she needed a receipt for our previous night as well as the park tickets we had all paid for...and whaddya know, we got our discount...so obviously some of the money was going into his pocket...(this is normal all over indonesia)...

the following morning, we got ready to leave after the french father returned from taking more pictures...we got lucky, and joined the researchers on their transport back to bondowoso...it had a flat tire along the way, which was no surprise at all, considering the quality of the road...i leaned out my window, and could actually hear the air hissing out of the tire...ugh...but the driver knew what to do, and did it all rather quickly...back on our way quickly, we made our way to bonodowoso...

upon arrival, i immediately got another bus to situbondo, and from there almost immediately got another bus to ketapan...at ketapan i got to the ferry terminal, and took the ferry to gilimanuk, on the island of bali...