Thursday 10th May – The Road To Java
Today
I did not make the same mistake as before when going to the Sanur Perama Office
– I got a taxi which prevented me from terrifying the people upon my
arrival. While I waited on my bus I
bumped into Val and Mag who I met in Gili T rawangan. They were In Bali for a few days before
heading home. It’s a shame I didn’t know
as we could have met up at some stage over the last few days.
At
9.00 a.m. I hopped on the bus to Kuta and met Simone from Hamburg in Germany.
Not only was Simone on the bus to Kuta, she was also getting the same bus as me
to Bromo and then on to Yogyakarta. Once
we reached Kuta we swapped onto another smaller bus and met Niek and Celine
from Holland. At 10 a.m. we set off on
the long journey to Cemoro Lawang on Java.
The
first leg was a four hour trip to the harbour followed by a one hour boat
crossing to reach Java and finally a seven hour journey to reach Cemoro Lawang.
Thankfully all the driving took place in a spacious, well air conditioned
minivan and having only four people helped a lot.
Although
the journey was very long it was comfortable if a little crazy. The driver, as mentioned before, made good
use of the horn and the accelerator. I
would say that we easily overtook a few hundred vehicles on the way. Somehow the madness all works and everyone on
the road obeys whatever rules that they are taught. I don’t think there are many but I’m pretty
sure the first one is, ‘Hey just do whatever you want’.
Another
thing I noticed on Bali, and now also on Java, is the never ending
habitation. As we drove from the coast
to Probilingo the towns seemed to have no beginning and no end – the road was
always lined with houses or shops. How
people know the boundaries is a mystery.
Exhausted
we arrived in Cemoro Lawang at 8.30 p.m. and checked into Yoshi’s Guesthouse
and the first thing we felt was the drop in temperature but it was a welcome
change after the heat during the previous few weeks. Being able to pull on my jeans and feel comfortable
was strangely enjoyable. Simone and I
decided to share a room as the cheapest we could get was 144,000 Rp. Apparently all the other hostels were full
and we had no option. But Yoshi’s was a
nice place and I wasn’t complaining.
After
a couple of relaxing drinks we all headed to bed at 10.30 p.m. to get enough
sleep. The ride to Bromo starts at 3.30 a.m. so that we will be there on time to
see the sunrise.
Friday 11th May – For Sale: Mount Bromo
Up
before sunrise at 2.45 a.m. Sometimes I
ask myself, ‘Why do I do this to myself?’ but inevitably it always turns out to
be more than worth it. Once we had all
grabbed our goodie boxes with our breakfast inside we jumped in a 4WD to take
us to the Mt. Bromo lookout point for sunrise.
It was a bumpy one hour drive to the top.
As
we made our way up we looked below and in the blackness saw the headlights of a
cavalcade of 4WDs bringing the interested tourists to the top. As soon as we jumped out of our transport we
were immediately approached by locals renting blankets to protect us from the
cold –and cold it was – but no need for the blankets as we had come
prepared. It was a short walk to the
lookout and with the sunrise still 45 minutes away there was not a lot to see
apart from the hundreds of tourists. I
really didn’t expect this and I know it’s very hypocritical to complain about
how many there were as I was one of them but it did take away a little bit from
the whole experience – but just a little bit.
As
the sun started to come up over the horizon I aimed my camera to get a photo
only for the view to be ruined by a collection of mobile telephone masts. Seriously – who gave permission for
this?
Fighting
the cold, Simone and I found a quieter spot away from the crowds and watched as
the light spilled across the landscape and slowly brought the sight we had been
waiting for into full view – Mt. Bromo with the puffing Gunung Semaru in the
background. As it became brighter the
colours changed and revealed the whole plateau.
It’s hard to explain what Mt. Bromo looks like – large mounds with what
look like water gullies cut into its sides.
Once
the sunrise was over we jumped back in the 4WD and made our way back down to
the plateau and walked to the carter rim of Bromo. When we got out of the 4WD everything was on offer
– Bromo t-shirts, Bintang Beer t-shirts, horse rides, I even got offered a
massage. Blocking all this out we made
our way across the plateau and climbed the 256 steps to the rim. As I looked into the crater I could see a
large cloud appearing from a volcanic lake at the bottom. We stood right on the edge and one badly
taken step would have seen someone hurtle straight in with no escape possible before
plunging into the heart of the volcano.
We
made our way back down and returned to the hostel and shortly afterwards we were
on our way to Probilingo. Here we had to
change bus and at 11 a.m. began what was to become the journey from hell. At the start it was fine, still only Simone,
Celina, Niek and I in a larger bus. Then
we drove around the town and picked up more people until the minibus was
full. Somehow Simone and I were lucky
enough to have three seats at the back for the two of us. But that didn’t even help. The bus was like an oven. The air-conditioning was either not on or
failing to cope. Opening the windows
didn’t help as the breeze was just more warm air coming in. Sleeping was impossible for me due to the
heat, noise and bumpy road. This lasted
for six hours until the sun went down and finally we got a bit of relief. But not a lot. We still had five-and-a-half more hours to
go. We reached Yogyakarta at 11.30 p.m.
and didn’t have any accommodation booked.
The
bus left us in the backpacker haven of Sosrowijayan. When we got out of the bus we were
immediately taken under the wing of a local man who said he would find us a
hostel. He started to lead us down some narrow
back street. If this had been in South
America I would have immediately walked in the other direction but something
told me he was trustworthy and sure enough he was. We tried a few places we had looked up in The
Lonely Planet but they were all full so eventually checked into Merapi
Hotel. We wanted a fan (not air-com)
room as they were cheaper but he had none left.
His solution - he took the air-com remote control away from leaving us
with neither fan nor air-con – but it meant we got the room for 150,000 Rp.
A
day of highs and lows and highs. Bromo
was amazing, the journey was horrendous.
But the night ended with Simone and I going to a little bar opposite the
hotel for a drink to wash away the pain of getting to Yogyakarta.
Saturday 12th May – Who Works
Where? It’s a Mystery
Merapi
hotel was ok, but we all decide that it’s not worth the price and want to find
a better place. After breakfast we left
the hotel to walk around on the hunt for better and hopefully cheaper rooms and
were accompanied by Moko who works in the hotel. Or at least we thought he did. As we walked through the maze of alleyways
that is Sosrowijayan, he pointed out other places for us to stay. One owned by his best friend’s father, the
other by his cousin, the next by his cat’s uncle. I was completely baffled by how all this
worked. Is there all powerful Godfather-like
figure who owns all these places and it doesn’t matter where we stay as long as
we do?
After
only a few minutes we found the perfect place – Utar Pension Losmen. It’s really clean, nice rooms and bathrooms
and it all looks like it has just been recently renovated with the biggest
selling point being that the price - only 100,000 Rp per night – that’s the
cheapest I have paid in the whole of Indonesia.
Our
helpful hostel-finder Moko always seemed to be around and insisted we join him
to visit a Batik gallery. Once we got
there the gallery curator gave us a history of Batik paining and showed the
methods used to create Batik drawings.
We were invited to view all the drawings on sale. I wasn’t sure what to make of all this but
slowly it started to dawn on me that this was possibly some sort of scam. Especially when they insisted that if we
wanted to buy anything we would need to do it right away as they were not only
closing in a few hours but also packing up the whole shop and moving the
exhibition to a town in Sumatra. We were
later to read in The Lonely Planet that this is one of the most well-known
scams in Yogyakarta. Thankfully I didn’t
buy anything as the prices were well above what should be paid for such
paintings. What I will be interested to
see is the situation with Moko. He is
one of the ‘artists’ and also going to Sumatra with the exhibition. He leaves today, oh no, it’s tomorrow, oh no
it’s another day – depending on when we asked.
The
rest of the day was a very relaxed affair to recover from the pain of
yesterday’s bus ride. Very close to the
hostel is the main strip in Yogyakarta – Marliboro. We spent some time
wandering around the stalls and shops before stopping for some food and then
chilling out in the hostel. In the
evening we went for dinner in Bintang Resto and stayed to hear a covers band
play the usual mix of rock songs. Simone
and I spent a while exploring the almost deserted streets around Marliboro but tiredness
got the better of us.
I
like Yogyakarta. Usually entering a big
city like this I want to leave as soon as possible but here it is different, it
has a different feel to it. Over the
next few days we plan to do the sights – temples, palaces, Merapi!
Sunday 13th May – Rats! Well One Anyway
Today
we all took a walk to the end of Marliboro to visit the Sultan’s Palace –
called the Kraton. This area of Java is
ruled by a monarchy and the Kraton is the home of the ruling sultan. When we entered we were offered and took a
guided tour. This was a good idea in
hindsight. I’m not sure what I expected
of a sultan’s palace – actually forget that - I knew exactly what I was
expecting – huge palace, spires adorned with flags, gold plated Rolls Royce in
the garage, elephants and lions roaming the adjoining safari park. That’s not what we got. Instead what we got were a few medium sized
buildings mostly filled with pictures of all the previous sultans, their wives
(and each one had many) and their children (and each one had many, many
children. One had something like 9 wives
and 72 children). It was kind of
interesting but mostly disappointed. The
guide tour helped as otherwise we would have not got any information at
all. Maybe I’ve watched to many Disney
films in my life.
After
lunch in the Bedhot Cafe near the hostel we went to price hiring a car. Tomorrow we are planning to see the two major
temples close to Yogyakarta – Borobudur and Prambanan – and want to hire a car
and driver to take us around for the day.
We eventually got this organised using the services of our helpful local
from the first night we arrived. Again
this whole process involved him suggesting the tour agency Sosro Tours, then
giving us a better price before finally we booked through him with a different agency. It’s one hostel-organising, tour-sorting
family if you ask me. The end result was
that we got the car and driver for the day for a grand total of 300,000 Rp.
In
the evening we headed to Hell’s Kitchen for dinner and discussed where we would
go after Yogyakarta. Niek and Celine are
planning to go to Karimun Jawa Islands.
This was one of those moments when I thought, ‘I have no idea where that
is, but I think I’ll go’. So it wasn’t
long before we had all decided to make the trip together. Credit to Niek and Celina because they have
done all the investigation and already found a tour company to take us there. All I have to do is hand over the money once
it is sorted.
As
we sat eating dinner I heard a rustling in the tree behind me and Celine
spotted that it was a rat – in the café.
Now if this had happened anywhere back home we would all have shouted
for the staff, warned the other guests, then run out. What did we do? ‘Oh there’s a rat in the tree. Anyway, so Karimun Jawa, where exactly is
that?’
Monday 14th May – The Temple Run
Having
planned to leave at 8.30 a.m. in our rented car we delayed this until 9.30 a.m.
so that we could sort out our tour to Karimun Jawa. Sosro Tours quoted us 1,700,000 Rp per person
whereas the price we are getting from the tour agency Niek and Celina found
online is around 900,000 Rp. This is too
good to miss out on.
At
9.30 a.m. we got our transport and headed off to the temples, hitting Borobudur
first. As we walked through the gardens
and watched people getting their elephant rides we approached the huge Buddhist
temple. It was built in the 9th
century but is thought to have been abandoned in the 14th century
for reasons unknown. It was then rediscover
in the early 1800s under volcanic ash and jungle. Since then it has been renovated to its
former glory. It contains 504 Buddha
statues. Originally they were just going
to have one big Buddha statue at the top but decided to add a few more in case people
either didn’t see it or absentmindedly forgot who the temple was built in
honour of. Obviously this last fact is
not true. I have no idea why they have
504 statues of Buddha. Maybe, much to
the stonemasons with his watertight contract, it was a typo on the order form,
or maybe he was having a ‘By 1 Get 503 Free’ sale on. Either way, it’s a huge amount of Buddha
statues for one temple. Could you
imagine if the man himself came for a visit?
It would probably be like that scene out of Being John Malkovich –
surely he would freak out and run away.
As
we made our way up the many steps to the top we got a taste of what it feels
like to be a celebrity getting hounded by the paparazzi. All the locals approached us and started to
ask if we minded getting our photograph taken with them. I thought this was fun and was more than happy
to oblige – the first time. It happened
too many times. But for me it wasn’t too
much of an issue. For Simone and Celine
it was a nightmare. Almost every few
minutes someone else was wanting a photo.
Once
we had seen enough and been photographed by every other visitor we went for a
bite to eat at the food stalls outside the entrance. I was given a piece of chicken. I had no idea what part of the chicken it
was. Maybe the rib cage. Maybe it was a toe. Who knows?
Not me. But I was hungry enough
to eat anything at that stage and did.
Then our driver collected us and off to Prambanan it was.
On
reaching Prambanan I was glad we did these temples in the order we did. For most visitors to Yogyakarta everyone says
you have to go and see Borobudur. In my
opinion (and the opinion of the others) Prambanan is much more spectacular. This area contains many Hindu temples of
different sizes – each one with a statue of a Hindu god inside. It’s believed the temples were also built in
the 9th century (maybe the Buddhists and Hindus were having a temple
building competition. I wonder who was
declared the winner) and abandoned at a later date and many of the temples were
completely destroyed in the 16th century by a major earthquake. It was only in the early 1900s that a massive
restoration project got underway to reconstruct the temples to the way they can
be seen today. Not all could be
reconstructed as over the years local people took the masonry to build their
houses. In 2006 another major earthquake
caused damage to the main temple and a few smaller ones meaning they were off
limits to us. When we entered the
complex we were immediately approached by a local student who wanted to
practice his English by giving us a guided tour and it is from him that we
learnt all about the construction, damage and renovation projects. I would say that these are a must-see
attraction for anyone visiting Yogyakarta.
With
our sightseeing done for the day we went back to the hostel to make our final
plans for Karimun Jawa. At 7.00 p.m.
Areei from x-Trip holiday came to the hostel to give us all the details of the
tour and make final arrangements to leave tomorrow. I’m using the term ‘tomorrow’ very loosely
here as we actually leave at 2.00 a.m. in the morning to start a five hour car
journey to Jepara. With all the fine
details sorted we packed and headed to bed at 10.00 p.m. to get some rest before
another pre-sunrise wake-up call. At
least we can sleep during the car ride.
Merapi
will have to wait. After Karimun Jawa I
will be returning to Yogyakarta to tackle the No.2 volcano on my list and once
that is completed it I will be off to west Java and Krakatau to complete the
No.1 on my list. The next few weeks are
not only going to be an exciting time during my travels but also a time when I
will achieving things I never thought I would – the ultimate being visiting and
(all going to plan) climbing the infamous and legendary Krakatau.
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