7th to 10th May
An early morning departure saw us picking up a breakfast box before leaving the hotel at 6am. A taxi took us to Yogyakarta railway station, while Udi had driven the car with our rucksacks overnight to meet us at Jombang, in eastern Java.
The train journey was comfortable, as we saw rice paddies, mountains, dense palm forests and busy villages pass by.
We set off from Jombang station to Trowulan, to learn a little about the former Majapahit kingdom, important in the history of the unification of Indonesia, by ruling over many different islands and tribes from the late 13th to early 16th century. No big sites to visit, just some red brick remains, including a temple gate and a ritual bathing pool, beautifully presented in gardens and a lovely little museum.
At the museum we encountered a large group of trainee policemen, also learning about the same history, but much better informed than us as most of the exhibits didn’t include English translations. We did see evidence of the trading routes with Malaysia, Siam, Cambodia and China.
A long four hour drive completed the day, where we arrived at our destination, a very agreeable hotel, high up in the mountains, near the edge of the Tengger Caldera – tomorrow’s destination.
Yes – the hotel was most agreeable, beautifully lush and gorgeous – except for one thing. The noise….! Loud, thumping Indonesian popular music belted out, as if we had paid for attending a rock festival. Up the road we found an enormous loudspeaker stack, celebrating a Hindu wedding, apparently an invitation to join the party!
Non-stop cacophonous thump-thump music, as if it was playing next door with paper walls. Apparently, a tradition amongst villages across East Java, but Roszi informed us that this was much louder than in Central Java.
Our next day’s adventure called for a 3am departure, so we needed the help of a bottle of wine to get to sleep, as the music was only switched off at 11pm…
Mount Bromo
We found ourselves bumping along, on benches in the back of a jeep, pitch black, 3am. Other jeeps jostled on the road, gears crashing while racing up the narrow road up the side of the volcano, like a scene from Mad Max. There are three viewpoints, but only the early birds can reach the top one, as the road becomes blocked by parked jeeps.
We were to witness the sun rise on Mounts Bromo and Batok in the caldera. We were blessed with a clear night sky, with the clearest full moon we’ve ever experienced, stars and a bright planet, Venus in the East.
It was cold – somewhere below 12 degrees C, but windy too, so everybody had warm layers on, including one person who had obviously wrapped himself up in his bed duvet, ‘borrowed’ from his hotel. Vendors were milling around, offering plastic raincoats (not needed), blankets and yoga mats, (needed!).
We sat on Lynne’s yoga mat and shawl, with five layers of our warm weather tops, finished off by our rain jackets to keep the wind out. Roszi bought himself a warm woolly hat. Peter fetched a couple of coffees from a short way down the hill, while we all waited. Lynne listened to “Stairway to Heaven” on her earphones.
The sky in the east glowed dark red, slowly, slowly broadening out. Ahead of us, we discerned the contours of the mountains, slowly realising that the smudge of mist wasn’t mist – it was volcanic smoke.
Despite the crowds, all with smartphones (and one small drone) taking pictures, it was a wonderfully surreal feeling to see the grandeur of the scene ahead of us. The perfectly shaped conical volcanic mountain Batok (2,440m), in a huge ‘sea of sand’, and the volcanic cloud seeping out of the Mt. Bromo caldera just beside it. We even witnessed a small eruption at the top of Indonesia’s highest mountain behind, Semeru (3,676m), with an angry billow of smoke.
It was a fantastic experience, never to be forgotten.
Down, we raced, fighting for every inch down the narrow road – another jeep race, down to the Sea of Sand, which we sped over, like Lawrence of Arabia (but without camels).
We parked the jeep for our walk up to the active caldera we witnessed earlier that morning. We were offered rides on ponies and horses, but preferred to get the exercise walking across the lava dust and then up the 250 steps to the rim of the volcano.
Peering down, the rising cloud and distressed caldera walls reminded us that we are but ants to the power of nature.
After breakfast, we packed our rucksacks and started another long drive to the easternmost part of Java, in preparation for our last main visit, in the morning.
Mount Ijen
It was a relief that we arranged to meet with Roszi at 7.30 in the morning, not at 4am, as threatened by our itinerary.
A sturdy 4×4 jeep took us through villages and dense jungle, where we started out trek up the Mount Ijen crater at 2,385m. Enveloped by mist and cloud, our view only cleared as we approached the top. What we saw was astonishing. Rifled volcanic rock descended down into a large turquoise lake, only occasionally visible through the smoke.
Men in flip-flops descended into the crater to collect and carry up large nuggets of bright yellow sulphur. They bundled these into bags and used barrows to wheel up to 240kg back down the steep path to the village.
A particular camera viewpoint had a group of Vietnamese tourists posing. One woman, in shorts, had an unfortunate slip on the steep, loose and slippery surface, bumping herself nastily. We were later overtaken by her, on our way back down, in a half run down the steep path. Tough lady!
Our return trip to our hotel took place in torrential tropical rain. We decided to cap the day with a drink at the poolside bar before dinner. Encouragingly, it was busy with music playing and a bartender ready to serve. Lynne had a whisky (for her cold), and Peter ordered a glass of white wine – and make sure it is cold!
Twenty minutes later, after the bartender had chosen a lot of the music tracks, we enquired – are we getting anything to drink? Panic. He did’t do the drinks himself – he had called the restaurant nearby. They were probably busy serving the dining guests. Off he went, returning with said whisky and a cold glass. But the white wine was warm! Undrinkable. So, after handing it back, they tried with a second glass – same. By that time we had decamped to the restaurant and, forever hopeful, ordered a glass of red. Success – though uncertain at the time – It was red – but cold! No worries – it didn’t take long to warm up!
Throughout our journeys through India, Malaysia and Indonesia, accessibility to wine is mixed . However, hotels and restaurants like to use wine and Champagne bottles for decoration – while not necessarily knowing to how to serve it. Typically, on the bar in the story above, there was a generous wine bucket with several bottles of wine in it. We should have checked first before ordering; the wine bucket had no ice and the wine bottles were empty!
At dinner we reminisced about our last two days. We have travelled across the whole of Java and experienced these amazing active volcanoes. Unforgettable.
On towards Bali
We had come to the end of our organised trips through Sumatra and Java. Lynne was up early to take a picture of the sun rising over Bali, slightly hindered by morning cloud. Our last day with Roszi and Udi took us on the car ferry for a short sailing to Bali.
After a few hours, we stopped for coffee – ending up with being forced (by Roszi) to enjoy a large shared Rijstafel, sitting by the crashing ocean. We looked out over the sea, thinking that we were not so far from Australia.
The beautiful sunny morning turned into a fully fledged tropical rainstorm, rain gushing from the sky. The route we were following to our Bali hotel, led us to cross a narrow bridge. Mistake – it was completely flooded with angrily streaming water. Udi made our conventional car act like a 4WD, reversing back up the steep slippery road we had just descended. Good driving!
We found the hotel and said our fairwells to Roszi and Udi. Roll on next chapter!
Incredible volcanos photo!
Utterly amazing view of the volcanos & well worth the very early start, I’m sure!