Indonesia: Crossing Java

August 9: Yogyakarta

So our bed was fantastic and we were thoroughly enjoying it, until our roommates left before 8 and caused the alarms on the door locks, of which there were 2, to be repeatedly very angry. We waited until they finally left, slept for about another hour, got breakfast at the hostel and then Andy was grumpy so went back to sleep while I went to wander the mall.

I grabbed money from the ATM, scoured the English bookstore, picked up a few groceries, and booked a few days of activities for us. Andy emerged just as lunch was ready. I LOVE having a hostel with a decent kitchen. We made pasta with sundried tomato pesto, and bell peppers. 

We decided to wander about the town, and made our way towards the palace. What a let down. It was closed, but also looked quite run down. Seems that in Yogyakarta, and likely in other parts of Indonesia, hawking is a practice i.e. training birds to come back when you let them fly away. Surprising, and strange. There were some really big parrots, and some much smaller dark birds.

After wandering a little more, I took Andy to the mall for dinner. We had a very disappointing food court meal, so grabbed some snacks from the grocery store. Turns out, mayonnaise here isn’t made with eggs and taste nothing like the mayo we have at the hostel, which is surprising given that this is a Dutch colony.

All around our hostel, there are horses pulling carts for taxis. Note to self: do not look at the horses because it is obvious that they are mistreated and it hurts. We intended to get into bed and watch a movie or a couple of episodes of Merlin, but instead managed to kill about 2 hours on our phones.

August 10: Borobudur & Prambanan

Andy insisted we check out these Tantric Buddhist and Hindu Temple complexes. Worth it. Now, unfortunately, there was not the kind of graphic imagery that I was hoping for. But they were pretty.

Borobudur is a Tantric Buddhist temple, built in the shape of a mandala. It dates from the early 8^th(?) century. People are meant to walk around the design clockwise three times. The temple sits atop a large hill in the middle of a valley, and is multi-levelled itself. At its top are several evenly spaced latticed spires with Buddha statuettes in each of them looking out across the valley. At the center of the top is a massive spire in the same design, but it is solid instead of latticed. We wondered if there sat an equally massive Buddha statue inside it.

Prambanan is the Hindu analog to Borobudur; equally massive and awe-inspiring. Prambanan dates to the latter end of the 8^th century (?). Most of the temple grounds were in ruin. A board near the entrance broad strokes, it spoke of the three major deities of the Hindu faith, as well as their respective “vehicles.”

These two temples were supposedly on the scale of Angkor Wat as far as temples go. While either of these can easily compare to Angkor Wat proper, neither of them are nearly as expansive and prolific as the veritable city of temples that is Angkor.

The worst thing about each of the temples is the exit: each has a massive market, full of hundreds of stalls. It is overwhelming and very easy to get lost. We almost didn’t find the meetup point for lunch. Then, on our way from one temple to the other, our driver hit a truck. There wasn’t a lot of damage and no one was hurt, but the guy sitting in the front (where the huge dent lay) was really shaken up. It was kind of confusing, and our driver tried to chase down the other driver who just kept going because the truck was totally fine. Luckily, he hit the passenger side, leading to minimal damage…

I have now learned to look out the windows wherever I can, and not at the road. It is simply far too scary, and the rules of the road don’t seem to really exist.

We were dropped off at our hostel around 6, so picked up groceries and made ourselves dinner: corn on the cob, green beans, and sausages. YUM. We also picked up lots of snacks because we knew the next few days would be full of time on buses and weird sleeping hours. Boy, were we ever correct.

August 11: Bus time

We spent 14 hours in a mini-bus aka van of 12 people. Luckily for us, this was a very comfortable van with lots of space for us, and the driver was great. He even stopped to pick up a kite for someone in his family! Ha. Lunch was fantastic tomato soup at a roadside rest stop.

We got off at an office, were given some instructions, and then got on a MUCH smaller bus to go up the mountain to the village at the edge of the crater valley. We were warned: up the mountain, it’s 4*C. Four! After many, many turns and lovely views of stars, we made it to the hotel. We were given our room around 10:15 but there was a puppet show going on nearby until 11, meaning it was very difficult to fall asleep. However, for the first time in a really long time, we didn’t need air conditioning!

August 12: Mt Bromo

We were woken up at 3am, put on many layers, and went out to the parking lot full of Jeeps to take us up the mountain. Andy and I were lucky; we got to sit in the front seat of the Jeep, rather than sit sideways in the back part where it’s less comfy.

It took us an hour to get to the sunrise point. It was basically a race across a dry river valley, with lots and lots of Jeeps clamouring to get to the best spot first. We, unfortunately, didn’t make it to the ideal sunrise spot, so went to another one instead. It was really nice, though definitely chilly until the sun rose. We were on a sand cliff edge, and many other tourists seemed to think it was a good idea to use Andy’s bum/back and my shoulders to push off of or balance from. NOT COOL, PEOPLE. Oh, well. I learned how to use my phone for better pictures and it was really lovely.

We went back to the Jeep at 630 and were taken across the river valley again to Mt Bromo, an active volcano. It was 2km to the top, including very steep stairs, and the air was FULL of sulphur. So, hot, sunny, sandy, smelly … and it was only 7am. As soon as we arrived, we were approached by men on horses who wanted to give us a horse ride to the stairs. We chose to walk and as we were on our way, we noticed that many of the horses were injured. It was really frustrating.

Please, folks, before you choose to ride an animal look at how it behaves and how it looks. Is its mouth white and frothy? Does it have wide eyes? Is it avoiding weight on one leg? I was absolutely shocked at the treatment of many of these horses. It is clear that it is up to the owner of the horse, but I don’t understand why you would choose to not take good care of your livelihood so that it lasts longer and can make you more money.

Plus, I really don’t understand how these horses could have been injured … they were walking on sand. But then, I noticed that they get dragged along quite quickly and may stumble on a few rocks that are semi-hidden. If they aren’t given enough rest time, they must continue taking people up and down the mountain. And many of them are undernourished and certainly dehydrated.

We got to the top of the volcano and it was very smelly, and I was feeling super anxious about the potential of falling and having to climb back down those awful stairs (they really weren’t that bad but I have a fear of falling down stairs) so I was less than impressed.

On the way back down, Andy and I had to pause after seeing one particular horse and then we were both on the verge of tears and were just complaining. I started yelling ‘give your horse water!’ ‘That horse needs water!’ And then when I wasn’t getting a reaction from the owners, I would tell the tourist riding the horse ‘Hey, your horse needs water. Make sure you give it lots!’ And I hope it made a difference. Clearly, I was super upset by the treatment of the horses and it negatively impacted my experience of Mt Bromo. Ah, well. C’est la vie.

We got back in the Jeep and were taken down to our hotel. We had time for a bit of coffee, to pack up and then we were stuffed into another tiny van with little leg room to go back down to the office. There, we waited for about an hour for another bus to take us to our next destination.

This time, we were in a bus full of French speakers and we were given the two seats in the front seat. This meant they were very hot and it was more like 1.5 seats. We were very sweaty and knew we’d be on the bus for at least 8 hours.

We stopped for lunch and had our first meal in French, which was actually quite nice. I ordered a boiled potato and expected a whole potato, but actually got strips of boiled potato that would have been turned into fries. No sauce, no fork, just strips o’ potato. Huh.

The ride after lunch was considerably more enjoyable, though nothing had changed besides getting some actual food in my system. It’s amazing what food can do for my mood. Whoa. We got to our hotel at 7pm and were told that would be leaving at midnight to get to Kawah Ijen. So, we grabbed terrible burgers from the hotel and went to sleep for 3.5 hours.

August 13: Kawah Ijen

Andy and I had the front seats in the van again and we drove for an hour. We bundled up in several layers, because we knew we would be in the dark for about 6 hours and based on the day before, it would be cold. Apparently, the sulphur fumes from the crater lake are too toxic for humans to be near until about 3am and it takes two hours to get up to the top of the mountain; so, we were not allowed into the park until 2am.

We had a guide, but he turned out to be entirely useless because he disappeared. It was quite frustrating, and I really don’t understand why they told us we needed one. There’s a sign at the entrance to the park that says people with asthma or heart conditions are not allowed to climb; I was curious, but thought it didn’t make much sense. Boy, was I wrong. I was hot and sweating and working hard to climb that mountain.

It took 2 hours to get to the top, and then we saw the Blue Fire. Sulphur gas ekes out of a few small cracks beside a turquoise lake (made turquoise by the sulphur) and gets lit on fire for our viewing pleasure. It’s blueish purple and super duper neat. We could see it from the top, and realized we could either go with the throng of the people to the bottom to see it up close or catch the sunrise over the volcano. We opted for the sunrise. It was definitely chilly waiting at the top due to a lot of wind, but it was worth it.

Once the sun was up, we started heading back. Turns out, at a certain point, it was much easier to run down the steep parts than try to slow ourselves down. Took a whole lot less than 2 hours to get down the mountain, and we definitely warmed up. We got some warm drinks at the bottom and hopped back in the van.

We had 45 minutes to pack up and eat breakfast at the hotel before we were back on the bus. We were dropped off at the side of the road, and handed our ticket to a guy who said ‘follow me’ and promptly disappeared. We then followed some people from our van to the ferry ticket office, not knowing whether or not we actually had to buy a ticket.

We bought tickets, and got on a big ferry boat. It was definitely not a boat with anyone else from our van, and we spent a bunch of time debating how long we should wait to meet up with them on the other side. In the end, we didn’t see them anywhere so got a private car across the island of Bali to Ubud. It was nice to have enough legroom and butt space. We could stop wherever and whenever we wanted, and the driver told us a few things about Bali.

We arrived in Ubud at about 4pm, gave in our first pack of laundry, grabbed a delicious and healthy meal from a nearby spot, and slept for 14 hours. Glorious!