Sunday, 19 December 2010
Mount Bromo
Well, this is one volcano trip that needs a whole entry to itself. An experience from beginning to end - the beginning being another long journey. Kev and I played the usual game of 'freezing cold or boiling hot' before getting in our 'air-con' minibus . This one had us hot and sweaty within 5 minutes. After 10 hours we were not feeling at our best. Still, we made it to the office in Probolinggo (the jump off point for the volcano) in reasonable time and prepared to swap vehicles for the climb up. We waited. And waited. We had our tickets checked - and still we didn't move anywhere. Then we realised that one member of the group - a lone traveller - was having problems with his ticket. Despite having a big red 'Paid' stamp on it, the office were claiming he had not paid for the tour. We all pointed out that they would hardly have given him a ticket, let alone stamped it, if he hadn't, but they were adament. As was he. We then remembered the passage we had read in the Lonely Planet about all the problems that travellers experience in Probolinggo and how dishonest many people are. We looked at the group - two couples and on Aussie guy who spoke fluent Indonesian - and realised that the most vulnerable member of the group had been singled out . Before I really knew what was happening, a fight had broken out in the office between 5 of the staff and one of our group (not Kev...) - being the tough type that I am, I went and hid round the corner until it all stopped. I really just wanted to get to the volcano by now. Finally, the Indonesian-speaking-Aussie-guy managed to calm the situation and they decided that they would 'allow' the lone traveller to continue on his way. Kind of them.
So, the next stage of the journey began. On the way, our new driver admitted that he didn't think the men in the office were 'very honest' - and told us that they didn't even work there. Great. By this time it was getting dark and misty, and the driver wasn't exactly going slowly up the winding mountain road. I decided not to think about what kind of drop might be on either side of me. Then his lights went off. We thought back to the Lonely Planet and to stories of travellers having to pay extortionate amounts for rescue from fake breakdowns on this very road. But no, it turned out his light really had broken. Mountain road. Dark. Misty. Big drops. Solution? Driver holding a torch in one hand, steering wheel in the other and assuring us he knew these roads very well. Terrifying. Slight relief when we reached another vehicle and followed in it's lights for a while. Until we reached the first hotel, where everyone except Kev and I would be staying (not sure why). Here, we lost the vehicle we had been following, the town had a power cut so there weren't even a few houselights to hep us along and the driver decided to make a phone call. So, dark mountain roads, big drops, torch in one hand, phone in another. Steering wheel presumable somehow also being held but not sure how. Once he got off the phone, he asked if we were scared. I said yes. He laughed hysterically (and slightly manically). I have never been so glad to reach anywhere in all my life. The hotel was really nice. It was pretty cold (fleece weather - a novelty!), though not obviously by current UK standards. After a good dinner we went straight to bed, as we had a 4am start to catch sunrise and our first volcano view.
The next morning was even colder, and we dressed it fleeces, raincoats and Kev even bought a woolly hat. We will not be able to cope with coming home in February. We went in a jeep to the top of a neighbouring peak to Mount Bromo, which has stunning views of the volcano. If it's not too cloudy. It was far too cloudy and the most we saw was about 2 metres in front of us. At this point we were beginning to wonder if we should have bothered coming here in the first place. The jeep began it's descent, and suddenly the mist cleared. The first thing we saw was one of the surrounding volcanoes- inactive, and from the side of it, a huge plume of smoke rising into the air. As we drove down towards the base of Bromo, we saw it. A short volcano, yes, but possibly the most incredible sight I've seen since we began our trip. We hadn't realised until this point that it was actually erupting. No lava as yet, although it is one high alert. But not just small puffs of smoke that we had expected but huge, billowing smoke that seemed to fill the whole area. Just an incredible sight. We could walk pretty close to the base as the smoke was blowing in the opposite direction, and looked longingly at the steps leading to the rim of the crater (this is normally climbable). At this point, the smoke changed direction and we realised that anyone standing on the edge would, well, no longer be. We figured maybe we wouldn't try that.
After staring mesmorised at the sight for ages, we made our way back to our hotel. Strange to realised that we we staying on the crater edge of an old volcano, and that the whole area below us had formed form the centre of this. The smoke from Bromo came past our room, and the views form where we were staying were spectacular. We had to keep going back over to stare. Then the mist retutned, and bizarrely within 5 minutes you wouldn't even have known that volcano was erupting, it was that thick.
By the afternoon, it was time to take the bus back down the mountainside and make our long way to Bali, thankful that we had after all made the effort to see this incredible, rare sight. Also thankful that it was not dark so that it wouldn't matter if he had lights or not. As it happened, the drive down the mountain was if possible more frightening than the drive there, as it was pouring with rain, the driver didn't seem to get the idea of slowing down in bad conditions, he liked to overtake everything that came his way (on a narrow, wet mountain road), he also liked to talk on his phone whilst driving, and we nearly crashed twice. I found myself longing for the dark so I at least couldn't see the big drops. And so to Bali.
(more photos to come)
So, the next stage of the journey began. On the way, our new driver admitted that he didn't think the men in the office were 'very honest' - and told us that they didn't even work there. Great. By this time it was getting dark and misty, and the driver wasn't exactly going slowly up the winding mountain road. I decided not to think about what kind of drop might be on either side of me. Then his lights went off. We thought back to the Lonely Planet and to stories of travellers having to pay extortionate amounts for rescue from fake breakdowns on this very road. But no, it turned out his light really had broken. Mountain road. Dark. Misty. Big drops. Solution? Driver holding a torch in one hand, steering wheel in the other and assuring us he knew these roads very well. Terrifying. Slight relief when we reached another vehicle and followed in it's lights for a while. Until we reached the first hotel, where everyone except Kev and I would be staying (not sure why). Here, we lost the vehicle we had been following, the town had a power cut so there weren't even a few houselights to hep us along and the driver decided to make a phone call. So, dark mountain roads, big drops, torch in one hand, phone in another. Steering wheel presumable somehow also being held but not sure how. Once he got off the phone, he asked if we were scared. I said yes. He laughed hysterically (and slightly manically). I have never been so glad to reach anywhere in all my life. The hotel was really nice. It was pretty cold (fleece weather - a novelty!), though not obviously by current UK standards. After a good dinner we went straight to bed, as we had a 4am start to catch sunrise and our first volcano view.
The next morning was even colder, and we dressed it fleeces, raincoats and Kev even bought a woolly hat. We will not be able to cope with coming home in February. We went in a jeep to the top of a neighbouring peak to Mount Bromo, which has stunning views of the volcano. If it's not too cloudy. It was far too cloudy and the most we saw was about 2 metres in front of us. At this point we were beginning to wonder if we should have bothered coming here in the first place. The jeep began it's descent, and suddenly the mist cleared. The first thing we saw was one of the surrounding volcanoes- inactive, and from the side of it, a huge plume of smoke rising into the air. As we drove down towards the base of Bromo, we saw it. A short volcano, yes, but possibly the most incredible sight I've seen since we began our trip. We hadn't realised until this point that it was actually erupting. No lava as yet, although it is one high alert. But not just small puffs of smoke that we had expected but huge, billowing smoke that seemed to fill the whole area. Just an incredible sight. We could walk pretty close to the base as the smoke was blowing in the opposite direction, and looked longingly at the steps leading to the rim of the crater (this is normally climbable). At this point, the smoke changed direction and we realised that anyone standing on the edge would, well, no longer be. We figured maybe we wouldn't try that.
After staring mesmorised at the sight for ages, we made our way back to our hotel. Strange to realised that we we staying on the crater edge of an old volcano, and that the whole area below us had formed form the centre of this. The smoke from Bromo came past our room, and the views form where we were staying were spectacular. We had to keep going back over to stare. Then the mist retutned, and bizarrely within 5 minutes you wouldn't even have known that volcano was erupting, it was that thick.
By the afternoon, it was time to take the bus back down the mountainside and make our long way to Bali, thankful that we had after all made the effort to see this incredible, rare sight. Also thankful that it was not dark so that it wouldn't matter if he had lights or not. As it happened, the drive down the mountain was if possible more frightening than the drive there, as it was pouring with rain, the driver didn't seem to get the idea of slowing down in bad conditions, he liked to overtake everything that came his way (on a narrow, wet mountain road), he also liked to talk on his phone whilst driving, and we nearly crashed twice. I found myself longing for the dark so I at least couldn't see the big drops. And so to Bali.
(more photos to come)
Jakarta and Yogyakarta
We've actually been in Indonesia for a fair while now, but 10 months of travelling seem to have made me more and more lazy, and so I've been finding it harder and harder to motivate myself to do, well, anything! I think it's probably no bad thing that we'll be coming home in under 2 months.
The journey from Coron to Jakarta took us via Manila with a lovely 5 hour wait in a fairly boring airport. However, flying from Coron to Manila was spectacular - rising up over the ocean where all we could see was tiny islands surrounded by white sand and turquoise reefs in the deep blue of the ocean and clear blue skies. Just like a postcard, absolutely beautiful. Strange contrast to 40 minutes later when we began to descend, flying over murky seas, the sky grey and miserable over Manila. The Manila to Jakarta flight (once we finally got on it) didn't disappoint, as we got to play another of Cebu Pacific's finest in flight entertainment games. This time we had to produce objects named outo f our bags. sadly I didn't have a phone charger or an OAP pass in mine so was unable to win a fabulous prize.
We hadn't heard very great things about Jakarta. From anyone. Even the Lonely Planet describes it as being 'hard to love'. So we had no real expectations - a good way to start in a new place as we couldn't be disappointed. As it was, we both quite liked the city (as big, polluted cities go). On our first day (having had no sleep due to arriving at the airport at midnight and waiting until the first bus at 6am) we intended to walk to the National Museum, however it was shut due to the Islamic New Year. So we jumped on a bus and found that there were big celebrations going on in the city - food stalls, games, big podium with lots of shouting which we didn't really get. It was entertaining though, and we wandered happily for a while then found a HUGE shopping mall where we tried in vain to find a new bag, but managed to buy the world's most useless towel instead.
The following day, things had opened up so after a long walk to book train tickets for the following evening we actually got to he museum where I spent a happy couple of hours tutting at how badly behaved all the school kids in there were. And obviously appreciating all the lovely things on show from around the country. We considered doing some more cultural things the following day before catching our night train to Yogyakarta - but instead decided to go and watch the new Narnia film... First impressions of Indonesia? Well, there is certainly more hassle than we have been used to recently (a little closer to India in that respect). The traffic is the worst we have seen in our travels (that was Jakarta though. It is truly unbelievable). The food is cheap and tasty and there are beautiful things to see everywhere.
The overnight train to Yogyakarta (Yogya from now on - far easier!) was... interesting. Long, hot, noisy and I spent most of it sleeping on the floor. Needless to say, we were pretty relieved to arrive and get to a guesthouse. We did manage to push on and get out for the afternoon, although a lot of it was spent making full use of the free tea and coffee provided in our accommodation. We also met a mice French couple (Charlotte and Syl) and had a few beers with them in the evening. I have to confess, we then spent the next few days not actually doing a huge amount. We did some shopping (presents and souvenirs finally being bought!), looked at a lot of batik (and tried to avoid endless scams), drank a lot of coffee (well it was Java) and eventually managed to take a trip with Charlotte and Syl to see the ancient site of Borobudur - a 9th century Mahayana Buddhist monument. The journey to see this was actually the most fascinating part of the trip, as it took us through villages affected by the recent eruption of Merapi. Ash still everywhere, and rivers burst their banks due to the force of the eruption. We were pretty lucky to also have great views of the volcano on our way through. The site itself was impressive - although slightly less so having been to the temples of Angkor and sadly we were unable to climb to the top as it was still being cleared of volcanic ash. Still, a nice day trip, and the volcano was certainly impressive.
Talking of volcanoes, our next plan was to make our way to Mount Bromo further East - hopefully to be a chance to climb one (albeit a fairly short one). As it happened, this wasn't to be as it turned out to be erupting fairly spectacularly - but that's for next time. There's a whole, long, scary journey to cover before that involving mountain roads at night with no lights...
The journey from Coron to Jakarta took us via Manila with a lovely 5 hour wait in a fairly boring airport. However, flying from Coron to Manila was spectacular - rising up over the ocean where all we could see was tiny islands surrounded by white sand and turquoise reefs in the deep blue of the ocean and clear blue skies. Just like a postcard, absolutely beautiful. Strange contrast to 40 minutes later when we began to descend, flying over murky seas, the sky grey and miserable over Manila. The Manila to Jakarta flight (once we finally got on it) didn't disappoint, as we got to play another of Cebu Pacific's finest in flight entertainment games. This time we had to produce objects named outo f our bags. sadly I didn't have a phone charger or an OAP pass in mine so was unable to win a fabulous prize.
We hadn't heard very great things about Jakarta. From anyone. Even the Lonely Planet describes it as being 'hard to love'. So we had no real expectations - a good way to start in a new place as we couldn't be disappointed. As it was, we both quite liked the city (as big, polluted cities go). On our first day (having had no sleep due to arriving at the airport at midnight and waiting until the first bus at 6am) we intended to walk to the National Museum, however it was shut due to the Islamic New Year. So we jumped on a bus and found that there were big celebrations going on in the city - food stalls, games, big podium with lots of shouting which we didn't really get. It was entertaining though, and we wandered happily for a while then found a HUGE shopping mall where we tried in vain to find a new bag, but managed to buy the world's most useless towel instead.
The following day, things had opened up so after a long walk to book train tickets for the following evening we actually got to he museum where I spent a happy couple of hours tutting at how badly behaved all the school kids in there were. And obviously appreciating all the lovely things on show from around the country. We considered doing some more cultural things the following day before catching our night train to Yogyakarta - but instead decided to go and watch the new Narnia film... First impressions of Indonesia? Well, there is certainly more hassle than we have been used to recently (a little closer to India in that respect). The traffic is the worst we have seen in our travels (that was Jakarta though. It is truly unbelievable). The food is cheap and tasty and there are beautiful things to see everywhere.
The overnight train to Yogyakarta (Yogya from now on - far easier!) was... interesting. Long, hot, noisy and I spent most of it sleeping on the floor. Needless to say, we were pretty relieved to arrive and get to a guesthouse. We did manage to push on and get out for the afternoon, although a lot of it was spent making full use of the free tea and coffee provided in our accommodation. We also met a mice French couple (Charlotte and Syl) and had a few beers with them in the evening. I have to confess, we then spent the next few days not actually doing a huge amount. We did some shopping (presents and souvenirs finally being bought!), looked at a lot of batik (and tried to avoid endless scams), drank a lot of coffee (well it was Java) and eventually managed to take a trip with Charlotte and Syl to see the ancient site of Borobudur - a 9th century Mahayana Buddhist monument. The journey to see this was actually the most fascinating part of the trip, as it took us through villages affected by the recent eruption of Merapi. Ash still everywhere, and rivers burst their banks due to the force of the eruption. We were pretty lucky to also have great views of the volcano on our way through. The site itself was impressive - although slightly less so having been to the temples of Angkor and sadly we were unable to climb to the top as it was still being cleared of volcanic ash. Still, a nice day trip, and the volcano was certainly impressive.
Talking of volcanoes, our next plan was to make our way to Mount Bromo further East - hopefully to be a chance to climb one (albeit a fairly short one). As it happened, this wasn't to be as it turned out to be erupting fairly spectacularly - but that's for next time. There's a whole, long, scary journey to cover before that involving mountain roads at night with no lights...
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Coron
Getting to Coron town was amusing... When we were researching this part of the trip (I say 'we' - I mean Kev), we found that the only way between El Nido and Coron (a town on the next large island) was by fairly expensive small boats, taking 8 hours. When we reached El Nido however, we discovered that there was in fact an option costing less than half the price - the twice weekly cargo boat, leaving at midnight. So, 5 days in advance, we eventually found our way to the office .The only description we were given was that it was in the pink house - who'd have thought there would be more than one? There we were looked at dubiously, then told that there were already 250 passengers booked on that boat and they were special delegates so there was no room. We looked so disappointed that he changed his mind and after telling us how awful the journey would be, how much better it would be to take an expensive boat, he decided that if we came back the day before the boat sailed he would sell us a ticket. We assured him that we didn't mind sleeping on the floor amongst the chickens, and left feeling pretty pleased. Sunday came around, and we went back to the office and were told there were now 290 passengers on the boat, and they would have to ask the captain if we would be allowed on when the boat arrived. Come back later. We came back later. The captain said yes, but guess what? We had to ask the coastguard. Come back tomorrow (the day the boat was due to sail). Next day - come back this evening. Finally, after sitting in the office (well, the guy's living room) for half an hour, being told how awful the trip would be, they sold us a ticket (after we solemnly promised not to sleep in a bed) and we left feeling very pleased with our perseverance. A meal and a couple of drinks later we made our way down to the port, where there were about 10 others waiting for the boat. Well, the boat was there but we were waiting to be let on. We waited. And waited. Midnight came. 1am came. We waited. Occasionally everyone seemed very excited and got up. Then sat back down. Mysteriously, everyone had suddenly forgotten all their English and would tell us nothing. The man who sold us the tickets was running back and forth between us and the ship (whilst completely pissed). Finally, at 1.30am, his wife silently took our ticket, handed us back our money and we watched the boat depart with us on dry land. Not a word was passed between us and them and we were left scratching our heads in the middle of the night with no clue how we would get to Coron.
Fortunately the next morning we were able to buy a ticket for the more expensive boat leaving at 8am, and 6 hours after leaving it we were back at the port waiting for another boat. Fortunately this one left without too much difficulty and we spent a nice day onboard admiring the beautiful scenery and reading. Kev most of the journey on the roof, however the lack of railing made me a little nervous each time the boat moved. When we arrived in Coron, we met up with a group we had met in El Nido, and they gave us some good tips on where to stay and book our diving. The main draw of Coron is the WW2 Japanese wrecks which were sunk in 1944 by the US. This is where I was so glad I had done my dive training and we were both pretty excited by the idea of diving in wrecks. We spent some time in the dive shop planning where to dive and decided on the Olympia Maru - a 122m upright freighter and the Morazan Maru - this one sunk on it's side.
The trip was great - after getting past initial nerves on the first dive I loved the experience, and the second site was even better as we could go in and out of the ship, into the boiler rooms and shower room amongst other things. There was also good sea life around the wrecks - lion fish and scorpion fish - both pretty scary looking! Between dives, Kris, our dive instructor, took us to some hot springs. To get there we had to snorkle through jellyfish infested mangroves, which was pretty cool. The hot springs were certainly hot - like having a bath. Lovely. On the second dive I stayed down longer than Kev as his air was running out faster, and as we made our way to the surface we were 'stalked' by a sharksucker - which pretty much do what the name says. Apparently they're happy to latch on the divers as well - I'm glad I didn't know what it was until we surfaced! Meanwhile, Kev had emerged from the water with a mask filled with blood (not that he's noticed). He claims I kicked him with my fins and gave him a nose bleed. I reckon it was due to pressure underwater. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
By this time it was about 4pm, and we went to another site, this one with corals good for snorkelling as well as diving. Here, I decided to do a third dive, whilst Kev decided to crack open the beer and stay on the boat! This dive was different - just me, Kris and Kipp (one of the guys we met in El Nido and also a Dive Master). This was great experience for me as I was given impromptu lessons as we went along on better ways to kick. It also meant I could stay down longer, in the end Kris and I ended up down for 72 minutes. After which is was time to head back to land, enjoying a couple of well earnt beers on the journey.
The rest of our stay in Coron was a less exciting - a couple of days without doing much, and then a day out on a boat around the nearby islands where we stopped in a number of places. The best one was a freshwater lake, with amazing rock formations under the crystal clear water - great for snorkelling. At the point where we passed by the most incredible empty beach, surrounded by turquoise reefs and dark blue waters and realised it was now 'just another beach', we thought it was really time to move on to somewhere new. And so to Indonesia, where we have now spent 5 days and are heading towards my first volcano tomorrow.
Fortunately the next morning we were able to buy a ticket for the more expensive boat leaving at 8am, and 6 hours after leaving it we were back at the port waiting for another boat. Fortunately this one left without too much difficulty and we spent a nice day onboard admiring the beautiful scenery and reading. Kev most of the journey on the roof, however the lack of railing made me a little nervous each time the boat moved. When we arrived in Coron, we met up with a group we had met in El Nido, and they gave us some good tips on where to stay and book our diving. The main draw of Coron is the WW2 Japanese wrecks which were sunk in 1944 by the US. This is where I was so glad I had done my dive training and we were both pretty excited by the idea of diving in wrecks. We spent some time in the dive shop planning where to dive and decided on the Olympia Maru - a 122m upright freighter and the Morazan Maru - this one sunk on it's side.
The trip was great - after getting past initial nerves on the first dive I loved the experience, and the second site was even better as we could go in and out of the ship, into the boiler rooms and shower room amongst other things. There was also good sea life around the wrecks - lion fish and scorpion fish - both pretty scary looking! Between dives, Kris, our dive instructor, took us to some hot springs. To get there we had to snorkle through jellyfish infested mangroves, which was pretty cool. The hot springs were certainly hot - like having a bath. Lovely. On the second dive I stayed down longer than Kev as his air was running out faster, and as we made our way to the surface we were 'stalked' by a sharksucker - which pretty much do what the name says. Apparently they're happy to latch on the divers as well - I'm glad I didn't know what it was until we surfaced! Meanwhile, Kev had emerged from the water with a mask filled with blood (not that he's noticed). He claims I kicked him with my fins and gave him a nose bleed. I reckon it was due to pressure underwater. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
By this time it was about 4pm, and we went to another site, this one with corals good for snorkelling as well as diving. Here, I decided to do a third dive, whilst Kev decided to crack open the beer and stay on the boat! This dive was different - just me, Kris and Kipp (one of the guys we met in El Nido and also a Dive Master). This was great experience for me as I was given impromptu lessons as we went along on better ways to kick. It also meant I could stay down longer, in the end Kris and I ended up down for 72 minutes. After which is was time to head back to land, enjoying a couple of well earnt beers on the journey.
The rest of our stay in Coron was a less exciting - a couple of days without doing much, and then a day out on a boat around the nearby islands where we stopped in a number of places. The best one was a freshwater lake, with amazing rock formations under the crystal clear water - great for snorkelling. At the point where we passed by the most incredible empty beach, surrounded by turquoise reefs and dark blue waters and realised it was now 'just another beach', we thought it was really time to move on to somewhere new. And so to Indonesia, where we have now spent 5 days and are heading towards my first volcano tomorrow.
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
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