Yogyakarta Trip Report

We took at 5:50 AM flight on Tiger Airlines to Yogyakarta, Indonesia.  We had a quick layover in Singapore on the way.  Not often can you say you were in three countries in the same day (Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia).  We arrived in Indonesia that night and learned that over the next few days, we had to make our way to Bali (YEA!) by ourselves.  You could fly or take land transportation. 
The next morning we were up at 3:15 AM and took a taxi about an hour and a half to see the Borobudur sunrise. It is this magnificant temple that you ascend upon in the dark and watch the sunrise.  It was kind of foggy so not as breathtaking as it probably is on a clear day, but the view was nice.

We then started our way to Bali.  We first took a train to Solo.  The train was like a subway car but without air conditioning.  Did I mention that it is super hot here?  The train ride was an hour.  In Solo, we went to do a scavenge and got a taste of the corruption there.  We took a taxi to a nearby temple and when it was time to leave, a man out of nowhere approached demanding a parking fee.  Being warned about this ahead of time, I wanted to argue but my cab driver insisted we pay the fee and even chipped in.  You could see that he wanted to avoid any confrontation with this man.  

From Solo, we then boarded our next train for Surabaya.  This train was air conditioned and we had first class seats so it was a comfortable ride.  But it was about a 6 hour train ride or so.  We were traveling with Zoe, Rainey and Rainey's daughters.  By the end of the Surabaya train ride, we were all starting to get tired of this neverending journey.  Most of us were asleep when we thought we needed to get off the train.  We exited the train in a mad dash only to realize (once the train had already left the station) that we exited one stop too early.  Things went south from there.  We were in the middle of nowhere, where EVERYONE stopped what they were doing and were staring at us and we really had no one to help us.  One half of our team felt a possible threat and kept a watchful eye on the insurgents.  The gameing half just started pointing and asking who spoke English.  (Of course, David added these last two sentences).  There were even a few meltdowns within our group.  After asking the security guards several questions with hand signals and several bad pronunciations of native words we found ourselves on the next train headed for the next stop. 

We finally made our way to Surabaya, and boarded yet a third train to Probolingo.  This was one of the worst experiences of my life.  When we boarded the train, there were cockroaches crawling on the walls.  There was NO air conditioning and it was hot as hell.  Sweat was pouring down my back, legs, etc.  The train smelled really bad also.  We had to ride this train several hours to Probolingo.  It was truely misreable.  When we finally arrived in Problingo, we were so relieved to be off the train.  Little did we know that it was going to get worse.  It was now around midnight and we exited the train to find three lonely rickshaws and nothing else but crickets.  No taxis, no people, no hope.  The rickshaw drivers finally convinced us to get in the rickshaws and David and Rainey ran along side until more rickshaws showed up.  The drivers took us to their friend's house in what felt like a secluded neighborhood in the middle of nowhere.  I was convinced we were being set up and were going to be robbed at any minute.  I started shoving our passports and money into my bra.  But I was wrong.  The "friend" was a travel agent in Probolingo and was exactly who we needed. 

Before we headed to Mount Bromo to start our climb, we desperately wanted to shower.  We were informed that the only hotel near our climb was probably booked and that we should get a hotel room in Probolingo at the best hotel in the city.  It was a dump.  There were bugs in the bed and bathroom, the place had not been cleaned in ages, no shower curtain, and I could blow more air than the air conditioner was releasing.  It was HORRIBLE.  But I was desparate after having been a sweaty mess all day.  I took the plunge and took the shower. 

We left for the mountain at about 2:30 AM and arrived around 4:00 AM.  We were taken by a 4 wheel drive Jeep a part of the way and then climbed the last short distance ourselves.  We made it to the top for the sunrise and it was spectaculur.  We also got a great view of several other volcanoes in the area.

After the sunrise, we had breakfast and then boarded an 11:30 AM bus to Denpasar.  This bus ride was 8 hours.  When we arrived in Denpasar, we still had an hour taxi ride to our hotel in Bali.  I thought the ride was never going to end.  We arrived to the hotel around midnight and were exhausted (having been up for 48 hours).  But it was all worth it because we arrived in paradise...