After going back to Gili Trawangan (where I did not find my missing clothing anywhere), I went to Bali again for two more nights before flying to Surabaya.
Seminyak & Canggu
I was only in Seminyak for two nights - it's near Kuta, Bali (Where I spent my first night on this trip) and has some amazing shopping... not that much culture, but a really busy nightlife. One of the days I strolled the beach for countless hours, I don't know how many miles I walked. It was a very reflective and solitary day, but one which I enjoyed very much. Not that much to report here though, as I was anxiously awaiting the morning I would leave for the airport.
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| This poor baby turtle never made it to the ocean :( |
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| Amazing place called La Laguna |
Malang
A VERY, VERY delayed flight (5.5 hrs late) and two buses later, I made it to Malang which is a good stop for those interested in visiting mount Bromo. This is by far the cutest hostel I've ever stayed in... Butik Capsule Hostel. The owner was like a father, treating all of his guests like his pre-teen children. It was so sweet. I couldn't stop laughing at his cute decor choices (think: Anime character stuffed animals for each bed).
Barely within MINUTES of my arrival, the owner was on the phone with someone scheduling a mount Bromo pick up. I hadn't even checked in yet, and I was ready to wind down and take it easy the following day - when he handed me the phone to speak to the guide that would later pick some of us up at.....1:00 in the morning. I couldn't believe I spontaneously said yes - I still had all of my bags on me, hadn't checked in, and I was about to leave 6 hours later to hike a giant volcano. I made great friends with two students from a university in Malang, who told me, "OH! But Bromo became active today!! We saw it on the news..." They turned to each other, gave each other a silent look, then back to me again to say,
"good luck."
Turns out it was the perfect day, decision, and by far the greatest highlight of my entire trip so far.
One more thing to mention before my Bromo adventure was my dinner that night after checking in. Something different about Java is that there are far less people who speak english here, and this is also a fully Muslim island. So much so that I felt very uncomfortable exposing my shoulders and any part of my leg. But anyway: Dinner. I walked down the street to this "Warung" (food stand) and the entire menu was in indonesian. I recognized some words but not all, and was craving vegetables and squid. I asked the woman who takes the orders if she speaks English - she laughs and is desperate for her colleague to come over! This begins a very long session of laughs, confusion, and a game of pointing and nodding at other peoples' dish contents. The cooks, all male teenagers, kept laughing and waving hi. Literally no words exchanged, just gestures, gossiping, playing process of elimination - the whole situation was like it was the funniest challenge they had faced all week. And I thought I had ordered squid, but apparently the word I used meant shrimp. A memorable moment...
Now, for the star of the week, :
MOUNT BROMO:
I will remember this day forever. It will go down as one of the most spectacular and extraordinary scenes, sights and experiences of my life. I really can't believe what a surprise I was in for as the entire day kept unfolding...
Pick up was at 1AM. Our group was small, only 6 in a jeep. After an hour or two driving to the base of the Bromo area, it became a dark and steep uphill ride through amazing green landscapes, cliffs, that surrounded us on all sides. The only thing lighting our path through the window of our rickety old jeep was the moonlight - it also happened to be a full moon. I could barely make out that we were passing by amazing villages of farm fields. My ears popped and I couldn't tell if it was the altitude or my fatigue but it was becoming more and more difficult to take in full, deep breaths. We stopped somewhere along the way where we could see in the far distance which majestic hills we had to drive across in order to reach Bromo in the hours ahead.
That's when the real journey felt like it began... it was 3:30AM. We were -- in the true definition of the saying -- in the middle of nowhere. Not a soul, not an animal. Just a dirt road we were following, surrounded by low-cut bushery. Soon the bushery disappeared, and we found ourselves driving through endless fog and mist, on unmarked paths made only by the tire marks of previous jeeps that passed there before us. It just looked like dry, desert land. And we couldn't see anything beyond 15 feet of us. There was no sound, either. From any of us, or anything from outside, besides the keep's engine and rocking motion made by driving across the roughest dirt terrain. It felt like a different world. Where were we?!?! The fog was thick -- I was wowed and baffled by our driver's ability to know where and when to turn on a dirt ground that was so never-ending you felt like you would fall off the edge of the earth soon. Finally, we passed a few other jeeps making the same drive...
After this never-ending terrain, we finally make it up this steep path. I can see the volcano in the distance, thanks to the moonlight. It is so beautiful already, so majestic and powerful, quiet, enormous, I was so struck by its beauty and I instantly thought of papa when he reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro and what he felt there. I had the biggest lump in my throat and thought maybe he was enjoying this glorious sight with me. I knew the best was yet to come...
We finally reached the view point. So many people here already, waiting for dawn and sunrise to reveal this magical place. It was 4:30. We had a long wait to go...
And then suddenly, dawn came... a beautiful, lavender tint took over the landscape, with higher clouds complementing it with a subtle pink from the sun's close arrival above the distant hills. Every moment was magical. And there was, in a moment, emotion misting from my eyes. I could feel papa's company again and his appreciation for such a place, and I was reminded again once more of his Kilimanjaro experience. His emotions reaching Kili were probably what I was feeling but 10 times more intense from its physically taxing distance that this trek did not have. And I thought of him, and felt him, with every slow blink, deep breath, and "wow" that was whispered. And while it sounds cheesy when putting it into words, I placed my hand over my heart and let my eyes fill as he flooded my mind with nature's spectacular beauty over a sea of clouds. There is a picture someone took of me where you can see the glossiness of my eyes...
There is a quote from a woman who did this Bromo hike who I found on afar.com, that perfectly describes this entire moment in words that I wouldn't be able to express any better:
"[...] Waiting for the sunrise hopeful that the clouds would lift and reveal this majestic scenery is probably as close as I'll ever get to the moon. Bundled up in jackets with the smell of grilled corn in the air this moment, filled with nothing but silence and the flashing sounds of fellow photographers, is one of the most majestic one can experience. I remember thinking I would never see anything like this again and mourned instantly hoping that another trip would offer a similar moment in another remote location of Earth. This is a place for travelers who yearn for the moments that reassure us of our conviction. All followed by a jeep ride through the sea of ash and the hike up to the edge of the volcano to make offerings of flowers along narrow ledges of sand into the center of earth..."please let me feel this way again.""
The sun had filled the landscape with warmth now. We made our way down the hill back to our jeep at 6AM to other viewpoints which were just as spectacular.
The clouds hadn't evaporated yet, and wouldn't for a while. By that time it was lunch. In the daylight, the flat, never-ending ground of rough terrain we were on in the middle of the night became even more impressive. It was still msit for miles, and the entire ground was just so interestingly lit up and deserted. I truly felt like I had landed on another planet. Or the moon. Or one of the drought, arid planets from Star Wars. I can't describe it any better than that, and it was so mesmerizing. Also felt like maybe I was in a videogame, ready to take on whatever would come our way through the mist.
The mist, not only making it appear like the ground was endless and vast, also illuminated everything so much. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Then after our lunch break, it was actually time to hike up lord knows how many steps up to Mount Bromo's NEWLY ACTIVE crater. Climbing it was exhausting, with the steepest steps made of soft volcanic ash, cutting the distance of each step you made in half. There were many horses and their owners along the way, happy to pick up hikers who were simply too tired to make the 3km trek by foot.
My friend Misbah (another Malang University student) and I finally make it to the top together. It was pretty scary though, because the rim of the crater was so narrow, barely 3ft wide, with several people on it - so passing by them was very dangerous if people weren't careful. But I was finally able to look in, and look out. Both views were equally breathtaking, moving and surreal. I was mesmerized by the smoke. In all honesty, standing and nervously balancing at the rim of the crater, with HIGH smoke activity, and looking at that death fall, and looking at the other mountain with the endless drop hundreds of feet down -- the whole thing made it beyond one of the most exhilarating hikes and experiences of my life. From the view at sunrise, to the misty surface of the moon/star wars planet, to the hike up to an active volcano's rim, I was high on amazement and, honestly, felt so, completely filled with life.
There were locals on the INSIDE rim of the crater, crazy enough to spend the day there where they had nets to catch peoples' offerings and throw them into the pit - something which happens annually and coincidentally was occurring only on that day. I was lucky to witness it.
It was still scary though. People were pushing, passing each other with senseless movement making it more dangerous for someone to lose their balance and either fall down endless volcanic ash to the base of our climb, or fall down into what can only be compared to the pits of hell.
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| To the left, the hundreds of feet dropping down volcanic ash; to the right, the immediate death drop into the smoking crater hole... |
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| Misbah sitting there - to the left is Mount Batur crater, to the right is where we hiked/came from. |
We also passed by the same villages of farm lands from the middle of the night, but the clouds were so thick we didn't see much.
After such an epic, emotional, and active day, it was no surprise I passed out for a 6 hour snooze when we returned back to the hostel. Only got up to eat some dinner, a soup called Soto Lambugan (cost me $1 USD) with white noodles and a mixture of meats. I left the following morning to take a 7.5 hour train to Yogyakarta...
Where I Am Now
Yogyakarta, which is pretty much the cultural hub to Java as Ubud is to Bali. I just arrived here the night before yesterday, so have only really had a chance to visit a few places including this crazy bird market called Pasty, an amazing water palace called Taman Sari where there is an underground mosque, and one of the most important temples, Prambanan (today - no pic yet), which I enjoyed but thought was less impressive that Cambodia's Angkor Wat.
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| Yes... those are baby chicks dyed different colors... |
I am now more than halfway done with my trip but wow, the day of Bromo alone made this entire 6-week trip worth it. I will remember everything I felt and saw there with deep nostalgia, elation, gratitude, and love.
Until next week, xo
