24.10.11
We had spent quite a while debating on how we were going to get to Lombok. We
knew it would probably be cheapest to do it ourselves; booking each indivdual
bus journey seperately and directly from the bus station. But we knew this
would take more time and organisation. We also read that in Bali in particular
it was easy to get ripped off and there arelots of places posing as 'official' ticket
vendors etc. We'd also read that Perama were a very trustworthy company and had
a established website etc. Even though it was probably a bit more expensive,it was
also convenient because we could book it all in one go etc. So we had organised
a shuttle bus to Cemaro lewang, 1 nights accomodation there to see Mt Bromo then
a shuttle bus to Denpasar. From Denpasar we had arranged a shuttle with Perama
to Kuta, Lombok including the ferry.
So we began!
Today we made the long journey to the crater of Mount Bromo, leg 1 of the journey!
The minibus picked us up at 8am.
It seemed to take forever to get out of Jogja, picking up 5 holidaying
Indonesians along the way. Two hours in we began to relax and spread ourselves
across seats trying to get comfortable for the rest of the 9-11 hour journey we
had left, from central to eastern Java. But we must have jinxed it because 20
minutes later we pulled in to a hotel. There we picked up 5 very lovely ladies,
4 from France and 1 from Montreal. These ladies were on a 3 week trip, doing a
similar journey to us. One of the ladies, Martina, was sat next to Martin and
began chatting to us. She started off cautiously, speaking English to us. As the
journey went on she began to get more and more confident. Martin also started to
speak a little French to her. By the end of the day she was speaking rapid French
to us and Martin was suprising himself by mostly understanding and speaking French
back to her. I was very impressed! I, on the otherhand, was struggling to keep up
and not quite confident enough speaking, apart from the odd sentence or two. I
always find it frustrating that we meet the majority of people while on a journey because
it means I find it difficult to take part in conversations properly, as I have to
concentrate on the road ahead so I don't get sick. But it's nice to be able to
listen to others and join in occasionally!
The mini-bus was now completely full and felt quite cramped. 2 of the French ladies
were sat in the 1 and half seats in the front, which must have been very uncomfortable.
We were all suffering from numb-bum syndrome and the airconditioning wasn't working
so we were very happy when we pulled in for lunch about 5 hours in. Our Nasi Gorengs
(fried noodles with veg, egg and chicken; served with prawn crackers) weren't up to
much but at least we got to stretch our legs!
We arrived in Probillingo about 7.30pm. Where we all piled off the mini-bus and were
given our itineraries for the next day. We then all got on a different bus to be
taken to our accomodation in or near Cemora Lewang, between 1 and 2km from the
crater of our volcano. Unfortunately it was dark so we couldn't get our bearings
or enjoy the fantastic scenery as we climbed in to the mountains and through
the villages. This time I was in the 'death' seat which was probably a good thing
but quite scary, as we wound round and round!
An hour and a half later we arrived at our accomodation Sion view, which was pretty basic.
The plan was to get dinner asap and get to bed asap as it was nearly 10pm and we were
getting picked up at 3.30am to go and see the sunrise over Mount Bromo. On the way
out of our room we got chatting to Willem, from Holland who was travelling with
his friend, so we joined them for dinner at Yoshi's, along with a French
couple, Charlotte and Pierre. We all ordered our food together, 20 minutes later
everyones food arrived apart from mine and Martin's. Another 20 minutes later and
everyone had finished and our food hadn't arrived. When we asked they said of course
it's coming. 5 minutes later, Martin's mediocre soup arrived. We waited a few minutes,
still no food for me! I asked again, they'd obviously forgotten because another 15
minutes later and my food finally arrived!! So much for getting to bed quickly! And of
course when I pointed the problem out to them they didn't really see it as too much of
a problem!
However it was a really nice evening, chatting to our companions.
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