June 4: Mount Bromo

From Yogyakarta we took a train to Surabaya and then hopped in a taxi to the Mt. Bromo area. 40 dollars and 3 hours later (about 11pm) we arrived at our guest house on the hillside. Between the snoring man down the hall (literally, he sounded like a large mammal) and being sticky sweaty from a lack of shower, we didn't get much sleep and we were up well before the sun at 3am. It was a bit of a scramble but eventually we ended up in a jeep to the view point to watch the sun come up. Even though the rest of the day turned out to be one of the top 5 worst days of travel ever (and we've had some bad ones), the stunning views were worth the trouble. From the view point we ended up in a valley and walked our way up to the top of Mt. Bromo, the smoking volcano. Not sure if climbing to the top of an active-- rumbling and smoking volcano was one of the smartest ideas we've ever had... but everyone else was doing it. There was so much ash down the side it was like climbing straight up on a beach. Even though it only took about 20 minutes, it proved to be a difficult task, but hey, how many people do you know who have climbed an active volcano?