Volcanoes & temples in Java

From Lovina I took a bemo to Gilimanuk, where ferries leave every 30 mins to Java. In the same bemo was a really nice Javanese dude who lives in Lombok but was on his way to spend a few days with his parents in southern Java. All got also so much easier when you hang out with a local, though in the ferry terminal in Java even he didn't scare off the bullshit speakers. But I made myself proud by ripping off the bemo driver who tried to rip me off :) Everyone paid 5000 rupiahs, from me he wanted 10 000 and I got pissed off and gave him 2000 and just left. Ha! That felt good. I know we are speaking about way less than an euro here but this rip off the white woman business is getting really annoying.

In the bus I met two young british students with whom I ended up traveling for the next days. Nice guys, who didn't speak constantly and traveled the same way than I do. We got to Bromo late in the evening and took a cheap room in a home stay. The next morning alarm clock went on at 2.45 as we wanted to walk to the viewpoint in the opposite mountain to see the sunrise. It was supposed to be a 2 hour walk. We did it in less than an hour. So there we were, freezing for quite a long time before the first sun rays hit the slopes of the volcano. That was so surreal! Well worth the hours or traveling!

From the viewpoint we hiked to the crater of Bromo. Luckily the tourists who had booked a jeep tour (basically all except maybe 10 people) were already leaving so we got the huffing&puffing huge smelly hole basically just for ourselves.

And then it was time to leave. I thought of staying another night and do some hikes in the area but I was freezing the whole time. Everyone was wearing a hoodie or a jacket but I don't have such a luxury with me :( Just a thin long sleeve. Maybe I should have put the wetsuit on.

Again we took a bemo to Probolinggo, then bus to Surabaya and a 8-9 hour bus to Yogyakarta. Took 14 hours traveling to get there. I was really getting tired of sitting in busses. Maybe a bit too much in a few days. We go there at 2 am and took the first hotel who had still doors open. The next day I moved to a smaller&cheaper&nicer home stay and took a look at Yogyakarta. What a lovely town! The best was just to get lost in the backstreets and chat to people there as there they don't wanna sell you anything or drag you to a art shop. 

Photoooo mister!!! Tidak lelaki, saya perempuan!!!

I went to a shop to buy water and was greeted by loud power metal. Hehe. I ended up chatting the cashier boy for quite a long time about music. But immediately when you go near to some tourist attraction all the people who approach you want something from you. Either money or men want to hang out and hope for the best. So annoying. And yes I still know that I have nice tattoos ya!

About tourist attractions. Kraton in Jogja is cheap to visit but also not very interesting. As one of the british dudes said: it kind of looks like a bus station. 

The nearby temple Prambanan and Java's sight nr 1 Borobudur are really impressive and worth the high entrance fees (around 20 dollar). Usually people visit them by organized tours in a minibus, which are actually quite cheap. It doesn't make any sense to go by public busses just to save money as you might save one euro. But I don't like time tables and I also don't wanna listen to what countries people have “done” (argh!!!!) so I made my own way to both places. And if you go first to Prambanan and then to Borobudur, you avoid the huge crowds. All mini&tourist busses visit the sights in opposite order. I had Borobudur almost all to myself, in the afternoon there was only a handful of other people. Here are a few crappy photos as I managed to drop my camera and there's a crack in the mirror inside. Taking photos is quite challenging as they turn much lighter as usually and the display is almost black :(I hope there's a good Olympus doctor in Kuala Lumpur, where I'm heading next. Soon it's beer o'clock with my buddy Cliff.