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I'm an Englishman In Singapore!
Chinese New year arrived and that meant 2.5 days off work (plus the weekend) so there was no way I was spending it in Singapore. Seeing that my sister was still here, this was a great chance for her to see somewhere new, so we did just that. For this particular trip we headed to East Java, Indonesia, to check out one of the volcanoes there - Mount Bromo.
We arrived mid afternoon on the friday and was promptly taken to our mountain retreat which was 3-4 hours away. This was Kirsten's (my sister) first trip to Asia and being that her first experience so far was Singapore, this trip may come as a bit of a shock. "What do you think" I said, as we drove along the never ending freeway, "Its very run down and dirty, isn't it?" "Welcome to the real Asia" I replied….. Until now, she had only seen Fasia (fake Asia), which is Singapore. glitzy, clean, safe…..not what I call Asia at all. Anyhow, she soon got used to it and settled in nicely. After about 4 hours, we reached our destination. It was situated in the mountains to the east and it was stunning. The surroundings were like something out of a picture book, simply beautiful. The hotel itself was great, not what we expected to see so deep into the mountains. It had everything you could ask for, nice rooms, spacious grounds, restaurant and an art gallery……random but cool. The plan was that we were going to go up to the top of Mt Bromo the next day. This particular excursion, as it were, meant a 3am wake up, leave at 3:30am……you can imagine the reaction to that. 3am came round before we knew it and there we were, getting dressed with eyes more or less shut, out the door and off. To add insult to injury, it was pouring it down with rain and of course it was pitch black. Our first stop was to the sunrise look out point about 8km from the mountain (2700m high). Unfortunately, due to the rain and low clouds we saw nothing at all, which was quite a shame. I had seen photos that had been taken from this point and they look unreal, almost like a scene from the moon (please go and google it or see blog cover photo for example), but this time it wasn't meant to be. Considering the failed sunrise, the packed to the brim look out area was in quite good spirits, every time the sun peaked through the clouds, everyone would cheer, then 3 seconds later it goes back in and everyone groaned and laughed, what to do huh! Following our failed sunrise bid, we headed down and onwards to the big one, Mt Bromo. Its hard to describe what you see when you first approach the area but its like something from outer space, it really is. There is this expanse of flat land which has been created over the years by the falling ash and flowing lava and there is nothing else in sight apart from the volcanoes, it really was great. As we approached Bromo we could then get an idea of its scale. It was big and very smelly (the gas from inside was most evil smelling off eggs you could imagine). To get to it you had to first walk across the ash sea, then through a maze of crevasses before you got to the foot of the volcano. You can see from my pictures just what I mean. Once you get to the foot, you are then met by a few hundred steps. To be honest, I pictured myself scaling the side of this thing, risking life and limb to reach the summit, instead, steps…..great! So, we climbed the magnificent steps (ya right, magnificent) which were packed full of people (tourists) and eventually reached the top…..this was where I decided to go off piste. At the top there is a concrete platform that has a barrier for safety. Most people tended to stay here and take the boring picture of themselves pushed up against the barrier, but I wanted more, I didn't come all this way for that. At this point, I asked Kirsten if she fancied venturing off to the other side, but she declined and said she would wait for me…..so off I went. Far away I could see a few people climbing along the ridge of the crater, thats exactly where I wanted to be. As I approached the "forbidden" land, with the sounds of the smoking beast beside me, I could see that I would have to tread carefully. The soil underfoot was all compacted ash and it was like walking on wet sand so I had to watch where I was walking. Once I reached the point that seemed far enough away from tourist central and only 1 or 2 others were around me (and mad enough?) I roped someone in to take a photo of me. Its hard to describe just how big this thing was, the slope down into the mouth of it was so steep, I couldn't imagine how you'd get out if you fell into it, either way, I got my fix and returned to my sister. After our excursion we returned back and scoffed food until we couldn't move and then relaxed for the day. I have to say, I was really proud of my sister for doing it. It was her first trip like that and considering we encountered a few things that she does not exactly like, she did fantastically well to overcome them and reach the top, so well done her. Strangely enough, another volcano in Indonesia erupted over the weekend, killing 14 (Indonesia has 130 ACTIVE volcanoes), it just goes to show how powerful and unpredictable mother nature is. And Mum, I know you are reading this….that volcano wasn't anywhere near us :-) Hope everyone at home is ok and that the rain and cold is too depressing? Take care, Daniel Grills x- comments