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Peter & Lucys world adventure
Friday the 2nd March we set off at 8.30am from Yogyakarta on a long minibus journey. Our final destination was the village of Cemoro Lawang near the volcanic mountain of Bromo. The minibus journey was a long 10 hour trip. Luckily it was a very comfy bus with plenty of leg room and reclining seats. Also only 6 of us were on this bus so it was very spacious. We stopped a couple of times for snacks and some lunch. Peter fancied an ice cream so politely asked the driver if he could stop the next time we went past somewhere that sells ice cream. The driver kindly did stop for us and Peter went in and got us both Magnums... Peter having the classic and Lucy the chocolate truffle mmmmmm. Lucy normally gets the Cappucino version but unfortunately Peter couldn't find them at this particular store. Not that we have them all the time haha. Whilst Peter was in the shop Lucy was talking to Celine Dion on the bus, she told Lucy she never eats ice cream because it apparently gives you the runs.... And yes the lady was called Celine Dion, as Peter had noticed it on their name tag on their luggage. We finally reached the town of Probolingo around 7.30pm. By this time we were shattered... and we had to change vehicles. Basically from a nice minibus to a terrible minibus which was very loud and smoky. This minibus took us on the last leg of our trip to the high village of Cemoro Lawang. Arriving at our hotel around 9.30pm we went straight to our rooms and to bed. Our alarm sounded at 3.30AM.... bloody great! We got up and put our layers on as we were quite high in the mountains and the temperatures were abit colder. You are probably thinking why the hell were we getting up at that daft hour... well, the plan was to get a jeep up Penanjakan mountain (2770m) to a view point where we could see mount Bromo and in the distance Java's largest mountain, the fume belching Mount Semuru (3676m), then later go to Mount Bromo in the jeep and climb up it. In the end we could of probably stayed in bed abit longer... the jeep didn't show up until 4.15am and from the view point we couldn't see hardly anything due to the fog and clouds. Oh well you can't win them all, we are in Indonesia in the rainy season so we shouldn't complain. From where the jeeps dropped everyone off we all had about a 15 minute hike up the hill to the viewpoint. Unless you paid for a horse to take you up there for a small fee. The Dion's got ripped off... HAHA. They paid 100,000 ruppiah each to go up on a horse.... most people only paid around 30,000! The idiots didn't even think about bargaining them down. Also the horses didn't take them all the way as the last 5 minutes is up steps. Unfortunately the sight of watching these small horses carrying people up and down the mountain was not a nice one. They were only small horses and were carrying some quite heavy people on steep slopes. They didn't look well looked after at all and we found it quite harsh on them to be honest. So after the disappointment of the view point it was back into the jeep and off to Mount Bromo itself. Mount Bromo is a quite active volcano and it last erupted in 2009. From where the jeep dropped us off to the top off Bromo was abit of a trek which took around 30 minutes each way. Celine Dion and another older gentleman decided to stay at the jeep as they didn't feel they could walk so far. They could of hired another horse here to take them up to near the top to actually see something this time but declined, probably too skint after being ripped off earlier.... abit of a pointless trip for them we personally think. So 4 of us from our jeep went up Bromo together, Marcel (Celine's husband) and Andy (lad from London). On the way we passed a hindu temple which is apparently only open for religious ceremonies. Abit of a weird location at the foot of Bromo and the neighbouring peak of Batok. After trekking uphill alongside horses and their annoying owners we finally reached some steps which we had to climb to reach the top of the crater... 253 of the stupid bloody steps. Think our legs were still a little achy from Mt Kinabalu! When we eventually reached the top, the view down into the Bromo was quite awesome. Don't think either of us have ever seen a volcano before now. It was abit of a drop down into the volcano and we had to be careful when walking around on top. Lucy hadn't known what to expect when we got there.... unfortunately or fortunately we didn't see any flowing lava bubbling about! Looking out from the top its a lunaresque landscape. On the way back down to the jeep we saw a horse foaming alot at the mouth... we thought thats abit strange. Then we saw something hilarious.... the size of his you know what.... it was MASSIVE!!! Hahaha. We later returned to the jeep which took us back to our hotel where we had a lovely breakfast consisting of flavoured rice, noodles, omelettes and a delicious cucumber & carrot salad in some kind of vinegarette. We then headed for a warm shower each before getting ready to be picked up at 10am to leave. 9.30am theres knocking on the door.... our minibus was early and we were the first to be picked up. Before Lucy had even finished getting ready the cleaners were trying to come in, the inpatient gits. We then got in the horrible minibus which had brought us. After picking everyone up there were 16 of us crammed into it. (probably only enough room for about 10-12 people at most). Don't think the driver had ever had a driving lesson... don't remember him leaving 1st or 2nd gear for whole journey. We then patiently waited around at the tour office in Probolingo where we were waiting for the public bus to Denpasar in Bali. We finally got picked up at 1pm... we had been told 11.45am! It was then a very long day on the coach. We also had to get on a ferry to cross from Java to Bali. That was quite an annoying hour or so as they blarred out some horrible asian dance music. Then the coach continued in Bali to the capital called Denpasar. We had planned to go Kuta after arriving in Denpasar but changed our minds as we didn't arrive at the bus terminal there until after midnight. So we and Andy went and found some accomodation near the bus station. It took some time as everywhere was strangely full and they weren't the nicest streets to be walking around at that time on a saturday night. We basically just slept there then left around 10 the next day, saying goodbye to Andy as he was heading elsewhere while we got a bemo directly to Ubud. Forgot to mention that while we were on the coach in Java Lucy spotted a naked man just strolling down the street with his bits hanging out everywhere!
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peter website being gay and not allowing paragraghs after we've put them in