Cemoro Lawang - Java, Indonesia (countless jokes about the town name)

Arrival: 05/31/2009

Departure: 06/01/2009

Sight Seeing: Gunung Bromo (active volcano)

People: Decent

Food: Poor

Accommodations: Horrible... worse than a scary movie set.

Pictures: Pictures of Indonesia

Summary: Getting to the top of Gunung Bromo was quite a journey - from overnight buses, to hiking the 2329m volcano - but the views at the top were amazing.

Details: An overnight bus dropped us off in Probolinggo at 2am right in front of a tourist company. They proceeded to try and rip us off with volcano tour packages. After analyzing our options, we opted to be taken to the city where you start your hike up the volcano called Cemoro Lawang. The journey was not too bad considering we had almost a full bottle of Arak (a locally coconut fermented alcohol). By the time we arrived in Cemoro Lawang, the party continued until about 5am when we finally decided to catch some Z's. The next morning we talked around the local villages admiring their agriculture sometimes a little too close where we were walking through their fields trying to navigate back to the main road. I'm just glad firearms are illegal in Indonesia. The next morning we decided to start our hike at 4:15am to the top of Gunung Bromo to see the volcano at sunrise. Actually hiking the volcano was pretty easy, getting to the start of the trail was the hard part. Getting to the trail head consisted of us walking through clouds of fog across a foreign moon like field of black sand and lava rocks. Pretty trippy. But like I said, when you get to the top, it's all worth it. Luckily for us, the fog decided to part just long enough for us to enjoy the views and snap some pictures.