After one last delicious breakfast at the hostel, I settled in on am 11 hour bus to Cemoro Lawang, where the famous Mt. Bromo is. I had extra leg room! It was a great start to the day.
It was a beautiful clear day, which has been rare on this trip. Right as we pulled onto the highway, I saw in a distance the impressive silhouette of Mt. Merapi, the most active volcano in the country, if not the world. A couple days ago Jinder and I hired a car and had tried to go see it from the village right below, but it was so overcast that we were basically walking in clouds and saw nothing. Today I am seeing it from miles away! Lucky me. I tried to take a picture of it from the vanbus, but you can't see it too well - can you catch the smoke coming out the top? Pretty cool stuff!
The journey took us through beautiful rice fields with farmers hard at work, and small villages where women were busy spreading harvested grains out in front of their houses, probably too get some sun.
I looked out the window at this simple but difficult village life the entire ride, and the whole time I could hear my mother's voice, explaining to me what they were doing because she's been through similar experiences.
People always say that traveling gives you perspective. For some, driving through the Indonesian countryside will help them see how different the lives and conditions are here, yet how content, humble, and hard working they are daily, which will help them to really appreciate the things we've been taking for granted. For me, I've also realized how narrowly I escaped that life, how lucky I am to have such hardworking parents who in one generation, managed to bridge that gap and give me all the opportunities in the world. I simply cannot wait to start medical school, and to be the best I can be.
Enough serious talk, let's get to why I'm now sitting in bed shivering, wishing I were home instead.
So of the bus ride was longer tab advertised - 14 hours instead of 11. And that's a long time to be crammed in a van, so when I got off at the tour agency with the rest of the group, I was in no mood to put up with their bullshit. I'll explain the reason for this tomorrow, but I only paid for transportation to Cemoro Lawang, the village at the base of Mt. Bromo, and did not include lodging, guide, jeep rentals, etc. for the next day - I wanted to do all of the hiking and stuff on my own, after doing some research and talking to many people who've done it.
But this tour agency guy would not leave me alone, and kept insisting I will not be able to hike the route I wanted to hike, that it's impossible and difficult, that I should definitely buy the entrance ticket from him (it's cheaper he said), that all the hotels nearby would be booked in the village unless I go through him. All bullshit.
But he became very rude when I bluntly rejected, and started attacking my intelligence and nationality personally. But anyway, I got away and hopped back in the vanbus. At this point it was 10pm, and we had one more hour to the village.
Luckily (or so I thought at the time), I got the front seat this time and the vanbus driver started chatting me up. He gave me some good tips on hiking Bromo solo, and said he can take me to his friend's homestay right near the base of the mountain - it's cheaper than the hotels, he said. Cool. Then he also showed me a picture of his wife and said I looked like her. Little weird, but ok, should be flattered I guess.
So then he starts dropping everyone off at their hostels, until I was the last one left. I was so tired and my cold had been getting worse. It was also pretty cold in the mountains. So he really caught me off guard when he pulled up in front of the homestay, reached over and grabbed me and said "kiss kiss?"
No.
"How about you come with me tonight?"
Dude. Literally JUST showed me your wife. Not cool.
So anyway, now thankfully I'm in this homestay, probably paid too much for it but I just wanted the bus driver out the house, and it's freaking cold, probably because I'm really getting sick. I packed for the tropics so the best thing I have is a maxi skirt, so I wrapped myself in it.
Good news though: I got me a king sized bed private room. MY OWN SPACE! I could leave the light on UNTIL I SLEEP!
AND there's freaking 4G data on the edge of a fucking volcano, so that I can post this!
So yeah, I'm going to pass out now and not set an alarm. Luxury. Hopefully sleep will heal this cold. Cuz right now I can't breathe and I'm planning to hike a lot tomorrow.
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