One Bad Cup Of Java

Sean walking across the Sea of Sand on the way to Bromo
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This is a longish entry, but here's a quick summary:

Mt Bromo = excellent

Sean suggested that they beat the crap out of him

Mahkota Travel = evil

The dreaded stairs
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For the story, read on...

Welcome to Probolinggo, the supposed "Investment City" and our pick for the a-hole of Java. Ok, that sounds a tad bitter but we didn't have the greatest experience. The day started kind of well, the bus dropped us off at 3:30am, down the street from the bus terminal. We wanted to go to Bromo and set off to the terminal to organise a way there. We were constantly harassed by pedicabs (ojek) telling us the terminal was 7km away, when it was really 500m. They followed us until we hit an open travel agent near the terminal, called Mahkota Travel. "What luck!" we thought and popped in to get things sorted. We ended up paying out Rp330,000 for getting to and from Bromo (Mahkota Travel minibus) and a tourist bus to Yogya.

Look - 2 Kiwis, a kea and a steaming volcano
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Our first inkling that something was wrong happened when instead of a minibus, a bemo turned up, then during the 2 hours to Bromo, proceeded to pick up 23 other people (total = 25 in one van). People were hanging off the side of the van and crammed in every which way. The drive did afford us spectacular views as we climbed the crater rim.

We were dropped outside a hotel (Cemara Indah) right on the crater's edge, where we stowed our bags for Rp5,000 and had a cheap breakfast. The owner conned us into paying Rp20,000 for the park entry (meant to be Rp6,000, and even then people generally didn't have to pay it) and pointed us down an unofficial, crappy track. We were convinced because he had official looking tickets printed

See. It really is steaming
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The walk to Mt Bromo and the mountain itself proved to be awesome! Rotorua can't compete with this one. The guide book said that it took an hour to reach the stairs across the Sea of Sand (very alien-like), then 30 min to climb 240 very steep steps, but unless you are incredibly unfit and suffer a few heart attacks on the way, it'll take half the time. Click here for a video of Mt Bromo.

The stairs (again) but with horses and a temple in the background
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Bromo blew it's top a while ago but still steams away, menacing the surrounding area. We had timed it just right because as we headed down, the clouds rolled in, completely obscuring the view. On our way down we met Silja and Breet - aka "The Estonians". We passed on to them that we got a good deal on an overnight bus to Yogya (Rp125,000). Their hotel had quoted Rp175,000 so they booked through Cemara Indah.

We chatted with The Estonians, sorted out some food and met The Brits. We all ended up on Mahkota's special minibus (i.e. the public bemo - should cost Rp15,000pp). Another awesome and hair-raising two hours brought us back to Probolinggo. We only had to be at the travel agent at 7:30pm to get the bus but ended up there at 5:30pm.

Phew... made there and back before the clouds!
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The hours ticked away and we think that we convinced The Estonians to move to NZ :-) Finally the clock struck eight, but no bus. We knew it was Indonesian so we weren't too concerned. The Brits were off to Denpasar on another bus and were whisked away on ojeks to meet it. With The Estonians, we waited and waited, then waited some more. The Mahkota Travel owner never returned, and we were really wondering what was up. We rang both numbers for Mahkota Travel ("This number has not been assigned") and the Cemara Indah. Because The Estonians had paid at the hotel, their booking was moved on to another bus, but we were left to hang.

It was about 11pm by now so we wandered off to find a place to rest for the night, and happened to bump into The Brits. They'd been standing on the roadside with no shelter for three hours and it had been bucketing down earlier. Understandably pissed off, we threatened a Mahkota Travel guy with the cops before heading to bed at 12am! By the way, Bromo View Hotel (where we stayed for the night) is crap - Rp70,000 for a bollocks room, no sink, a mandi (usually a hot shower is present when you pay Rp50,000 or more), an average breakfast and bad security (Simon spotted a guy peering under our doors...dodgy!). At this stage we were exhausted and were asleep before our heads touched the pillow.

Up at 7am we made a beeline for the police; once breakfast was done, of course. They tracked down the owner of Mahkota Travel but the most they could do was arrest him for lying and it would be only for 24 hours. Sean suggested that they beat the crap out of him. After much arguing (Adrienne was so angry her hands were shaking), The Brits got a little more than half their money back (a new bus had been booked without consulting any of us, and The Brits had already booked a new one for themselves), and we were put on a new bus. Our hotel costs were also reimbursed. Too bad we didn't think earlier of saying our rooms cost Rp100,000!

Mahkota Travel still managed to rip us off in the end because the bus wasn't the tourist bus (as promised) but a local express and we found out that it cost us about double what it should have.  We'll go to the bus terminal next time.  Ironically though, the express turned out to be one of the more comfortable buses we'd been in.