Bromo in the morning

It was time for us to leave yogyakarta, and not by foot, bike or train, no we shared the famous "mini-bus". Together with Nigel, Ruben and other people we had a day of driving ahead of us. It was a day mostly spend talking and in amazement of the driving skills of the chauffeur. Everybody was to slow for him, but he managed to deliver us to the drop on point on-time.

The rest of the passangers included Jasper van Ham and his girlfriend (damn we don't remember her name) and a frensh couple who were scared to hell by the traffic.

This is where the postcard pictures are made

We were driven up the mountain while it was already dark and slept at the lava-cave hotel where we had, as the brochure told us, "hot" water. The water was hot already, but it didn't mention the amount. Since it was only a small stream. For Yvette it was necessary though, since the height up the mountain made sure it was pretty cold (for indonesian standards). People were even selling "mutsen" outside our hotel.

The next morning we had to wake up at 3:30!!! This is normal indonesian time, but for us dutchies quite heavy. Our 4WD was ready to go, so we only had to wake Nigel and Ruben to start leaving!!

We arrived around 5 o'clock at the bromo-view point, waiting in anticipation we did not really know what to expect. Sadly it was more touristic then we expected :( but, standing in front of everybody we did not really care ;).

Slowly the magnificant view was revealed before us, and stunned by the beautiful out-of-this-world view Yvette shot our whole camera full with pictures (JK). After watching for about an hour and waiting for the exploding crater in vain, we got back in the van and drove to Bromo itself. Here we got out for a little hike to one of the craters.

We were dropped in a big dessert-like environment full with nomadic-look-a-likes who had horses with them. It was tempting (at least for Yvette) to jump on a horse, but we decided to walk to the top.

Here we were treated to yet another beautiful view, this looked like everything we had seen from the himalaya :). The only real shame is that the ever-present garbage in indonesia was also present in the crater itself :(...

After the hour walk we were stunned by the sheer beauty, got back to the hotel for breakfast and had to jump on the shuttle-bus again to get to Ijen crater, which was still a long way... could that ever beat this sight??