Probolinggo and Mount Bromo: August 2015

Probolinggo Train station.

We took an early train from Yogyakarta to Surabaya to Probolinggo and listened to teen pop videos the whole way. We ate our delicious cocoa buns while enroute, and had lunch at the Surabaya station while waiting for our connection to Probolinggo. When we arrived in Probolinggo, we followed the crowd. Javier had read up on this portion of the trip, and told me that we had to take the yellow taxi to the bus terminal, NOT the tourist office. It was all a little hectic. When we boarded the taxi, we told the guy, “Bus terminal,” he said, “Yes.” There were others crammed in with us, and we were all headed for the same place. When we arrived, the driver told us to get out, and we moved with the crowd. After getting our stuff out of the taxi, and him taking off, Javier looks at me and says, we weren’t supposed to get off here, we were supposed to insist he take us to the terminal. This is what they do. In the hustle and bustle, we had completely forgot.

Taxi to the evil travel agency

The other people in the taxi were saying the same thing as us, but here we were, so we had to deal with it. There was one guy behind a desk talking to a group of tourists about a tour. Once he was done, he started selling seats on his bus to Bromo. We asked how much it was and he quoted us a price. Most of the other people were whispering with their friends, trying to figure out what to do. Javier asked the man if this was the bus terminal, and the man said no. Javier asked where the bus terminal was, and the man said 1km down the road. He was mad that Javier was asking questions. Javier made nice with the man and told him he didn’t mean to offend, and that we would like two seats on his bus. He said, okay. When Javier tried to pay him, he said, “Don’t worry, you can pay when you get on the bus.” So, we waited with everyone else for about an hour for the bus to arrive. When it did, everyone started loading their stuff and getting on. When we tried to put our backpacks in, the guy told us to wait. So we did. The bus was filling, so we tried again, and again, the guy said to wait. The driver was confused and was talking to him, but he just kept brushing him off. Javier started to get adamant. The guy didn’t let us board the bus. As we stood there with our stuff, and the others were all on the bus looking at us, the guy told the driver to leave. The people were telling us that there were open seats and to get on. The driver was telling him to let us on, but he didn’t. We were mad. He said the bus was full and another one was coming and walked away. We just stood there. So I asked Javier to ask the guy when the next bus would come. He said 5 minutes and walked across the street to a couple of his friends, sat on the brick wall and lit up a cigarette. After 10 minutes, we yelled across the street, “It’s been more than 5 minutes, where’s the bus.” Two guys walked over to us, said, “Let’s go,” and told us to put our stuff in a van. In the van, the guys were talking and laughing with each other. Even though we couldn’t understand them, I knew they were talking and laughing at us. So I asked, “Where exactly are we going?” They started laughing even harder and said, “To the bus station!” Those a**holes made us wait with no intention of letting us on the bus, only to take us to the station after it was already dark and all of the buses had already left for the day. 

We waited in this small food stand.

The way these buses work is, they charge per seat. So, unless you want to pay for every seat in the bus, you have to wait for it to fill up. When we arrived, one of the workers told us exactly that. We could wait, or pay for the entire bus. It was already too late. There would be no other people coming tonight. So, we either had to pay for the bus, or find a hotel room for the night, which by the way, we had already looked into previously, and there are no hotel rooms, just crappy guesthouses swarming with bedbugs and rats. It was already past 7pm, and the trip up to Bromo takes over an hour. We looked around, and were probably in one of the most sketchy areas we have ever been in. Even if there was a reliable hotel, there were no taxis to take us there, and walking was out of the question. We talked to the guy some more, who didn’t feel bad for us one bit. As a matter of fact, he just wanted to take advantage of us some more. In the end, he called his buddy who was driving a van from Yogya full of tourists. We could hop in the van, and the ticket was only a couple dollars more than the first jerk we encountered. We took that option and since we had an hour to wait, grabbed some dinner. 

Because your HVAC system plays a significant role in improving the functioning of reproductive organs. cialis wholesale The products are made of natural ingredients that all helpful to overcome the problem of PE. buy tadalafil without prescription It is available in the market in the form of conventional allopathic sildenafil cipla medicines and chemical based cosmetics. Therefore, for such men with viagra samples djpaulkom.tv impotency troubles, going the online way is best suited as this gives them the opportunity to get cured along with being in your modern lifestyle you need to adopt one that can purchased easily.

Finally in the van to our hostel. sadness, frustration and anger.

We did get into the van and was dropped off at our guesthouse, but not before getting into another argument about an entry fee that no one knew we had to pay. Our van sat there for about 15 minutes arguing with the guards. At the guesthouse, we spoke with someone about buses back down the mountain. Originally, we left it open thinking if we liked it, we’d stay a couple days. After this night, we couldn’t wait to get out of there, so we booked tickets down the mountain for the following morning. It was a rough night. By the time we made it to our room, it was already past 10pm, and we needed to wake up by 3:30am the following morning to hike and watch the sunrise. 

Sunrise hike to Mount Bromo, Indonesia

We woke up to a new day, which we both really needed. It was dark for our entire walk, and we could see a few headlamps here and there. Most people visit Bromo via Jeep, very few did the hike. We arrived just in time to the sunrise and watched as it highlighted the volcano and changed colors as the time passed. It was really beautiful. Was it worth the hassle we experienced? I don’t think so, but we were there, and made the best of it. We talked about walking to the base and around the volcano, but both of us were so done with this place, we just walked back to the guesthouse, ate breakfast and took a short nap until our minibus arrived to drive us back down. 

Once back in Probolinggo, we waited for our bus to arrive to take us all the way to Bali, which ended up being another disaster. 

Mount Bromo, Indonesia

It’s really too bad. I had such high hopes for Indonesia. I told Javier that had we not already purchased airfare to Australia, I would leave Indonesia immediately. He agreed. While Yogya wasn’t amazing, and least it wasn’t unpleasant. This last experience left such a bad taste in our mouth. It’s safe to say we will not be returning, ever. Let’s hope Bali is better.

To see more pictures of Indonesia, click HERE.