...totally awesome. It took us around two hours of uphill scrambling to get to the viewpoint on Mount Penanjakan (2770m) but it was so worth it.
Its fun to stay at the...
View into the Tengger Caldera which measures around 10km in diameter. In front you can see Mount Batok (2440m), to the left smoking Mount Bromo (2329m) and in the background Mount Semeru which is Javas highest mountain with 3676m. It erupts a cloud of smoke every 20 minutes.
Crossing the "sea of sand" to climb Mount Bromo
On the way back to Cemero Lawang
view into the crater of Mount Bromo
That night we took a Bemo from Cemera Lawang back to Probolingo and from there an overnight Minibus to Yogjakarta in Central Java which took another 9 hours. We got there at 4.30 in the morning and fortunately we found a hotel that let us check in that early so we could catch another few hours of sleep.
Taking a rickshaw to go sightseeing in Yogja. In the 2nd rickshaw you can see Paul sitting next to Ecki. We met him on the bus from Probolingo to Yogja, he is Canadian and did most of our trips in Yogja together with us. Downtown Yogja doesn't really have that many things to see but still I would say that so far it was my favorite city in Indonesia. People there seem to be more relaxed than in other places and the overall atmosphere is somehow pleasant... it's hard to describe. What we did most in the city was shopping for all kinds of stuff. I bought a sarong, "original" adidas sunglasses (1,40€) and some pretty awesome batik pants for myself and some presents for friends and relatives. We also tried some of the local cuisine and all of us found Nasi Gudeg (Rice with Jackfruit) particularly tasty.
A rickshaw is a useful tool for transporting all kinds of stuff.
Westerners seem to be a real attraction for Indonesians... we were asked or sometimes even dragged to be in so many photos.
Yep...
I finally started growing a beard.
On the next day we hired a Bemo with drive to take us around the sights outside of Yogja. This is Borobudur temple, which is often called the Angkor Wat of Indonesia. It is a huge Buddhist temple that was built in the 9th century, later completely buried by ashes from the close Merapi Volcano and only rediscovered sometime in the 19th century. The temple itself is pretty impressive although I had imagined it a little bigger from what I had heard about it before.
Malin (who is visiting from Bonn right now) in front of some of the really impressive and detailed reliefs showcasing buddhist legends. The lower walls of the temple are completely covered in these.
Posing on the "roof" of Borobudur.
Prambanan, a Hindu temple from the 10th century just outside Yogja. You cant really see it in this picture, but an earthquake in 2006 damaged this temple very badly.
Some damage from the quake...
and even more damage... it's such a pity because the temple in its original state must have been so much more impressive than it is now.
After our three days in Yogja we took an overnight bus back to Bali which meant another 21 hours of travelling. Overall a fantastic but also very straining trip. Now back in Bali things have gone back to normal. University, beach, surf, pool, food, laziness...
