From Bromo to Jogjya

I am still recovering from my long trip from Probolingo Kabupaten a small town from which one take the trip up to the Bromo volcanic area. I arrived here by my final mode of transportation which was a motorcycle from the bus station to the hotel and it cost me 20000 R. I arrived at the bus station having taken a two hour ride on a slow bus from Sol to Yogjyakarta which had cost me 10000R, half the price of the ten minutes ride on the motor cycle and I suppose i could have argued the price had I wanted to but why deprive the man a few buck just so you can claim you got it cheap? The bus ride from Solo was in itself as I had expected filled will pleasant surprises and one of them was having two or three young entertainers boarding the bus at every stop and entertaining you for a handout. These guys were quite entertaining and some pretty talented considering they used mostly home made instruments. For a donation of five ruppiah for three guys it was nothing when you consider that they were making an effort at earning their daily bread rather than begging or stealing. I feel sad and at the same time envious of those who are struggling to make it in this life and i dread to think that any of this could be my case scenario but for the grace of my Maker. There was a sense of acceptance in their faces most of these street musicians and they seemed to find a sense of joy in what they do accepting the fact there were times that not one of the passengers paind a single Rupiah for their performances, perhaps not all could afford it either.
I stayed a a cheap hotel in Solo after being dropped off by Tony and his companion after they had taken me for dinner at one of the best Padang Food restaurant in the Solo area the evening before. However "Nasi Padang" restaurant dishes numerous as they may seem has began to taste the same for me all over the country wherever they are found, not bad but there is no more surprises. Tony enjoys eating one can tell and is picky where he eats and so being with him means getting a taste of the best in town. I dropped by Solo to bid him my final farewell as I will be leaving for Malaysia tomorrow. Solo happens to be located along the route to Yogja from Probolingo and it was well worth the xtra one hundred and fifty for the hotel and bus to also be able to take a slow 'becak' ride through town and making pit stops at the two large Solo markets.
The market like most Asian markets everywhere was bustling with the morning shoppers and filled will all kinds of kitchen needs with some you never find anywhere else. I enjoy visiting the produce markets wheerever i travel as it is the one place where you can find people going about their daily lives at its primal stage of buying food for the day. Markets also gives me and intimate feeling of being a aprt of the community where you rub shoulders with the local folks and be able to enjoy sights and scenes and smells one normally cannot find anywhere else. All kinds of products from the region will find their way to the common market and the price most relatively alot cheaper. I bought a pair of batik bermuda shorts for 20000 but could have got away with fifteen as told by the elderly lady selling close by. I just dont haggle well and twenty rupiah was cheap by my standard.
The ride from Probolingo was in a passenger van together with a young European couple and an Indonesian boy and a girl I sat in the front sit. I got to talking to the driver and learned how much he makes driving for ten hours or more a trip... very little. He talked about farming instead if and when he gets the chance and i told him a very good idea, independant and less headaches especially from the crazy traffic he has to deal with. The sun setting at one point was along the way was so mesmerizing that I had him stop by the roadside to take a few shots. The scene was made to order postcard scene where the evening skies lit up in full glory against the distant mountain in the horizan and the foreground or flate rice fields. If the shots are okay it would be a perfect picture of the day. As most of the long ride was pretty monotonous displaying litlle worthwhile roadside attractions I spent most of the ride reading Nietche's Thus Spoke Zarasthustra a book that was given to me by Mike from Sweden. The book for most of it was hard to digest but I had heard much about it before while in college and so now that i had it as my travelling companion i tried to make some sense out of the novel, either that or suffer the tedium of a long and dreary ride.
When Anton, Michael and I arrived at the Cemara Hotel at the top of the Bromo Mountain site it was already dark and we had to immediately rent ourselves a winter jacket each for it was freezing cold and almost reminded me of my chilly nights in Wisconsin, USA. We had dinner and were settled down for the night soon for we were told that wake up call was at three thrity in the morning if we were to catch the sunrise at the top of the mountain. Waking up int the dark later we were hauled into the back of a jeep and along with three other travellers two of whom were Spanish and one from California we set about driving up the steep slope to the top of the mountain and by the time we reacxhed the summit it was light but the sun had not appeared yet. Walking to the viewing area we joined many other sunrise worshippers all set and ready with all makes of cameras, flahses were already in the air as most got excited and impatient trying to capture the volcanic panorama set before them.
As the sun began to show her morning colors and revealed the lanscape then i was moved by what awesome beauty lay before me and all that arduous travelling abd cold melted from my memory and only the greatness of creation itself held my mind. Yes i too got real excited and started shooting off Leekhai's camera left and right but deep in my heart i know that what i fwelt there and then can never be shared in its totatlity, one just has to be be there and feel the personal touch. The couldron that lay immeidately before us like a huge bucket of steaming hot water kept throwing out steam like vapors, and in the background further an tall perfect cone stood spewing out mud colored column of cloud into the sky every ten minutes or so. As this column gats scattered by the wind a new coulumn is spewed into the sky to replace it like clockwork.
Later we were driven down to the base of the open cauldron where after a short walk and a steep clim of stairs we were able to see and smell and taste the sulphur that was continously filling up the air around the mouth of the once erupted volcano. It the walk was too much to handle there were ponies for hire to take you there and back from where the jeeps were parked. Again these transportation providers were just as persistant as most of the souviniers vendors one will find anywhere one visit and it can drive you up the walls if not the volcano itself. And again it is just life, someone trying his of her dmandest to make a living out of what was rightfully theirs.
My two newfound friends Michael and Anton left for Bali after we came back down from the Bromo mountian viewing site. I was sad to see them leave on the bus bound for Bali but very happy for them as I am sure they will have a great time in Bali. Michael gave me a book by Fredrick Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra and promised to start doing meditation as i had asked him to. Both these Swedes are still in college and are on vacation and were staying at the Ary's Hotel here in Yogjya. I hope someday our path will cross again in years to come and maybe see where the path has taken us since.