I
had planned this trip way back in February 2013 and had asked my colleagues who
travelled to Egypt to come along. They had, however, assumed that I would be
fine with them inviting their own friends along. I don’t really like to travel
in a big group and told them so (I had no choice but to join large tour groups
when I went to Beijing, Shanghai and Guilin recently - because I absolutely
hate having to wait for the whole bus to be ready before continuing on our
journey). I had already bought tickets for the three of us for the trip in
mid-September and also booked accommodation but when they forwarded their
friends’ air tickets to me, I put my foot down and told them I wasn’t happy. I
was angry at their presumptuousness and they riled me further by telling me
that I did not need to do further arrangements for them as they would be doing
their own ground transportation, essentially casting me aside. I was so furious
I bought another ticket (and burnt my earlier ticket) and re-booked my
accommodation again (I had paid for them in advance too).
Anyway.
The long story short, I didn’t travel with them in mid-September and went to
Guilin instead. But I had some problem trying to find a travel partner until ZS
agreed to come with me.
Saturday,
2 November 2013
An
early start today. Abah dropped me at De Palma Hotel where I performed prayers
before boarding the bus and then the LRT to KL Sentral. Took the 0700 bus to
LCCT (MAS no longer flies there) and arrived after an hour. Went in after
repacking and sorting our liquid, aerosol and gel (LAG) items and waited to
board. The flight took off 15 minutes later than scheduled but we landed on
time. We cleared immigration quickly but I was held up by the custom officers
after they saw the x-ray of my bag, specifically my Converse shoes. So I had to
open my bag and bear with them while they sifted through my things and slowly
losing my patience over their stupid questions: ‘Oh, you’re going to Mount
Bromo? Where are your warm clothes then? It’s cold up there’, (showed them my
jacket); ‘What is this (while lifting my novel)? A book?’ (no, a huge bar of
chocolates. You dolt). ‘Where do you work? Is this your first time to
Indonesia?’ to which I responded sharply. No, this isn’t my first time
(although it may be my first and last time to Surabaya) and ‘I’ve been to
Jakarta six times.’ I even asked if one wasn’t allowed to bring in shoes in
their bags into Indonesia and what the problem was. ‘Just a routine check.’
Bloody routine check my foot.
We
were finally cleared to go and I fumed out, expecting to find the pre-arranged
driver to be waiting outside. No such luck. We were instead approached by
various men offering us SIM cards and taxi rides. We waited and waited and
finally I couldn’t stand it anymore and asked ZS to buy a SIM card and contact
the person I had made the arrangement with. Guess what, he forgot that we were
coming that day. He assured that he would send us a driver and car immediately.
I told ZS I wanted to perform prayers while waiting. If the driver arrived
while we were performing prayers, well, he jolly well could wait for us. I’m
glad we decided to perform prayers because the driver/car were still nowhere to
be found when we went back to the arrival area. The day was quickly turning
into a nightmare. WTF indeed. Another call was made, another promise was made
and yet, thirty minutes later, we were still there. Finally, the man asked us
to take a taxi to our hotel near Bromo, the cost of which he would set off
against the pre-agreed amount due to him. The driver would arrive later that
evening and we would get an Innova instead of the Avanza which we had agreed to
earlier. Well, that was a small silver lining to the dark cloud of that first
half of the day.
We
went to the taxi counter and paid for a cab (Rp785K! This compared to
Rp550K/day by private transportation) and set off. Finally. At long last. We
stopped for lunch as I was already feeling hungry after all that. I don’t know
if it’s normal but we paid for the driver’s meal and he didn’t even thank us.
Is that the norm? Is that the accepted practice? I mean, we didn’t mind paying
for him but was it too hard to acknowledge and was it too hard to thank us?
Whatever happened to basic courtesy? Whatever happened to your manners? Did you
lose them along the way?
We
made another stop at a convenience store before setting off for Bromo. We had
to give the driver Rp20K for the toll fares (although they didn’t exceed Rp15K.
I know because I kept track). Oh, he also stopped to pick up his wife (WTF?
Free ride? He did tell us the wifey had never been to Bromo area before. Like,
are you kidding me? She’d never been there despite being born and raised there
and lived for at least 30 years there?), saying the wife would keep him company
on the trip back and could also help take over driving the car. Well, whatever.
The less I talked to him, the better. I had already refused to talk to the man
who was supposed to supply us the driver and car to meet us at the airport.
We
reached our hotel at dusk and checked in. Oh, the cab driver asked us for
additional tips for his dinner. WTF. I wouldn’t have minded offering him some
but when he outlined his request, it disgusted me so much that I immediately
got out of the car.
We
went out after freshening up and performing prayers, in search of dinner. There
was a hall next to the mosque with a stage all set up and people playing musical
instruments. When asked, we were told they were having a ceremony to celebrate
the circumcision of some local kids.
Sunday,
3 November 2013
I
woke up just after 1 local time (I think) and saw that the TV was on and
showing the Arsenal-Liverpool match. After trying to sleep again and failing, I
got up and watched the match, in time to see Giroud missed scoring and then my
Welsh warrior scoring his stunning goal. We watched the rest of the match and
by the time it ended, it was almost time to leave. So we changed and performed
ablutions before leaving.
Our
driver, Pak Firman, drove us all the way up. We were caught in the bottleneck before
long and performed prayers in the car while waiting. We then got down and
refusing the offers of horse rides, climbed up. Man, what a challenging climb
up that was, especially in the cold morning air and the thinning mountain air.
Actually, I didn’t think it was that cold. It wasn’t freezing definitely but
the mountain air sure was thin and I had to work hard at inhaling. Before long,
I was gasping for breath. It was challenging alright, I kid you not. We also
had to navigate our way in the dark, trying hard to guess if the dark spots
were horse poo or something else.
Finally,
we reached the top, me gasping and puffing and panting. But the view was well
worth it (and it had better be). We stayed for an hour before making our way
down (Pak Firman had to call us to warn of the impending traffic jam). We went
down the hill to a village and from there, took a jeep to the sand sea and
savannah. We had earlier seen them from atop Mount Penanjakan. It cost Rp600K
for a jeep which can fit up to six people but as we couldn’t find anyone else
to share jeeps with, we had to pay for the two of us. I shudder to think how
much I had to fork out had I gone on the trip alone.
After
some Kodak moments at the savannah, we hopped back into the jeep and drove to
the foot of Mount Batok and walked to Mount Bromo. You could rent another horse
here but thinking it was a flat plateau, we didn’t. Before long, we had
problems with the sand (every time the wind blew, the sand would flow and cover
us – including our belongings. I had sand enter my bag too!) and it felt like
walking at a sandy beach but worse because your feet would keep sinking into
the sand. After a while, it got more challenging as we climbed up the mountain and
I had to stop a few times to rest. We finally reached the top after struggling
to breathe (not easy with the sand), huffing, panting and half dead from the
exertion. But that wasn’t the end, oh no. We still had to join the super-long
queue to the top of the mountain moving at a snail’s pace. I finally understood
the reason behind this as we climbed up the stairs: the stairs were half-buried
by sand and in some parts, the steps had disappeared under the sand altogether,
making it hard to plant your feet. In the end, I had to hold the railing and
haul myself up because that was the only way as far as I could see. There were
the more adventurous and less patient climbers who decided to just climb up (and
descend too!) without the aid of the stairs. Climbing up to the stairs was
already a mighty challenge to me, thank you very much.
We
finally reached the top and I must say, I was quite disappointed, so much so that
I remarked, ‘Is that it? We climbed all the way up for this?!’. Still, having
climbed and laboured up, we spent a few minutes before deciding to join yet
another long queue down. Then we walked across the plateau and back to the
jeep, covered as we were in ash and sand.
We
rode the jeep back to the village and went back to our car and rode back to our
hotel. I was already famished (good thing I packed my bread and brought it
along) so we headed straight for the restaurant for breakfast. It was 0940 when
we arrived and breakfast was supposed to be until 10. We had told Pak Firman that
we wanted to leave after 11 am.
After
breakfast, we returned to our bungalow and set about dusting ourselves, clothes
and bags off. After showering off the dust and ash, we performed prayers
(prayer times are faster in that part of Indonesia) and we were out by 1130. After
returning our key and collecting the balance of my payment, we set off and
headed for Malang. I dozed (or at least, I tried to) in the car. Actually, I was
having a headache no thanks to the lack of sleep and possibly some altitude
sickness. I also started feeling hungry which escalated quickly to feeling famished
and starved. We finally stopped for a light meal at Bakso President in Malang, where
we would spend the night. After our meal, we headed to our guest house and
checked in.
We
left after tea at 1645 and headed for Batu, a neighbouring town about 30
minutes away. Batu has theme and amusement parks and these explained the many
hotels and home stays in Batu and Malang. We went to an amusement park but didn’t
enter as we didn’t fancy it. After about half an hour, we left and returned to
Malang.
Monday,
4 November 2013
We
checked out at 0915 after breakfast and drove back to Batu, to Kusuma Agro
Wisata, where there are pink guava and apple farms. There’re two packages but
we bought the one costing Rp48K which entitled us to pick two pink guavas and
apples each. We were also given a big fat juicy capsicum each and after the
tour, we were brought to a café where we had a small glass of pink guava juice
and toast bread with apple cheese. After that, we left and drove on to
Surabaya, stopping en route to perform prayers at Masjid Muhammad Cheng Ho. We reached
our hotel after 3 pm, bade farewell to and thanked Pak Firman and checked in. We
then left for the nearby Tunjugan Plaza where I bought two novels (40% on top
of the sale price) and finally, my Arsenal kit for the season 2012/14. We checked
out some other stores too before searching for dinner. We returned to the hotel
at 1945 local time as I wanted to watch The Amazing Race. Heh.
Tuesday,
5 November 2013
An
early start to the day but of course it was already bright outside. Went for
breakfast at the hotel restaurant and left at 0725 for the airport. Fortunately
it was also a public holiday in Indonesia so we were blessed not to be caught
in the morning traffic rush hour. We reached the airport about 45 minutes later
and went in after paying our departure fee of Rp150K. The flight back left
slightly later than scheduled but we landed at 1300.
I
hope you had a good long weekend then too!
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