Chris' Travels

Probolinggo and the hard times.

This post may have to be broken into two or three parts but lets see how I do tonight.

One thing I know is my dislike of night buses. That's what I caught from Lovina to probolinggo and where the trials began.

Waiting at 5 o'clock pm, 7 O'clock my night bus arrived and had 1 seat left right at the back of the bus which so happened to be raised about 2 feet off the ground so my feet dangeled off the chair towards the ground. It was fun feeling like a small 5 year old for a while but that soon wore off where m calf muscles started to ache. Then the bus stopped to take on cargo of BIG boxes which the conductor piled around me to enclose me in an unofficial cargo section of the bus. luckily severeal boxes where stacked beneth my feet meaning I could touch the ground again. Good. not really. Stopped again to pick up a mum and 2 kids. Girl, 4 years old slept between me and passenger next to me. boy 7 yrsold slept to my right mum slept sitting on stool next to boxes head next to my feet. Waitied hours for the ferry to Java. Safety concious have to stay on bus for 1 hour to Java as not allowed to get off bus. If ferry sinks so do I. I didn't, ferry made it. Next 3 hours are a vague twilight. I start to fall asleep, boy moves, I wake up. I start to fall asleep girl moves I wake. continue this untill 2.30 after brief dinner/breakfast/ twilight meal at 1 .30am. 2.30 I arrive at probolingo No sleep. tired. and dropped at travel agency not the bus station (maybe in hidesight a blessing in disguise). I book a bus to take me up to mount bromo. a live volcanoe and it leaves at 3 am. 5am arrive at bromo for 1 hour trek in dark guided by mobile phone light up to view point for sunrise with malaysian and indonesian people. Now I'm tired. really tired. see sunrise, it's beautiful but I'm too tired to enjoy it. walk back down mountain. get in mini van. get left behind by the friends I'd made and have to walk across 40 minutes of lava desert alone. hot. very hot. catch up with my friends. Get a horse up to summit of volcanoe. May be alergic to horses as start to sneeze like a mad man. go to top on foot. Take photo of live steaming crater. Beautiful. to tired to see the beauty. Loosing the plot take a motorbike ride back to village near volcanoe. Book a hotel room still sneezing but now nose is running. It's cold up in the moutains now out of direct sun. very cold. wrap up in two blankets at 11am and hope to sleep. My nose won't stop running and I can't stop sneezing. stick 2 pieces of tissue up my nostrills and finally fall asleep. I wake up at 15.30 eat a packet of biscuits. still freezing. FREEZING. Remember I'd left bali in 37 degree glourious sunshine. and here it was a chilly 5. sneezed. sneezed. sneezed. Felt so ill. Ready to call it quits for this trip. felt like sobing. DIDN'T!! I'm still a man of sorts. Had a cold shower. (no hot available). thought I could wash the horse off me and feel better I didn't. Tired to wrap up again and get some sleep. Sneezed. Sneezed. Regretting whole trip. If you know me you know a hungry and tired Chris will get annoyed. Stick more tissue up my nose. Fall into rough sleep despite annoying english girls in next room being noisy and singing songs. Wake up. Short of breath feeling like death, walk in freezing cold to restaurant. Eat some amazing fried potatoes and corn soup to try and cheer myself up. Decide that something up here is not agreeing with me so to get down from the mountains the following day. Thinking Jarkarta is the nearest airport to get back to BKK. Have another rough nights sleep. runny nose and constant sneezing. figure the horses may not be to blame. Wake up at 6am feeling slightly happier after a day and a half sleeping. Fancy a cold shower. Is it working. ha ha. of course not so have to throw buckets of cold, and I mean COLD water over myself. Actually find a moment of humour in the silliness. Stand in the bathroom freezing throwing buckets of very cold water over myself hilarious and stand there psychotically laughing. the next room must have though I was a nut job. I thought I was too. Laughing and Laughing, the water felt colder and colder and I laughed harder and harder. Cleaned my teeth smiling. climed back under the blanket for another hour of sleep before breakfast of omlette and toast and waited for my bus back down the mountaim...... It's late where I am now so will comtinue tmrw. Please note these are the abreviated notes of a long 2 days. Felt very low. very low, but as life has a habbit of serving up, the lows are followed by highs. And that how I feel tonight 300 miles away from those woes. and the nose, well it's stopped running and I'll tell you how tmrw. Goodnight!!

posted by Chris @ 4:04 pm