Indonesia: Heaven and Hell

Countries, like people, are loved for their failings.
--F. Yeats Brown

Indonesia: Love it.. Hate it.. in Equal parts. We flew into Yogyakarta on the island of Java and found out that the major points - in this leg - would go to the teams that travelled all across Java to Bali - using ONLY local modes of transportation (trains, buses, ferries, tuk-tuks)…by ourselves … hauling our body-bags of luggage with us... URGGHHH!!! Flying woudl cost a huge penalty. And just in case you are wondering, Indonesian local transport is NOT set up for Americans travelling with large suitcases and backpacks. It was 46 hours straight of nightmare and without sleep or real food.
The very first morning in Java we had to do a mandatory challenge (i.e. a challenge that you have to do or you lose all points for the entire leg) that involved us getting up at 3 AM to drive to an amazing monument (which we then climbed up in the pitch black) and watched the sun rise from the top. It was neat to be in the dark and feeling your way and then the sun starts to rise and you realize what an amazing ancient structure you are actuallyt sitting on. But a bitch of a wake-up call.
What made it even worse is that we then had to keep going.. from 3 AM .. for over 41 hours straight. If traveling by train, bus and bicycle tuk-tuk across Indonesia is not hell, it’s pretty close to it. Three teams went together: Rainey and I, his daughters (Elizabeth and Emily) and Natasha and David. We had the wildest experiences on this leg. At our first stop, we confronted abject corruption as we got stopped at the scavenge site and forced to pay a bribe for “parking fees.” Really pissed me off as the guy just extorted money from us. He would not let us go through until we paid him. The second train (or “the meat locker”) was FREEZING to the point that I put on layers of clothes and wrapped my head in a T-shirt and was still chilled to the bone. Rainey wrapped his legs in a rain poncho to try and curb the frostbite. The third train (or the “roach mobile) had no air conditioning and was overrun with cockroaches that desperately wanted to crawl on your legs. I was beyond grossed-out. I had to do yoga breathing to stop my sheer panic at the vermin. But, by then, we had been traveling for 11 hours straight in the heat so we all fell asleep and woke up - with a start - at a train station that we thought was the right one. We threw our luggage off the train and jumped out– only to discover that we had got it wrong and we were now stuck in the middle of NOWHERE. And clearly Americans are not a common sight at this village. Every single person at the train station was staring at us like we were the animals in a National Geographic After-School TV special. Emily had a mild panic attack and I honestly cannot blame her. Talk about being under a microscope. We had to wait for the next train which cost us time so we ended up getting into Probolingo late at night. When the train pulled away, we were the ONLY people in sight. No-one anywhere. No taxis. Nothing. So there we were… no idea what to do next.. except we knew that we had to try and get a few hours sleep before we started this big climb up a volcanic mountain to see sunrise from the top. But the power of the American Dollar won out. The word obviously got out in town that Americans were at the train station and the bicycle rickshaws started arriving from every corner. We had to take one rickshaw per person so we could fit luggage and the rickshaw gang leader told us that he could take us to “his friend’s house” who could arrange for a mini-van to get us to the foot of the volcano in time. With no other choice, we had to “trust strangers in strange lands” and off we set. Fifteen minutes of hard pedaling later, we arrived deep in a neighborhood at someone’s house. A lot of loud knocking and yelling and a sleepy woman and 2 children came to the door to say that the mini-van driver was out drinking (always a good sign) but she would call him. Thirty minutes of us waiting in a back alley of Probolingo with 6 rickshaws and drivers and luggage and the sweetest sight I ever saw showed up.. a man with a van who spoke English (even if he was a little drunk). He piled us all in the van, made some calls, took us to a flea-bag hotel for a shower and 2 hours of sleep (the shower was gross and mainly cold water but still fantastic after the cockroach train but the bed was overrun with little black bugs that scurried across the pillows), came back for us at 2:30 AM (which is the time you have to leave in order to get to the summit by sunrise) and we started our trek to the top of Mount Bromo. By this time we had been awake for almost 24 hours and had not eaten a meal in almost that long. And then… we made it... and stood at the top of Mount Brumo for sunrise and it suddenly all seemed worthwhile. I wish that I could upload some photos of the experience but for some reason by computer as decided to stop recognizing my camera chip. I am going to work on that.., but for now.. let me say that it was an awe-inspiring sight (even through the blurry vision of no sleep) to watch the sun rise over the volcanic cloud of ash from the active volcano.
After the climb down, it was another 11 hours by bus and ferry to Bali…. Where we finally found heaven at the end of the road through hell. Our hotel in Bali is THE NICEST hotel that I have ever stayed in. It gives 5 stars a new meaning. Double WOW. Can’t wait to get out and about in Bali as this place seems amazing. But first.. some sleep.