we have safely arrived in our fifth, and possibly final, country of this trip. another long day of travel brought us into surabaya, the armpit of indonesia. we arrived too late to consider moving on to a more desirable location, so we settled into a reasonable hotel, with no windows and a squat toilet, in an alley rich with rats and roaches (pardon my alliteration). both of us starving, we dumped our bags in the room and asked the front desk about a place to get some food, which turned into a rickshaw ride to the mall. it turns out the mall stays open until ten, but for some inexplicable reason, everything in it closes at about nine. we were first turned down at kfc, where they sent us to the fourth floor, home of the food court. fourth floor, nothing but closed restaurants, and yet, an open merry go round. back downstairs, past the closed a&w, to the pizza hut, where we were also turned away. when we asked an employee if there was anything nearby that was still open, she launched into detailed directions to a 24 hour mcdonalds. when we asked her to write it down for us, she eventually handed us a piece of paper on which she had written only the word "mcdonalds." completely exasperated and famished, we returned to our rickshaw driver, mimed our hunger to him, and he took us to a local restaurant that served two dishes: plain white rice, and fried chicken heads. we went for the rice.
but indonesia is a better place than surabaya would have you believe, and a long busride the following day brought us to gunung bromo, an active volcano near the eastern coast of java. we arrived in the afternoon, and had a few hours before sunset to explore the area at the base of the crater on our own. it's the rainy season in indonesia now, and a heavy duvee of clouds hung a hundred feet above us, walking over black volcanic earth and rocks, giving a very other-worldly feel to the place. one tour agency described it as the fine line between heaven and hell, while others have likened it to the surface of the moon. both are fair descriptions, and although the clouds obscured the views, they also created an eerie atmosphere that we both appreciated.
the next morning we woke up at 3 am (3 am!) to take a jeep to the top of a mountain, overlooking the crater. with a hundred other people we watched the sun come up over the clouds, before driving down to the base, and then hiking up the the edge of the crater. i think we were at about six thousand feet, and the altitude mixed with the sulphurous gases belching out of the volcano made for a challenging climb, but the views at the top proved amazing. over the hour we spent circumnavigating the crater, the clouds shifted and changed, creating a constantly changing landscape. it was incredible.
with our tour over at eight in the morning, we headed out of town, towards bali, where we are currently spending our days. our goal for bali is to learn to surf, which is proving to be a balance of frustration and rewards. on my first day i managed to get up three times, while ashley is finding it a bit more difficult. i only mention this, because ashley has repeatedly kicked my ass at rock climbing, and will undoubtedly eventually do the same with surfing, so for now im relishing my own success. the frustration we've both had, however, is compounded by the disgust at how dirty the beach is where we are learning. in all my years i have never seen a more disgusting beach. wading into the water means wading into literally thousands of plastic bags, wrappers, soda bottles, etc. you can't take one single step without brushing against a dozen pieces of trash. from what we understand, this is the dirtiest beach in bali, so it we have nicer beacheds to look forward to, but unfortunately, this is the only beach that has waves we are capable of surfing. i think we'll wake up early tomorrow for another shot on on surf boards, before we make our way to a cleaner stretch of sand.
in addition to being a world class surf destination, bali is known for its party scene, so ashley and i took to the streets last night to check out some clubs. most of the downtown clubs turned out to be underage australian drinking bonanzas, so we took a risk and headed to the next town to find a club that was supposed to have some big name dj, hoping to find some people that weren't half my age. the club was more expensive than the others, but it was a local crowd, and the dj turned out to be quite good, so we ended up having a blast. after dancing on stage for a while, we set out to explore the nooks and crannies of the club, and accidentally stumbled into a private karaoke room, where we were welcomed with open arms. despite the fact hat no one seemed to speak english, we shared a few drinks with them before realizing that a room full of older, ugly men and younger attractive women might be a bit fishy so we headed back to the dance floor. back on the floor, we saw the celebrity dj having a drink, having just finished his set, so we approached him and chatted him up. he poured us a few free drinks, and then invited us to join him and his entourage for a late-night snack. nine of us piled into an suv and made our way back towards our neck of the woods, where he treated us to some beers and spring rolls until 5 am. when the food was all gone, we said our goodbyes and ashley and i dragged ourselves home and fell into bed.
and now, like i said, i think we'll head out to the next town. i think we'll head south to ulu watu, where we can watch real surfers on real waves, possibly inspiring us to wade back into the garbage and give it another try.