Malang Market and the Bromo Gathering

E had gotten it into her head that Malang was a 'market town' worth checking out.  Unfortunately she was wrong and had the good grace to admit it.  It was, in fact, a little creepy.  Dirty and with lots of dark alleys that didn't look alluring, just alarming.  We did, however, have a nice place to stay - a white bungalow on a courtyard - and we spent the majority of our time hanging out and listening to Janis Joplin.  Oh yes - and eating donuts.

But better was to come.   Mount Bromo was a trip that everyone recommended.  A long sick-making bus journey to the top of a mountain and then up the next one!  We were sharing our final furlong with a couple of young Indonesian civil servants who were clearly talking about us.  They spoke much more quietly when we (inaccurately) managed to convince them that we spoke some of their language by asking them some questions in faltering Indo.

Up at the top was a guesthouse and 'restaurant' overlooking this extraordinary lunarscape.  A sand sea at the bottom of a cliff, within which were two smoking mountains.  Two volcanoes within a volcano. The sky was blue and plans were made to go and see the sunrise.

That wasn't until we had made some friends with some local language students who were camping in the freezing cold, drinking beer, singing songs and falling in love with E.  

So - up at 3am and across the sand sea.  Quite alone and lit only by the moon and a failing torch.  We were heading in what we thought was the right direction - quite fearless of the cravasses that appeared to be opening up in front of us.  But we 'turned a corner' and, somehow, found 'everyone else'.  There had been a motorbike convoy spotted in the distance at one point but this was a serious gathering.   Everyone (including water sellers and horse handlers) headed up the cliff, to the ever-increasing smell of sulphur, and waited for the moon to go down and the sun to very slowly rise.  I likened it at the time to Close Encounters and it still reminds me of that.

We stayed for another day and I tried the walk again, only to be sent back by rain.  The sky was newly overcast and the magic was gone.  Time to go.  Another long haul back down the mountain, a row with a ticket tout and a long long journey to.....Bali.