Malik Watkins's Bloglines

After getting back from the journey to the temples and Jocja…thought I would take a little down time to rest and soak up all the amazing experiences I have had up to this point…but, then an opportunity popped up to get one more experience…normally, I would of just passed, but I am already punch drunk, exhausted and worn out…plus, how often do you get a chance to get on the other side of the world…there will be time for rest later on…so, let’s keep er’ moving…off to Mount Bromo…

Mount Bromo is an active volcano that is listed at about 4 hours from Surabaya…with the traffic faced thus far…i don’t know if I believe that…but, let’s go with it 🙂

Now Bromo is famous for being an active volcano…but, also for its sunrise…

Of course it didn’t take just a few hours…so, getting there in the middle of the night…and by-passing the usual suspects – hotels…settled in to a local home stay on top of the mountain…basically, the Indonesian version of the Air B&B…called the ‘Cemara Homestay’

Now to be clear…this isn’t just a hill, it is a mountain…steep…and I mean straight up…they only let you go so far in a regular vehicle…for a couple of reasons, but, to get by the check point you have to be in one of these, and you see hundreds of these up here…

So, after a few hours of trying to sleep…it’s up and about at 3:00 a.m….got to check out this sunrise…somethings don’t require words…in fact, sometimes words can diminish the moment.. so here it is 🙂

What a sunrise…what do you think? 🙂  The idea of standing on a volcano and watching the sun rise…well…speaks for itself…now, this is the kind of place where you embrace silence and kind of just walk around 🙂  So, just a few pics for you to soak it up…

The savannah’s…open plain…before you get to the active volcano…absolutely peaceful and beautiful…some serious views of the mountains…

These are provided for those who would rather not take that long arduous stair case up the side of the mountain to the volcano…funny thing is, as aggressive as they were regarding getting people to take a ride…no one asked me if I wanted a ride…do you think it was because the horses were small and I was twice the size of everyone else…oh well…guess I have to walk 🙂

Getting to the top, you could immediately smell the sulfur rising into your nostrils…not long ago there was a rupture that destroyed some of the infrastructure…so this baby is still cooking…

While the area is primarily Muslim, those who live on the mountain are mostly Hindu, so they also come here for there specific rituals.  And, positioned on top of the volcano is a Statue of Ganesh…representing wisdom and learning…how appropriate…chilling on Mount Broom with Ganesh 🙂

Well, as I bring this segment to a close…just have one last thing to point out…these folks are exceptionally industrious…similar to when I pointed out some cultural points when going through the mountains…these people here take it to another level…although it is a mountain, they treat it like any other field…I mean…I saw areas where people were farming on the sides of mountains at angles of 70 to 80 degrees…I mean, ridiculous…and they climbed those areas like their legs were stronger than mountain goats…absolutely beautiful and exceptional…amazed…

Well, to be straight with you…I am worn out…my cup runneth over…these past few weeks have been similar to having my head opened up and someone pouring culture, knowledge, wisdom, life experience…and globalization into my brain until it just ran over the side….grateful is all I can say…once I rest, getting ready to spread my own alchemy 🙂  Time to actually just take it all in….and find the proper context by which to organize all these thoughts…

Mount Bromo…a must see….