A couple weeks ago we had some time off from school for the Idul Fitri holiday. Idul Fitri marks the end of Ramadan (the month of fasting for Muslims). It is a huge holiday here, almost equivalent to Christmas. People buy each other gifts and return to where they're originally from to visit family.
Because it's such a big holiday we had 3 1/2 days off from school making a 5 day weekend. We took advantage of this and took off for an adventure in East Java. Our motivation for going was to see the famous Mt. Bromo volcano and to experience a place in Indonesia where it's actually cold. (We had heard rumors that it would be freezing!)
We left the morning of the actual Idul Fitri holiday and arrived at the train station to find that hundreds of people had gathered there to join in a prayer service. Traditionally the morning of Idul Fitri everyone goes to the local mosque to pray together. When there isn't room in the local mosque to hold all of the people they can spill over into any available space. It was quite a sight to see so many people dressed in white performing the ritual prayers.
We boarded the train, which we were on for 14 hours, until we got to the city of Surabaya. Although the train ride was long, we enjoyed just relaxing and hanging out with each other. We were lucky to have room to spread out and enjoyed the AC. We saw some amazing scenery. We ate lots of snacks that we had brought with us. We slept and played games and eventually arrived at our destination.
In Surabaya we spent the night and got up the next morning ready to continue traveling to Mt. Bromo. Along the way we stopped to see a famous mud volcano. (I hear it was a big story in national geographic.) Some miners were mining for oil, when they hit a certain spot and mud started shooting out. This continued for a couple years so far and hasn't stopped yet. It's taken out homes and a few people died from the event.
We continued on and stopped for a little white water rafting adventure. Aaron set up for us to go on a three hour white water rafting trip. We put on life jackets, got a short safety briefing, and started down the river. Our guide liked to run us into all of the rocks he could and so we weren't really moving very fast. We stopped a couple of times in still pools to get out and swim. We went past (and under) a couple of beautiful water falls. We also saw hundreds of bats in a cave. It was a really amazing trip and probably my favorite part of the whole weekend.
From there we finally started on the last leg of our journey to get to Mt. Bromo. We drove for hours up steep and windy roads. Finally after dark we arrived at the hole-in-the-wall motel where we stayed that night (complete with no hot water :) ). Immediately we began to understand what everyone had warned us about... it was much colder as we were very high up in elevation. Luckily we had come prepared with lots of layers and hats and scarves. We bundled up, ate dinner, and headed to bed.
The next morning we were awoken at 3:00 am to get ready for our sunrise tour of Mt. Bromo. Our group piled into a jeep we had rented and drove another hour or so to the special look-out point. Even though it was way too early, it was definitely worth it. We saw a beautiful sunrise and enjoyed watching the active volcano send out aplume. From there we went back down to the base and hiked up the volcano to the rim so we could look down into the crater. It was a tough hike... I wasn't sure I was going to make it. :)
Once we had enjoyed the volcano we headed back to the motel for breakfast and to pack up. We then began our long journey back. We drove back to Surabaya where we spent the rest of the day and that night. We enjoyed staying at a very nice hotel that night (and even got a tour of the biggest presidential suite in all of Asia). We played at the pool and went out to eat and took random pictures.
The following day we had some time in the morning around the hotel and around town. That afternoon we headed for the train station and boarded our night train back to Bandung. We were met by a surprise on this train, however. With the big holiday they had overbooked the train and sold tickets for people to just stand. Instead of having lots of room on a comfy, air conditioned train like before, we were crammed in with lots of people, smoke, and sellers. It was hot and stuffy and uncomfortable. As the night went on the people who were standing found places to sit and lie down until there wasn't any place left to move. You couldn't even get up to go to the bathroom... just a sea of people everywhere you looked. I've never experienced anything like it before, but we survived and 16 hours later we finally arrived in Bandung.
Our long weekend was quite an adventure as we traveled across the island of Java by train to see Mt. Bromo. It was filled with many memories, though, and I'm so glad we did it. Enjoy the complete experience by viewing the web album of pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/clauson.emily/BromoTrip
Pete Simano, our school's director, was the MC for the event. Next to him is one of the Indonesian teachers at our school acting as translator.
As part of the ceremony a group of staff members sang Psalm 127 in Indonesia.
"Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain."
We also heard from a student choir made up of students
from preschool all the way up to grade 12.
The ribbon cutting ceremony.
Pete Simano (the current director) and Joe Beeson (the father of last year's director) share the honor of cutting the ribbon.
We also included the Indonesian tradition of breaking a pot full of water and flowers. Gary does the honor of the pot smashing.
Also an Indonesian tradition is serving special food to the dignitaries first before everyone else eats. Together we enjoyed a delicious Indonesian lunch.
Me with my roommates. Because it was a special ceremony, we all dressed up in our Indonesian best.
