Escape from Pacitan

It is easy to see why people stay in Pacitan their entire stays in indonesia.  The cost is minimal, the crowds are non-existant, the environment is beautiful and it is a logistical nightmare to go anywhere else, as we discovered.  After 3 lovely days spent lounging and trying to surf we decided that instead of retracing our route in we would take a bus part of the way and then continue our tour a few km east.  This trip started harmlesly enough on a minibus but soon devolved into a chicken bus ala Guatemala as we continued to pack in locals with produce, bags and yes live chickens.  Everyone was in good spirits even though us with our bikes and bags were by far the most obtrusive of all the travelers.  We then switched buses at the local terminal but instead of taking a direct bus the 100km oor so to our next destination we found ourelves whisked to a departing bus.  This turned out to be an epic 6 hr bus ride in a ridiculous, but somehow sensical route too those that run the buses, through half of East Java.  It was ass-numbing and hectic as we saw from the inside what it is like when the buses tear down the narrow, busy country roads.  Believe it or not we actually prefer to be the bikes on thoe roads becaue we at leat feel like we have some control of our fates that way.  

Once this unnecesarily long journey (after some investigating we found out that we were put onto this bus because though it went about 200km out of the way, it ultimately arrived us in our destination faster than if we waited for the direct bus that would have had us sitting in a dirty, out-of-the-way bus station for 6 hours for the next bus to depart) had ended we were more than compensated for our patience when we met our warmshowers host in Malang.  Yaneur, a true jack-of-all-business, had a great place near downtown which he turned into a part-time bikeshop and cafe.  We were taken out and treated like visiting royalty.   Live music, pitchers of beer, friends, and Beer Pong.  With the hangover to prove it neither Chiara or I had spent a night like this in a LONG time...though Chiara did prove to be a bit of a sandbagger.  Maybe those college loans were worth it after all.  The next few days in Malang were great, we met a load of local cycle enthusiasts, drank amazing coffees, pedaled around a beautiful city and were able to give the bikes a little tune-up.  

    

At Yanuar's. He basically rents a cafe/bike shop for himself and his friends.  He does a lot and build bikes n his spare time.  We rode around withs some great folks from Malang, including Ali in the blue sleeves and Tegu, lastly, lots of people ask us if we will take a picture with them.  This is one group that did that.

Malang turned out to be a small oasis for us as we left we were in some busy, hot riding.  Other than a few bright moments of great local hopitality (which is ubiquitous in Java) and a gradual climb with some nice views, we had our heads down and bee-lines it to Banguwangi.  Touted as 'the end of the line' in Java beacuse it is the closest place to where you take the ferry for Bali, it is actually a nice little city that we enjoyed for 2 days.  On the second we performed our ritualistic "One tourist thing" and hired a car and guide to take us up to hike Mt Ijen and what is called "the blue flame".  Apparently one of just two places in the world where volcanic activity results in a natural burning torch of blue flame sourced from gases from deep in the earth.  Though insanely busy with tourists both foreign and domestic as well as being over-priced (as all tourist destinations) we found the challenging predawn hike to the truly other-worldy volcanic caldera a true experience that is hard to replicate and should be on anyone's list of "must-do's" if they end up in this region.

  

The blue fire.  It's hard to photograph but amazing in person. 

Very short on sleep we arrived back in town, caught a few hours of shut-eye and packed up to head the 10km pedal north to the little port where our ferry to Bali awaited.