Sunrise over the mountains, sunset over the sea

Thursday - PONIES!!! We woke up at the butt-crack of dawn - aka 3am - and got ready to go see the sunrise on the mountain opposite Mt. Bromo. It was frigid, so we bundled up and jumped in our jeeps to make the pitch-black trek up the mountain. When we arrived, we stopped in a little cafe and had coffee by a coal fire while all of the other poor sops went up to the top and froze their bums off for an hour waiting for the first light to peak through the clouds. The sunrise was amazing and we spent about an hour watching the changes in the scenery and wading through people to get good photos. We were some of the first off the mountain and drove back toward Mt. Bromo to start our journey to the crater's edge. WE RODE PONIES!! When we stepped out of the jeep, our ponies were brought to meet us and we started riding up to the top of the still-active volcano. We felt like we were in Mordor (look up some pics on the internet, I'm not kidding...). After de-ponying we climbed 250 steps up to the smoking, sulfur-bellowing monster that is Bromo. The smoke was so potent it stung my upper respiratory tract. We took some pictures and then started our descent. The ride down was frightful. There was no horn on the saddle, the stirrups were too short, the gait was awkward and we were going downhill. I didn't take any pictures on the way down, I just tried not to die. Once we were done, the jeep dude took us back to our hotel and I napped while Miss Rachel had a peaceful day of books and coffee. Once we woke up, we packed up and sauntered off to our next destination.

After 4 or so hours, we arrived at Pasir Putih. Shari and I lazed in our room watching Bride and Prejudice (if you need a laugh, I highly recommend this movie). It soon was sweltering in our room due to the fact that our AC was deficient so we moved rooms mid-shower...hehe (okay not really). We finished up our showers in time for a glorious, stupendous, awe-inspiring sunset over the waters (we shall post pictures as soon as we have internet that is secure and won't shut down mid-post). After restaurant hopping for a bit we finally settled on a little hole in the wall place which actually presented good food (served courtesy of the lip-sticked Indonesian transvestite). Shari and I took a night walk on the beach and did some star-gazing off the dock. Something cool about being in Indonesia is that the islands are all close to or overlapping the Equator so one is able to see both the Northern and Southern constellations. Upon returning to our lovely ACed room (which due to my insistence at keeping a low temp later froze us), we prepped for bed after a very long day (I mean it started at 3!).