Mountain high: The writer's friend Lucas pauses halfway up Gunung Semeru. Note the 'mist', which is actually a layer of fine, wind-blown ash and dust.
Story and photos by LEE YU KIT
The small Indonesian town of Tumpang was a mere 90 minutes away by 4WD. Yet it could have been a world removed, one of muggy, crowded lowlands, sclerotic traffic spewing poison from tailpipes, padi fields squeezed into unused chinks of land, and villages overgrown into a single, incoherent mess.
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