Yogyakarta & Surabaya : Part 10 - Mount Bromo

22082012 - Today starts our Mount Bromo Program. We woke up to the sound of door knocks at 3am. We were told the night before that we will leave by 345am. It turns out we were going to leave as early as possible as there were lots of people, and we want to get the best spot to see the sunrise. We were going to see the sunrise view of Mount Bromo from Mount Penanjakan. 

We took a jeep to the viewing point. There are 350 jeeps available and each jeep can fit in 6 people. Foreigners pay Rp25,000 per person whereas locals pay Rp6,000. According to the driver, you can even book a space in the jeep the day before. If you ride a motorbike (like my Jakarta friend whom I met in Kawah Ijen, who rode the superbike), you can ride to Mount Penanjakan yourself.

As all jeeps are the same, you have to remember the registration number. We reached the viewing point at 4.50am.

The sun was slowly making its presence at Mount Bromo. At 4.57am. The next few photos are the gradual rise of the sun. 

Yes, it was very cold, and hence, I had to cover my mouth to stop my teeth from chattering. I kid you not. My teeth was chattering!

At 5.19am. This was another side where the sun cannot be seen. Funny how it looked so bright.

Look at the closer view of the craters. Looks like elephant's legs.

At 5.41am. I like the sun rays streaming.

At 5.44am. We walked a bit higher to get a better view of the sun. I had to force my sister to climb higher with me, by convincing her that the view was absolutely gorgeous! She was very afraid of heights. Had to force her because she was the one with the cool camera, with the fancy functions. 

I love the photos with the humans inside. I love how our colours contrasted nicely against the background. I was in blue and my sister was in red. The background in slightly greenish-yellow colour. We are like a palette of colours!

The small hill everyone climbed up to see the view of the sunrise.

See the crowd and the so-similar jeeps. We were back on the road at 6am to go to Mount Bromo.

Mount Bromo sits in the middle of a vast plain called the "Sea of Sand". The ride was bumpy towards Mount Bromo.

The ride took 30 minutes and we reached the area where the jeep has to stop.

The walk starts. It is very dusty and sandy. Must cover the mouth and nose. I could taste the sand in my mouth. Walking on sand is not easy. Even worst when going up a slope. It reminded me of my hike to Mount Rinjani. But Mount Rinjani was worst.

One has the option to take horses too. The rate is negotiable.

Look, you can buy food after that long walk!

These are not visitors-riders. These are riders who offer their services for you to go to the foot of Mount Bromo. As in instead of walking or taking the horse, you can take the motorcycle.

The place where the horses have to stop. It was about a 30 minute walk for us.

Very close to the stairs to walk up to see the crater of Mount Bromo.

And here starts the 250-stair walk. Well, you know how I am .. when I see stairs, I start counting them. I counted stairs in Swayambunath Temple, Kathmandu and steps on the way to Chhomrong, Nepal. I did try to find where was the first step but it was covered by sand that the first step I could feel was like after 1/3 of the climb. So, I could not verify if it was 250 steps.

A 6 minute walk to the top felt like forever. As the stairs were covered with sand, I had to hold on to the sides to pull myself up.

 

Upon reaching the top, I was disappointed with what I saw. This is the volcanic crater of Mount Bromo.  It was so disheartening... after all the huffing and puffing, I was hoping something that was worth the climb. Like how I climbed Mount Rinjani and saw the amazing view of the lake and volcano. So, camera zooming in could see water boiling inside the crater. This volcano is still active, by the way. Its last eruption was in January 2011.

This is the view from the top of Mount Bromo.

We walked back down, and at the 100th step, this is the view. I did the counting on the way down since the steps were not sandy yet. Once again, my mission fail because at the 219th step, the sand covered the steps. See, the sand at the following photo. So, it was time to slide down! 

At the bottom of the steps, the locals were offering their horses for service. It gets even dustier with the horses trotting along.

It was difficult to snap a photo as the sun was glaring. So, I was doing various poses while my sister was clicking and adjusting the functions in the camera just to get the best photo! Haha! Finally, she found the solution. To stand facing the sun. So, we do not look too dark in the camera.

We used a different route back to avoid all the horses. There were not much people. Goodie. Along the way, we did slide down like whee... wheee.... *can't stop*

Rows of colourful jeep were waiting for the customers. We were walking around for 10 minutes looking for our jeep. We left about 830am.

At about 9am, we reached back the Hotel.

Room rates. Yoschi Hotel has an interesting history. The hotel was started by a now-divorced couple (Indonesian man and German woman).

German lady met Indonesian man during her visit in Indonesia. They fell in love and married. German lady transferred all funds to Indonesia to build hotel. Young Indonesian woman woo Indonesian man. Couple divorced. Indonesian man married young Indonesian woman. German woman went back to Germany without monies because transfer is not allowed. German woman promised to not step foot into Indonesia anymore. By the way, the photo of the then-married couple is hung on the wall at the reception. 

This is the interior of the restaurant where we had our breakfast. We had not taken the free breakfast that morning. It was toasted bread with tea or coffee.

The view from Yoschi Hotel. We left the Hotel at 10.30am and was headed for Surabaya Airport. The journey is to take 3 hours. 3 hours felt like 30 minutes.. haha.. after the 19 hour ride we had to Kawah Ijen. 

There were edelweiss flowers for sale along the road.

We stopped at a rest area along the highway as there was still time. We tried kopi luwak (civet coffee). I drank 90% of the pot. It taste quite normal actually. Nothing to differentiate. But I was instantly alert upon drinking the coffee. Initially, I was tired because I did not sleep the night we reached Kawah Ijen (because I was keeping the driver company) and last night, I slept for 5 hours before starting the Mount Bromo program. I was in a perky mood for two days. I felt like I did not do anything tiring. The driver did inform us that I may not be able to sleep for 2 days. I think that only applies if you did not do any activity. But I did and so, it became like a normal day for me. I even jogged the following day (after flying back to Malaysia), and I jogged at a faster speed too. After that, only did the tiredness sank in. 

At the airport, we took out the remaining monies we had i.e. the small change of Rp42,000. We bought ourselves a plate of gado-gado (Indonesian salad) and a glass of warm tea.

It was definitely a good trip for me, although it was slightly pricey. But it was a good experience. Note to self - never travel to a heavy populated country during their festive seasons. I will probably try it once only. I enjoyed myself tremendously. I did what I came for - visited Borobudur Temple, saw Kawah Ijen and Mount Bromo. I am not inspired to go anywhere else for next year. Well, I am going to Vietnam with my friends, but I have not initiated my own trip. We shall see soon.