The Reviving Bromo

Ever since college, I was having a thought that I should visit one wonder of East Java, which is Mount Bromo. I was very jealous when my dad told me that he had traveled to this mount. Moreover, every travel show on TV keeps telling that Bromo is so beautiful, especially the part when you hunt for  sunrise. That view is amazing.

Therefore, last year, I and my friends planned a trip to Surabaya, including Bromo. It was very luck indeed that we got cheap tickets of Mandala Air. Dude, it’s only Rp. 38.000,- return ticket from  Jakarta to Surabaya. It felt like finding a precious treasure. However, we got really shocked when one month before our departure, it was announced that Mandala Air was grounded. No more operation of this airline was allowed until they solved their internal problems. Sadly, we chose other alternatives of transportation to Surabaya. Because we expected a low budget travel, we finally chose to go to Surabaya by train, economy class. We got in Kertajaya with the ticket price of only Rp. 43.500,--. It was our first experience going by economy class train. The journey took 15 hours. We really could not imagine how we could bear with this long journey. The economy class train had no fan inside. The air was only coming in from the window. Seating position is 3-2, leaving a very small aisle space. The passengers were very crowded. They sat on the aisle and even some of them used the toilet to sit or even sleep! Disgusting indeed. It was very very hot in the train. I really could not sleep at all. There were some cockroaches passing on our seats so we have to kill them. Moreover, I was very disturbed with one stalker guy who kept sitting next to me and stared at me all the time. It was so not comfortable. And I promised I would never have this kind of transportation again for a long journey. Later we decided to book flight tickets back to Jakarta.

We were very happy when finally we arrived at Pasar Turi train station. We were picked up by our best friends whom we stay with there. In the afternoon we began our trip to Bromo. Bromo is located on the north part of Surabaya. It is in Probolinggo Regency area. It took around 3-4 hours to get there.  We arrived there in the evening and we went directly to Cemoro Lawang. Cemoro Lawang is top location on Bromo. It is near Penanjakan II. The trip to the top was pumping our adrenaline. We just realized that there were not many lighting along the way there. There were also fewer borders between the road and deep ravine. It needed extra carefulness to pass the road. We prayed to be safe to top. My God, none of us are married yet!

We do understand that since 21 December 2010, Mount Bromo keeps erupting. When we arrived in Cemoro Lawang, on the right side of our home stay, we saw the black smoke coming from Bromo crater. There was also thundering sound we heard at night. It was scary indeed, but the local people there told us that this place was safe. There was none evacuated from Ngadisari village, the nearest village from top of Bromo. We stayed all night hearing the thundering sound, or normally called tremor. The temperature there was very low. It was only 2-10 degree Celcius. So cold that when we washed our hands or feet, it felt like frozen. The outfits that must be used were gloves, hat, sweater, scarf, socks, and thick jacket.

4.30 AM, we were waken up by our guide. It was the time to hunt for the sunrise. We went by jeep to Penanjakan II. There were two places to see the sunrise, Penanjakan I and Penanjakan II. Since eruption, Penanjakan I is closed, because the location is really near with Bromo crater. People are only allowed to visit Penanjakan II. Climbing up Penanjakan II was a very hard struggle. The distance is approximately 2 km. We had to struggle the exhaustion and the cold. The local people there kept offering us to rent their horses. From their first offering of Rp. 100.000,- return till Rp. 10.000,-- return, when we almost on top. I refused it. I wanted to prove to myself that I could go up without any help. I had done treadmill for 3 times a week with elevation 13 for preparing this. I could not fail it. And yes, finally I reached the top of Penanjakan II. It was my happiest moment ever for being able to accomplish my own dream. Bromo and Semeru were standing there beautifully. We could also see the sea of sands surrounds them. It was like when these mounts were created, God took some sands, poured it into two bowls, and put them together perfectly side by side. The result was the perfect and unique landscape. There were many people on the top, most of them were foreigners. They also would like to witness the sunrise itself. Unfortunately the sunrise was not very clear to see, because of the smoke from Bromo crater.  Never mind, we still take many pictures there with the background of Bromo. It is an Indonesian’s habit, being narcist. 

The Bromo packages included sightseeing around Bromo. We were taken to Pasir Berbisik (Whispering Sands), Savannah or usually called Bukit Teletubbies (Teletubbies Hill), and Ranupani Lake. The trip could only be taken by motorcycle, because the access was difficult. Our guide gave us masker to prevent us from the ashes and smokes. Our first destination was Pasir Berbisik. All we could see was a large view of sands. It was astonishing. If Egypt has Sahara desert, we have this. This place is well known for many film or video clip shoot. Pasir Berbisik itself is a name of one movie casted by Dian Sastro, a famous Indonesian female artist, taking this location as the set. Because of the popularity of the movie, people named the place after the movie. Bromo is a unique mount. If other mount is surrounded by forests and waterfall, it has sands and savannah. We did not see any groups of high trees there. It was just bushes and grasses. The savannah was wonderful. We could see many local people hunted for grasses for their animals. After eruption the savannah is less green. It was known as Teletubbies Hill because it was once very green. Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Lala, and Pooh on kids’ TV series are leaving on a very green green hill. So, people was once compared this hill with these kids’ idols’ hill. 

Moving up, we visited other part of Bromo, which is Ranupani area. This area was less affected by Bromo eruption. The farm land was still green. Still we could see many local people take care of their plants. We then arrived at Ranupani Lake. It was a quiet lake. The lake was also still very clean. No rubbish seen there. It was still virgin resort and I hoped it could be preserved as it is but with a little improvement on facilities, such as toilet. The view is breathtaking too with the background of Mount Bromo. If you had ever seen Lake House or The Notebook movie, it was also the same. The difference is there was no canoe to cross the lake. I would be much good if there was canoe rent available. 

This adventure that I’d take was not cheap but was very satisfying. This was the greatest adventure I’d ever done in my life. Going up to the top beating the cold and exhaustion, struggling with smoke and ashes just to get to the sea of sands, and visiting a very quiet and beautiful lake, is a mixture of adventure to find the beauty of earth. Yes, Bromo is reviving but is worth to see.