Day 2, the main event of our trip: BROMO Mountain.
Let me pick up where I had left on part 1. We were at my aunt’s house to get a couple of hours to sleep. We came to her house around 8 pm and went to bed around 10pm (after having the local famous Baso joint). We were tired and I had a short good quality couple of hours sleep. We woke up around 12.30 am, get ready and picked up by our driver Pak Didik and our Bromo Guide Mas Akbar, at my aunt’s. Yep, we start the journey at the very early before dawn then we continued our sleep in the car. It was a very dark and bumpy road, I hit my head to the side of the window car several times.
We arrived around 3.30 am. The car was parked then we changed our ride into a Jeep, red Jeep. The jeep took us to the top of the mountain and also companied by mas Akbar’s story about the history of Bromo local people called the Tengger Tribes. We got off from the jeep and went to this coffee shop to have coffee, snacks and warm our body (it was cold and windy out there). Around 4am, we walk through large stairs to go up to see the sunrise. It was still dark and so cold when we arrived at the top and we took a spot on the front. There were lots of people chasing the sunrises there at Bromo, not only local but many international tourists too.
Unfortunately the sun was quite shy, hiding behind the clouds, so we can only see the ray when it rises. But it was beautiful. There were awesomely beautiful moments when the sky was getting lighter and brighter. Where at first we can’t see anything because of the dark, then the beautiful scenery reveal to our sight, magical.
As for me, it was one of the panoramic view that took my breath away, heaven on earth.
When the sun shone brightly, the weather was getting warmer and its picture time! Yipie the 3 ladies back in action. Unlike Part 1 where I attached each photos (all me! it’s my blog! hehe), there are so many great pictures at Bromo Mountain so I compiled it in a short video bellow. Well, after we took many many pictures on the top, we go back down to where the jeep parked then heading down the hill on a bumpy half hour ride jeep.
Finally we were there, down at the Bromo Mountain ready to hike up to the volcano in the sea of sand (it’s almost like dessert but cold) or also called Caldera. There are lots of horses (and it’s shits too) and a temple that build by the Tengger Villagers for them to pray and do offering once a year. At first I went up to the volcano of Mount Pananjakan where you can see smokes coming from inside the Mountain Panajakan (yes! it’s still active volcano and in status ALLERT where the last eruption was in january 2011, but NO! none of us afraid because of it’s beautiful panorama view!). I even remember when Mba Dian almost giving up hiking to the top, but thanks to Mba Yumai perseverance that kept telling her that she’ll regret if she gave up, Mba Dian then decided to ride the horse. I kinda tired too and my stomach gets a little tingle because I haven’t go to the morning bathroom yet (I know, too many details, sorry) so I took the horse. There was a certain point where horse was not allowed and we had to walk on a very long and steep 200 staircases.
Up at the top of the volcano, all of the struggle to get up there was worthy. It was beautiful looking down at the caldera, the temple, the mountain surround us and the green mount Bromo was standing right behind us. Feels like on the top of this earth! Pictures, pictures, pictures..thank’s to our young cute tour guide Mas Akbar who was willing to take pictures of us and there were quite good pictures too. After going down the long steep stairs, my stomach gets more and more tingled, so I decided to go back to our jeep with horse, while the others were walking. I got a cute white and brown horse name Malbo, 6 years old and drinks water in every 2 days. The man who guided Malbo (who according to him, Malbo is a celebrity horse because it has been used for movies and tv series shoots in Bromo) even let me ride and ran with Malbo all by myself (only for some part of the ride). Malbo then took me to the restroom where I can end my tingled tummy.
Well, it’s getting hotter on the “sea of sand” so we were going back to Malang. It felt so great, seeing heaven on earth worth the trip and the ride to get there.
Arrived at Malang after 4 hours of car ride, we had lunch Nasi Buk (madura’s rice with meat and vegetables and all kind) which also good one but I forgot the name, got to our hotel and took shower. It was around 1pm, with our tired and happy body, we took a deep long nap until around 5pm.
At 7.30 pm my aunt and her husband pick us up at the hotel and took us dinner in Yogyakarta Restaurant (food here were great too) oh and I forget one culinary menu I like to order here in Malang: Sambel Mangga, (shredded mango with chilly and shrimp paste, even better with Petis like the one I had in Bethania Cafe, Batu). Then they took us to Batu again, explore the night in Batu mountain hill drinking warm milk. Then we got back to our hotel around 11pm to take a good night sleep after this long long long and wonderful day.
