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Bromo Agung (Mount Bromo) |
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This is us shivering in the cold of a crisp morning after seeing the sunrise over Gunung Bromo, East Java.Because of the altitude it gets VERY COLD and good boots and a woollen jumper are needed. To make matters worse, sunrise is about 4:30 am and you need to wake about 3am if you are walking up. It's a long time to spend freezing in sandles and shorts! |
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We stayed at Losman Lava, Cemoro Lawang - Rp7,000 for a dark double room. We couldn't tell if it was dirty but gave the sus. looking mattress a damn good spray before venturing into it! What it lacked in comfort it gained in location and the place is full of backpackers who can give you good and not so good advice. (beware of Germans who argue amongst themselves about splitting bills down to Rp5 - about two-tenths of one US cent!) |
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This is the view from the steps up the crater looking back towards the village of Cemoro Lawang. The temple can be seen in the left middleground. |
When dusk starts and the shadows creep across area the temperature drops quite rapidly and the air becomes misty. This is a road leading out from Cemoro Lawang |
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The volcano spews out a fine grey ash and this can play havoc with cameras - especially those with automatic lenses. A few shots on the crater rim should be more than enough to mangle your lens good and proper!After walking to the volcano rim we came back covered in this ash and had the coldest cold water wash ever.So cold most of the Europeans didn't wash in the typical three day stay. Being Australian we could not do this and washed every freezing morning - technique: pour water over oneself, shiver and let out quiet moans, soap up, stand still and get partner to quickly throw dippers of water at you while you scream.As compensation for the hardship, you will feel morally superior to all the others for the rest of the day. |
This is Grant covered in ash after we had walked to the crater rim. Why on Earth did he wear white! |
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We were very lucky to arrive as Gunung Bromo was having a bit of a turn - it had been closed the day before for safety reasons but this also meant we got lots and lots of ash spewing out. The volcano is actually a crater within a crater and is reached by a 3km walk across the lava sea. Slugs can hire a horse if they are not up to walking.The sunrise was spectacular - we hired a guide who picked us up at 3.30am, drove us outside the village with three annoying English girls and then walked us for 60 minutes up goat tracks to a lookout (dead quiet except for said annoying English girls whinging the whole time). Brave souls could do it without a guide but we figured for Rp3,000 each this was sensible investment to ensure we got to the lookout on time (big laugh with guide in Bahasa Indonesia, English girls pay Rp8,000 each and they apparently bargained!). Of course, when we got to the lookout we found it could be easily reached by road from Malang. Again moral superiority overwhelmed us.This lookout is way above the volcano itself and sunrise is a fair bit earlier but you get to see the light move from up the coast and suddenly bathe Bromo itself. |
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The local Tenggerese people are the remnants of the older Hindu culture that dominated Java before Islam ('Bromo' is actually derived from 'Brahma') and make a living out of growing onions, cabbages, chilli, garlic and carrots and hiring out small ponies to overweight Japanese for ridiculous amounts.
We recommend a small cafe near the carpark run by a friendly woman who just happens to make the best Kopimanis we found - why we found it here we cannot fathom. |
Colourful houses and little doorways in Cemoro Lawang |
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***Travellers Warning ***
Most people travel up to Bromo via Probolinggo. Beware of sleaze bags 'organising' the buses/bemos both out of Probolinggo and up to Bromo as they have got the "sorry this bus break down and is running ? hours late, but for an extra Rp? we can get you on a bus just about to leave" scam happening. It works because they overcharge you to start with and are able to pay a driver of another bus (who may be looking for a few extras to fill it) to take you. They keep the overcharged amount and any special premium they squeeze out of you. Everyone associated with the transport seems in on it, trust no-one.
Alert as we were we still had to go through the hassle of dodging these scum. We had our first encounter on arriving at 4am in Probolinggo. Despite our ticket to be dropped at the main bus station where we had planned to wait until dawn we in fact ended up at a 'Tourist Office' in town with the driver refusing to go to the terminal. What do you do? Shoot him? No, just sigh and think kharma will get him. So we instead sat down in town and waited for the bemos to start (about 5am is normal). The ever 'helpful' tourist office just happened to flag down a private taxi which just happened to be rolling by about 10 minutes later and said we could have it for Rp30,000. We declined and said we would wait until dawn. Patience, you know, is a virtue and it was pleasant enough sitting listening to the mosques calling in the distance and watching the town slowly stirring.
Then another taxi just happened to pass by, only this one could be had for only Rp7,500 each as it was 'picking up others and we could share'. Yeah, right. Also decline. Tourist Office men getting a bit perturbed...if they don't get us onto their over priced transport the Rp4,000 cash they slipped the driver (while we weren't looking of course) would evaporate. They start getting a bit nasty. Public bemos have started running. Grant crosses the road, waves one down and does the most rapid price haggle in history (Rp2500 each, packs inside bemo) while Dale drags the two backpacks over. Tourist Office men go ballistic.
Before the transport slime can get across the road and threaten the bemo driver into leaving us here we jump into the bemo and speed off leaving the Tourist men in very pissed off moods and loads of diesel fumes. Tough, they lose contest. The locals make room for us and explain that 'these people from Surabaya' are a very bad element, apparently they see this each and every day. As we were going back down the mountain a few days later in the early morning the scum didn't really have much chance of stinging us with the bus broke down trick - we got off at the bus terminal and could get any of the 8000 buses departing at that time by just walking over and paying the driver.
However we saw a group of Americans done over good and proper on a trip to Denpasar from Malang - it was 10.30pm and they faced two choices; pay and move or remain and stuff up their own connections/plans for the day. All 8 of them ended up paying Rp18,000 each to go from Probolinggo to Gilimanuk (normal price would be a few thousand at most). As this activity is so lucrative we would not envisage the local authorities moving against it (and make of that statement what you will) |
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