slosh down the pepper!

The crazy little adventure trip to Mt. Bromo - Part III

Mt. Penanjakan:

3am, the hostel staff knocked on our room door to wake us up. What personalised morning call! Hehe. Hoo.. it gave us the chills when our bare feet touched the cold floor. We were glad for the rented jackets. Midway up the steps to the waiting area, Tempest felt a twang in his stomach and had to return to the room to use the toilet. I continued my way up; it's too tiring to climb up and down in the cold dark morning. I saw quite a number of guides waiting for their tourists, and another group of tourists and guides waiting for their jeeps. Udin was there too! He was to bring 2 other angmoh females to Bromo. While waiting for their jeep, Udin took chance to play with his dog and introduce it to us. 'Jacky' was a medium-sized mongrel with black and white patches. Apparently it had been up to the observation point with Udin on several occasions!

Shortly after Udin and group left, Tempest arrived, but yet had to descend to our room again to take the flashlight that we purposedly bought for the sunrise trip. Hehe.

Our driver was late for 20 minutes! And for the first 15 minutes of the jeep drive, that young guy probably in his early twenties, was almost always talking away on his handphone! Luckily it was kind of flat ground we were travelling then, otherwise we might have fallen over the edges of the volcano. He was probably slow in his driving too, as quite a few jeeps overtook us. Argh!! The second half of the journey was much faster and smoother when we travelled on well-paved roads. Following that was a 15-minute trek uphill to the observation point. Along the way, we saw several touts selling sock caps and renting thick jackets. There was also a stretch of shops selling hot drinks, snacks and souveniers. We were particularly caught by the smell of grilled sweet corn sold by a roadside stall, but we had no chance to even think of buying it since our guide was already ahead of us.

By the time we reached the top of the observation point aka Mt. Penanjakan. it was crowded with tourists, most of them caucasians. They, not only have the natural advantage of being tall, but were also hogging the front rows of the viewpoint!


The entire place is structured like an amphitheatre, with rows of benches on cut steps in progressive elevation. With the "stage area" already packed with tall westerners, we had to settle for a standing space on the first row of steps. Even that only got us a partial view as the angmohs started to either sit on the railings or stand on the ledge leaning against the railings. One guy even went as far as to sit on top of a short stump of block, effectively blocking most people of a full view. Really annoying!

The sky started to brighten at about 5.15am. We waited for 10 minutes or so but there was no signs of the sun rising. Some of the spectators who got favorable standing area began to leave their hard-earned lots and moved away to take pictures of the volcanos (located further east) which were beginnning to be unveiled as the mist dispersed. Just as I was resigned to an unsatiable sunrise viewing experience, 2 ladies got off the bench seats at the row behind us. Woohoo! Another Asian man also saw the opportunity and was trying to shout for his partner; seeing that, I quickly stood on it before calling out to Tempest. At times like this, you gotta be aggressive! :) And I was well-rewarded with an awesome sunrise at full view!



Tris wanted to bring us downhill to take a closer look at the volcanos. I strongly rejected his invitation while Tempest eagarly trodded along. Dunno why, but the slopes appeared daunting and I doubt I could make it without falling over. On hindsight, I should have gone down with them; the photos Tris took of Tempest were quite nice (like the one below). Hee, but they did bring back a bunch of mountain flowers - edelwiess and some herb that stops nose bleeding (Tris mentioned some latin name that I can't make out) and a handful of sourish wildberries! They looked like blueberries, just smaller.


The one sprouting smoke is Mt. Bromo. And the tallest one in the background is Mt. Semaru, the most active volcano of East Java; it is said to have small eruptions every 10 minutes. In the foreground is probably Mt. Batok, an already dormant volcano.

Tris was also telling us that Mt. Bromo erupts every 5 years and it last erupted on 8 June 2004 and killed 2 tourists (one Singaporean 13-year old boy and another local). So that means it could erupt any moment now! O_O BUT upon arriving home, I checked up the web and some sources recorded its last eruption in 2007, but I couldn't find any details on it. *puzzled* But if the 2007 eruption holds true, then it's pretty scary when the guides were not aware of the latest information and were saying the wrong things to the tourists. Hmm..

On our way to Mt. Bromo, Tris brought us up a ridge for some photo-taking (while most other tourists were contented to stay by the road). It is a good thing that he used to like photography and often pointed out good places to capture nice pictures. The one at the blog header was his idea. Hee.. really nice!


Mt. Penanjakan is quite a good place to view all the prominent volcanoes. We even saw a couple taking wedding shoots at the ridge. Pretty amazing that the bride could make it to the more rocky areas with the gown and stuffs. (As she lifted up her gown, she revealed her pants..ahh.. so that was how.. now I wonder what shoes she was wearing...)


Sea of Sand:

He also stopped us in the middle of the Tengger caldera floor (aka Sea of Sand) for again some photo-shooting moments. In fact, we were the only jeep that stopped there.

Tempest: "Hai.. too bad we don't have a container to carry the sand home"
Me: "But this is a national park... we are not supposed to.."
Tempest: "They have so much sand here!"

Oh well...

Mt. Bromo:

It took a short 15 minute or so drive to Mt. Bromo, where our horses were waiting for us. We reached the base of Mt. Bromo via a 10-15 minute horse ride across the caldera floor. Here, we dismissed the idea of bringing back any volcanic ash/sand... the entire floor was covered with blobs of smelly yellowish poo of the horses. YUCK!

Look at the number of horses and their guides waiting for the return of their riders! There's the Hindu temple at the far back. We didn't bother to stop there for photos since it looked pretty empty.


250 steps leading to the crater rim. Look at how well-prepared we were.. N95 mask! Most people we saw were using scarves and paper masks. It was not as smelly as Mt. Ijen as the crater is much smaller. It was more to ward off the sand that flew about as the wind rose. Oh, and the hunch, that was our North-face daypack hidden underneath Tempest's jacket. He did that cos Tris was telling us to take care of our belongings back in Mt. Penanjakan.


I was a bit sad that I didn't get the white horse instead. Come to think of it now, maybe the guides assign us to the horses according to our color of our attire. Haha.. The brown one that I was riding was in fact foaming at the mouth. Tempest also noticed that the animal pooed a large blob of shit and fell out of the bag that was strapped underneath to hold the shit. And his stupid horse stepped over the poo. Wahaha!

The horse guides were also very blatant in asking for tips: "maybe you can give something to the horse.." So Tempest flipped out a $50,000 RP note and handed it over to my horse guide. "For the 2 of you," he said, pointing to his own guide as well. Back at Lava Hostel, Tris also reminded us to tip the jeep driver. We were a bit reluctant actually, after all the driver was paid to do his job, and he didn't provide good service either! Still, to keep things happy, we tipped a $20,000 RP note to the driver. And of course, another $50,000 RP to Tris. He was quite a good guide, bringing us to ulu scenic places, taking photos for us etc.

And that was it. Back to Lava Hostel for our "buffet breakfast".

The young man at the counter would ask how you would like your eggs to be done - scrambled, omelette, or sunny-side up. Other breakfast items include local fruits, toasted bread, fried rice with no ingredients, butter, jam, coffeee and tea. Truly basic, but enough to fill the tummies.

After some packing, we were ready to check out and return to Surabaya city by 9.30am.

Bambang said he would bring us to 2 places including visiting the mud flood. Driving out to the city took about 4 hours and we arrived at a roadside restaurant for lunch. This time round, the menu at least had english descriptions. The previous restaurants we went to only had menus fully in Indonesian, and we had to rely on our guides to recommend dishes.

The usual bbq Gurame fish, fried kang kung with shrimps, and my favorite tahu telor! Their version is flattened, unlike the towering ones sold in Singapore. This one even has the peanut dip by the side. Really tasty!

After lunch, Bambang drove us to the mud flood. If not for the factory roofs that were still showing up, I wouldn't have realized that the entire village had been submerged. Ewee... imagined being drowned in mud...

The mud flood was caused by excessive drilling of the gas pipes which resulted an eruption of hot mud from the gas well. To think I thought it was some mud volcano.. heh.. There were some motorcylists who claimed to be victims of the mud flood; one even showed me some kind of pass they had been given by the government as proof of their identity. These guys were selling vcds of documentaries of the mud flood, and even offered to bring us to the site of the eruption for a small fee. When we rejected the offer, he then requested us to "give us some rupiah or something".

I was pretty glad that Bambang didn't add stuff like: "maybe you will like to give them something.." :P

After that, Bambang brought us to some open plaza with statues depicting the nation's struggle for independence. It was hot and boring, and got him to drop us at some shopping mall instead. It's very much like those in Singapore, even the shops and brands they carry. Nothing too fancy or extraordinary. We could have stayed back in Lava Hostel, and relax till check-out time at noon, before going straight to the airport. Bleh..

Nonetheless, it was still a very memorable impromptu trip! A lot of firsts too - first time riding in a jeep, first time riding a horse, first time watching sunrise, first time climbing a volcano, first time seeing a crater lake, first time wearing a sock cap, first time flying with Silkair, first time wearing a N95 mask.. hee..

Of course, our parents were not very approving of our methods. Visiting a volcano is considered dangerous enough, what more joining a tour package with just the two of us and a total stranger guide! Frankly speaking, we were quite glad that we didn't meet with any danger. :)

Total expenses: $216 nett airfare with Silkair; USD200 for a 3D2N tour with Global Adventure Indonesia (covers all lodging, meals, entrance fees, horse rides, jeep ride, return transfer to Airport); about SGD 50 for tipping (the most we have spent on tipping so far!)

posted by slingwoof @ 8/13/2009 08:01:00 PM 0 comments

The crazy little adventure trip to Mt. Bromo - Part II

Bondowoso - Mt Ijen:

We checked out of Palm hotel at 4.30am for our 3-hour bumpy drive to Mt Ijen. In fact, the journey would have been much shorter if not for the lousy roads which was full of sand, small rocks and potholes.

At Ijen, Bambang initially wanted us to trek up the 3m to the crater lake on our own. But I thought I wanted a guide. So he arranged for Bak-Im to bring us up. This was a tanned and skinny man about my height. He sprouts only a few english phrases and taught us bahasa indonesia along the way up. I distinctively remembered "pelan pelan" (I thought I heard "blan blan") which meant "slow slow". He was quite nice and helpful, finding us walking sticks, pointing to us the good trails to walk on, and holding on to me by the arm when he saw that I had problems going down slopes. He would say "pelan pelan", "no problem" whenever we lagged behind him. Also a very environmentally conscious being, he was constantly picking up rubbish and sweeping away loose twigs off the foot path. We could also tell that he was quite popular among the workers; he was almost always chatting with the continous stream of workers (who were carrying as much as 70kg of sulphur!) going downhill, and greeting foreigners of other groups. One angmoh even offered Bak-Im some cookies.

Ever since I worked the London Shift begining late April this year, I hadn't been visiting the gym often. So even thought it was only a 3km hike uphill, I found it strenuous and taxing on the knees as we treaded down slopes.



As we approached the lake, the sulphur smell got so strong that it was choking. I was quite surprised to see some workers even having their meals and smoking and resting nearby. Frankly, the lake looks better in the pictures. I think 70% of the time, the lake is covered with the sulphurous smoke. So I didn't really catch a view of the full lake without the 'mist'. But luckily Tempest did, and captured it with his canon.



Bak-Im advised us to quickly take a few photo shoots and go back, as the smell is "no good". The trek up took us about 1.5 hours and the downward return took 0.5 hour less. We were glad to stop by the cafe at the foot of the mountain for drinks before returning to the car for yet another bumpy ride downhill, followed by a long drive to Mt. Bromo.



Mt Ijen - Bromo Area:

We had a new passenger joining us for the ride to Bromo - Udin. This is yet one other short little man, muscular, tanned and very cheerful, nonsensical guy. Weird, the shorter guys in Surabaya are always more interesting and funny than their taller counterparts. Udin was a fellow employee from Global Adventure and had just ended his tour on Mt Ijen. He would be starting a tour on Bromo the next morning and thus took a lift from us. This Probolinggo-born local entertained us with his singing, jokes, stories during the car ride. He would point out coffee plantations, tobacco plants, glue trees to us along the way. I had a really bad tummyache midway (probably due to the 3 slices of bread packed by Palm Hotel), and he was nice to buy a bottled drink from a village shop lady so that I could use their toilet as a favor to us. He also advised that Bromo could be quite cold at night, and it was best to have a thick jacket along. Upon learning that Tempest only has a pullover, he assured us that we could rent jackets at the hostel.

Lunch was not as elaborate, but still good and cheap. A grilled whole Gurame fish is only 32,000 rupiah, equivalent to SGD 4.60! This time round, Bambang and Udin ordered their own individual portions, while me and Tempest ordered the fish, kangkung and tahu telor to share amongst the 4 of us. Earlier on, we found out that Edy doesn't take chicken. Now we realised that Bambang likes egg, but doesn't like fish. Hehe.. and Tempest doesn't take vegetables. I also ordered a hot ginger drink which was sweet and spicy - good for the 'injured' tummy. I suspect our entire meal, including the guides', cost less than SGD 20.

We re-traced our route from Bondowoso to Jember to Probolinggo, then to Cemoro Lawang, and past Ngadisari village to Lava Hostel or Cafe Lava, as it is more popularly known.


The road up to the mountains was really scenic, with lotsa greenery, deciduous-like forestation, fields planted with all kinds of food like padi, maize, watermelon, banana etc, and huts and houses built at all types of precarious-looking grounds.


It was almost similar to Dalat, but the bigger variety of plants and long mountainous range add color and magnificence to the picturesque region. Comparatively, Dalat looks a bit ugly with its ruggard slums at hilltops; its huge population of coffee plantations also dull the scenary. What's even more lacking are the mist and intense blue skies that lends Bromo area its fairyland characteristics. Oh, and I forgot to mention about those cobbled stone walls that the Indonesians used to fence their houses. Cute, like some cottage in those fables.


SO we reached Cafe Lava at about 5.30pm, and checked in to Room 209. Again, pretty basic lodging facilities, but it does come with hot water, TV, and thick quilts. No air con is needed since the cool mountain air is chilling enough. The entire lodge seems to be built on wood, giving it a traditional Balinese feel. Room is considerably clean, but maybe the lights were quite dim despite having quite a few of them, so I can't really spot the dirt. Just one thing about the "heater". It uses gas to ignite fire and then boils the water that flows through the tube. So within the heater, you can see the fire burning away! Like those bunsen burner flames we see, albeit bigger. Be sure to wait a while after the first user, for the gas is used up after 15 to 20 minutes of usage, and needs time to be refilled.


I wanted to walk to Lava View Lodge, the higher-end cousin of Lava Hostel. But it was located within the Bromo National Park, and we needed to pay an entrance fee. Thus we gave up that idea and went back to the cafe to take an early dinner at 6pm. We were assigned set meals by our tour agency. There was a bowl of vegatable soup, a plate of palm-sized grilled chicken breast with boiled vegetables and french fries by the side, and mixed fruits which we exchanged for the Javanese fried banana for dessert, and tea/coffee. The the skinless chicken breast was a tad too tough, but the fries and fried banana were good.


We were seated next to the windows, so while we were eating, we constantly see the locals waving sock caps woven with the words "Mt Bromo" from outside the cafe. Since we already have ours, we waved them off :p Then this tall dark muscular looking guy came forth and introduced himself as Tris, our guide to Bromo the next morning. He went through the itinerary and informed us that the cafe staff would provide us with a "morning call" at 3am, so as to prepare us for set-off at 3.30am. Tempest was a little worried that it was a scam and we could be left at the top of the mountain with no transport back; he forgot that Bambang had told us that we would be assigned a new guide to Mt. Bromo. So back to the room, he went ahead to make a call to Edy to confirm this change. He fiddled with the phone numbers for a while before getting through to Edy who assured us of this arrangement.

With all things done and a peace of mind gained, we took a quick shower and shuttle off to bed at 9pm.

Labels: ijen crater, indonesia, mt. bromo, surabaya, travel

posted by slingwoof @ 8/13/2009 04:06:00 PM 1 comments

The crazy little adventure trip to Mt. Bromo - Part I

I am back from Lavaland, unscathed!

It started with Andrew's photos on Facebook. Though less than 30 of them, each photo boasted of clear blue sky, lush green vegetation, volcanos shrouded in misty-looking clouds... it's all very surreal.. and that sparked my thoughts on visiting Mt. Bromo. With the long National Day weekend, it was the perfect timing!

So during the 10 days before our departure on National Day, me and Tempest hastily bought our air tickets from Silkair (quite a bargain at $216 nett, made even so with its early outbound and late inbound flight), booked our tour from Global Adventure Indonesia (chosen over Lintang Buana Tours for its slightly lower prices for 2 pax, responsiveness and friendliness over yahoo messenger), and then made last-minute purchases of LED flashlight and sock caps. Woo hoo! We are ready for our most impromptu adventure by Sunday :-)


Singapore - Surabaya:

We were met by Edy Siswanto, the founder of Global Adventure, at Surabaya Airport. It turned out that he ran out of staff, so he had to hire an external driver and meet us himself . When we first checked out of the departure hall, we couldn't find anyone who was supposed to be holding on to a sign with my name prominently displayed. Then a little man no taller than 1.55m approached us. He had longish hair, wore a ketayap kopiah (Malay woven headwear), and was all smiles when he held up a plastic folder with a piece of paper printed with my name, our flight details and contact numbers. That was Edy. He made a quick introduction of himself, collected USD400 from us, and led us to the car that was already waiting in the carpark opposite the airport. In comparison to most guides we met, this little man spoke pretty good english. He was to drop us at the hotel in Bondowoso, then pass us over to another of his team member who would accompany us for the rest of the 3D2N tour.



Surabaya - Bondowoso:

This is one of our first long car drive, almost 7.5 hours including stopovers for lunch and phototaking. Nothing spectacular along the way till we reach the suburbs and villages by the sea. We stopped by one of the restaurants lining by the sea. Lunch was pretty elaborate; Edy ordered several small dishes - oxtail curry, stir-fried potato, vegetables, fish curry, fish head curry, mutton rendang, chicken curry, eggs in curry, fried chicken wings, fruits and a couple of other stuff that we didn't touch. We had joined several local land tours in other Southeast Asian countries, and this was the first time the tour guides joined us at the same table for meals. Maybe this is the indonesian style of fostering a more personal interaction.



We made a quick stopover at Pasir Putih aka White Beach, a short distance away from the restaurant. The place is akin to east coast park, albeit shorter, where locals will while their weekends away swimming, having picnics, fishing. The beach is not free for all, visitors have a token fee of few thousand rupiah to use the facilities which really ain't much, just a few shops selling food and stuff, and renting fishing boats. Honestly, I wasn't impressed; I thought our very own ECP is a lot much better. But Tempest was taken over again by the vastness of the sea, which comes "clean" without the big tankers, boats, cruises etc that we will find lining the horizon every single time we overlook the one at ECP.



After another few hours of drive, we finally reached the city of Bondowoso. But our driver couldn't find the hotel! So Edy had to make a few phone calls, got off the car a few times, asked around before we managed to locate Palm Hotel at 5.30pm (Surabaya time GMT +0700). He then arranged for us to check into our room, introduced us to Bambang (our driver cum guide for the next 2 days), went through the itinerary, helped us to choose our dinner before leaving.



Hotel room was considerably clean and comes with heater, aircon, small TV without satellite channels, bottled water and tea. It could be a 2 or 3 star hotel as it comes with a swimming pool, and a roof top area for KTV. There was also chargeable Wi-Fi at its lobby. We did a short stroll around the hotel, took pictures, and headed off for dinner at 6.30pm.




Amazingly, we shrugged it off without a really big fuss and cleaned out the plates sans dead fly. I had a stomachache the next day but I doubt it was due to that fly since Tempest was perfectly alright. Without much to do, we took a hot shower and went to bed at about 10pm.

Labels: ijen crater, indonesia, mt. bromo, surabaya, travel

posted by slingwoof @ 8/13/2009 11:36:00 AM 0 comments