Gunung Bromo

Last weekend, I got the chance to take a little excursion to somewhere closer to home. ("Home" in this case being Surabaya, of course.)

Jen, the other Fellow who lives closest to me, invited me to join her and a colleague of hers, Citra, along with a few of Citra's friends, for a one-night trip to climb Mount Bromo, or Gunung Bromo, as it's called in Indonesian.Fun fact I just learned from Wikipedia: The name of Bromo is derived from the Javanese pronunciation of Brahma, the Hindu creator god.

Bromo is a really popular tourist destination, especially in Surabaya, because it's relatively close. Usually when I talk to Indonesians, the questions are in this order:
1. Do you like Indonesia?
2. Do you like Indonesian food?
3. Where have you been in Indonesia?
4. Why haven't you been to Bromo yet?

So, it was time to prepare a better response to that third question and finally visit Bromo. Seven of us piled into a car and drove out to the city of Cemoro Lawang, a bucolic village about 45 minutes' drive from the mountain.

Jen and I kept being warned about how cold it was going to be. I was told several times to bring a jacket and warm clothing. I kept thinking, Really? Indonesians' idea of cold tends to be a bit different from mine. But I brought a sweater (I didn't even bring a jacket to Indonesia).

When we got to Cemoro Lawang at night, it actually was kind of cold! Maybe 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit? It was wonderful! Our hotel room was chilly, so Jen and I slept in our socks and used all of the blankets provided in the room. Such a great feeling!

The next morning, we got up at 3am to drive to Semeru, the tallest mountain in the area, to get a lookout of the other mountains during the sunrise. Our driver was half an hour late picking us up, making us stressed that we'd miss the sunrise (or that he wouldn't come at all). When he finally did arrive, he was quite surly, didn't apologize, and drove like a madman up the windy road to the top of Semeru. Thankfully, we did not get in an accident (or fall off the side of the road) and I think he made up the lost time. 

Unfortunately, at the top of Semeru, there wasn't much to see.

This was pretty. The beginning of the sunrise. This was the most we got.

It just became more and more cloudy, so that as the sun came up, it just looked like this:

Lots of grey. And kind of chilly!

Nurhayati, me, Dia, Jen, Citra, and one of Jen's students who was coincidentally there the same day and spotted Jen!

Thanks to Jen, by the way. A lot of the better pictures are stolen from her blog, and her much better camera.

So after waiting in vain for a view of the sunrise or any of the surrounding area, we gave up and got back in the car, driving to Bromo next. But on the way, we stopped to take pictures of this:

I don't actually know which mountain this is. I don't think it's Bromo. But what a view. I felt like I would see dinosaurs at any minute.

When we reached the area near Bromo, we had about a thirty-minute walk to get to the actual foot of the mountain. There were lots of guys trying to get you to take a horse up there. The horses were actually really pretty; most of them looked well-fed and fairly healthy (to my untrained eye).

One of the owners galloping past on his horse.

But I chose to walk up the route. It was a little tiring, since we were at higher elevation. Once we got to the foot of Bromo, it looked like this:

I don't know if you can tell, but there were a LOT of people there, waiting to hike up the 200 steps to the top. In fact, there was a line of people just waiting to get on the steps. So rather than wait in that line, I followed Hermanto, one of the guys on our trip, up the side of the steps--in the dirt. It was a bit more of a workout, but we got to the top way faster. And it was more fun.

Me, Hermanto, and Amer--the people who didn't take the stairs.

I also had the novel experience of being asked to take a photo with a stranger...using my camera! I didn't really get that he meant to use my camera until it was too late.

Cheese! Do I know you?

He never even told me what his name was! Oh well. We got some nice views of the crater.

After taking the stairs down the side of the crater, Jen and I decided to pay the $5 to take a horse the rest of the way to the cars. I picked one of the bigger horses I could find (most of them were pony size), and trotted off. The owner of the horse was a nice guy, and we had a conversation in a mix of Indonesian and English.

My horse's name was apparently Manis, which means "sweet" in Indonesian. Awwww.

Jen's horse before it tried to bite my horse.

Then we got back in the car and drove out to a couple other scenic spots. One spot that people called a savannah, and one that was called "whispering sands." I only got a couple pics at the savannah.

Me, Jen, and Citra

After visiting those spots, we came back to our hotel, where we had time to get a proper breakfast, shower, take a nap, and/or walk around the village a bit. I opted to take a walk by myself, since I wasn't sleepy yet, and I really had a great time exploring a bit. The weather was wonderful--it was probably about 75 degrees in the middle of the day, with no humidity. I didn't that kind of climate even existed in Indonesia!

As we drove home, I took a few pictures of the scenery out the car window:

It was so nice outside that we were able to spend the first hour of the drive with all the windows rolled down. Then we reached the outskirts of Surabaya, and the 90-degree heat returned. It was nice while it lasted.