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SURABAYA TO CEMORO LAWANG:
With the help of Dion, Chuckles' brother, we rented a car in Surabaya and drove to Mt. Bromo. With a bit of getting lost at the beginning, we arrived at our hotel in Cemoro Lawang 5.5 hours later... 2.5 hours longer than expected thanks to some pretty bad traffic.
SPECIAL TREATMENT:
We waited for Vimal who was making her way from jogjakarta before getting dinner. We were told by the hotel receptionist that some warungs (local restaurants) opened late. It was around 10pm when we went to look for an open warung. But the town was asleep! A street vendor, who convinced us to buy 2 pairs of gloves and 2 beanies from him for about SGD 8 (USD 6), helped us out by waking up one of the warung owners! We of course tried to protest but apparently, it wasn't a problem and the owner seemed happy enough to cook something for us. For IDR 15,000 (USD 2.70), we had a very decent nasi goreng with fried egg on top and a mug of hot ginger tea.
GUNUNG PENANJAKAN:
We woke up at 330am the next day to walk up Gunung Penanjakan and try to catch the sunrise at 5am. We were warned that there hasn't been a good sunrise for a week and today wasn't different. It just got bright and it was too cloudy to see anything. As we walked an hour to get to the top, we were sweating and have peeled off our layers by the time we reached the peak. Everyone else who were there got there by a tour jeep/motorbike and/or riding a horse so they were all cold and a bit amused when they saw us hot and sweating. By about 6am, most people have gone either by choice or by their tour guide telling them they had to go. Kev, me, chuckles and Vimal decided to stay until 7am and were rewarded with a magnificent unraveling of a wonderful view of Mt Bromo and Gunung Batok. And we experienced this wonderful view in our lonesome as all the other tourists have gone by then!
MADAKARIPURA WATERFALL:
We tried to go up Mt Bromo in the afternoon but a sandstorm stopped us. So we decided to go to the nearby Madakaripura waterfall, about an hour away from cemoro lawang, instead. We were warned by the locals that flash floods are common, esp this time of the year being rainy season and told us that we should turn around when it starts drizzling. Turned out we had to get a guide anyway (IDR 50,000; USD 5.50) so I felt a bit safer going to the falls. We somehow ended up with 2 guides (and inadvertently had to pay for both) but this worked out in the end as they made the trek a lot easier and faster for me and Vimal. The waterfall was amazing! It was In between gorges and was breathtaking.
MT. BROMO:
The next day, we walked about an hour to get from our hotel to Mt. Bromo's crater. Because we set about walking at 430am, the sand (in Lautan Pasir) was still damp so despite the wind, we didn't get bothered too much... I still wore my goggles though :)
Walking along the crater was both awesome and freaky. The path was narrow, it was very windy and there is nothing to stop you from falling into the crater and (I'm imagining) the green sulphur lake inside from melting your burnt and dead body! But putting the fear aside, the experience of standing on the crater lip of an active volcano is truly awesome.
When we descended from Mt Bromo, a few horsemen approached us offering a ride back to our hotel. We have previously discussed renting the horse for an hour and go around the desert. Chuckles managed to bargain an hour ride for IDR 50,000 (USD 5.60). So I then discovered that I can ride a horse!! From my experience with riding a camel in Egypt, I tried to control the reins the same way and was pleasantly surprised to realise that camels and horses have been trained to respond to the same commands :) But it wasn't completely smooth sailing... I had to ask (luckily before my horse, named July by the way, trotted off away from his owner's earshot) how to make her stop :)
GUNUNG PENANJAKAN AGAIN:
After a late breakfast, we (me, Kev and chuckles) walked back up the peak of Gunung Penanjakan and once again, we found ourselves alone at the peak. The view was different this time... We had a view of the sandstorm from Lautan Pasir. It was an eerily cool sight with the sand and the cloud meeting.
MASSAGE:
We finished our day with a massage back in our room. IDR 25,000 (USD 2.80) for a half an hour massage :)
Accommodation:
Cafe lava hostel IDR 285,000 (USD 32)
Costs:
Nasi Goreng: IDR 10,000 (USD 1.10)
Nasi Campur: IDR15,000 (USD 1.60)
Ginger tea (teh jahe): IDR 15,000
Park (mt bromo) entrance fee: IDR 25,000 (USD 0.30)
Waterfall entrance fee: IDR 2,500 (USD 2.80)
Waterfall guide: IDR 50,000 (USD 5.50)
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