On a mid-August weekend, my family, friends and I decided on a spontaneous trip to Mt. Bromo and actually went on with it (whoo!). It's been on my go-to list for years but since it was closed off for a while, we weren't able to go. Now that it's safe, here we are! It's all very exciting, though the pictures, as all pictures do, never do the real thing justice, here's a glimpse of what we discovered throughout our 1.5 day trip.
We arrived at our villa midday and went looking around for lunch until eventually settling in for the night. The villa we rented was only half built around that time but fortunate enough, it already has a built-in lookout that overlooks the hills and villages down below.
Maybe it's because I live most of my life in the city but the stars!!! I've never seen the sky this clear before
The pictures above were taken around 11 at night. My friends (that I definitely did not get a good picture of) and I were bored and decided to go to the lookout to see what it's like at night and boy, what a sight! The ground was clean enough to lay flat and stare at the stars above us, and so we did - and if it's not for the cold and the fact that I have to wake up at 4 the next day, I believe I'd stay there all night.
Around 4.30 in the morning, our drivers for the day picked us up with our jeeps. We were told that it would take us approximately 15-20 minutes to get to the sunrise point, but nope - the traffic!! there were so many people trying to get to the sunrise point that it was nearly impossible to get through. People were parking their ginormous cars left and right making the street more narrow than it actually is. It was an interesting sight tho, having light only from the everyone's headlamps and from the food stalls and jacket rentals on the side of the road. I could definitely see people low-key panicking to get to the top before sunrise and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't as well.
45 minutes of traffic and a hundred "excuse me"s later - here we are, right on time! Packed is an understatement, the sunrise point was legitimately crammed with people on the stairs which made me wonder what time did they even get here? We decided to stop halfway through because going all the way to the top just wasn't an option and the view's pretty much the same anyways. Though unfortunately for us, that morning, there wasn't any fog hence it not looking as if we're above clouds, but really, there was nothing to complain. It was absolutely breathtaking and perhaps one of the most beautiful sunrises I've ever encountered.
Not recommended tip for obvious safety reasons but we did it anyways:
Since it was really hard to get a good relaxed view while standing shoulder to shoulder to people (think standing in a crowded concert waiting for the opening act-crowded) my friends and I climbed over the fence to get some space for ourselves and yes although it's not 100% percent safe (plus your shoes and the back of your pants will be full on grey when you're out of there) it was 100% worth it.
After the sun's out we went down to get breakfast, and by breakfast I meant indomie for all 16 of us (why does indomie always taste better in the mountains early in the morning I'll never know). Afterwards, our drivers took us to the sand field surrounding kawah bromo. We switched from our cars to horses which took us all the way to the top.
The picture above is the exact reason why you should buy masks before you go. The road to the top of the crater were very rocky and uneven. I was legitimately scared that I was gonna fall, or worse - drop my camera so this was the only decent picture I took.
The view one thirds the way up - the people down there looked like ants!
The horses only carried us halfway, and from this point, we had to climb around ??? steps of stairs. I really didn't have the energy to count but I felt like it was around 200-300ish - definitely a workout on it's own for someone who lounges through the weekend.
As you may have thought, I was currently wheezing for air was the time I took this picture but it sure was a fascinating sight. We didn't really spend a lot of time up there as the smell really gets to you after a while but we were there long enough and I've never really seen a crater up close so it was an interesting first!
The journey back
And for our final destination, we passed through Pasir Berbisik, which is a stretch of sand covered land. Rumor has it that it's called whispering sands because if you lay down with your ear on the ground, you'll hear as if the ground is whispering to you. I'm not really up to test out the rumor but the sight is definitely one of a kind. Especially with jeeps driving through, it creates these white ish grey sand mists (don't really know how to call them). But for the same reason, it was difficult to keep my eyes open (glasses help but it's still rather painful) so we called it a day, and with a plane to catch in Surabaya we headed home. Goodbye for now!
And on and end note, shoutout to my travel companions !!
xx, DE
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