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Published: November 15th 2009
25 October 2009 - 27 October 2009
TRANSPORT:
Surabaya to Probolinggo by train--Rp 50,000 (2 hours)
Probolinggo to Cemoro Lawang (Bromo) by bus--Rp 25,000 (2 hours)
HOTEL:
Cemara Indah Resort--Rp
Right on the edge of the huge Tenggera caldera, the only major upside is the view. Rooms are ok, albeit a bit on the pricey site, but it isn't the warmest place (both in terms of temperature and personality). The staff are downright rude and you'd be better off eating (and maybe staying) somewhere else!
Sardines? Read on....
Setting off from Jogyakarta we started our journey to Mount Bromo in East Java. We took a train for 5 and half hours to Surabaya, Indo's second city, to break our journey up for the night.
Surabaya is a pretty nondescript city, what you would expect from a any large city. Its only saving grace is that it is home to Indonesia's navy and that means its well kept and has a number of pretty decent malls! We had an afternoon and a night to kill so as Amy need to send off some postcards we made a trip to the main post office. Having lived in Indonesia
Probolinggo
Our bus that would eventually take us to Cemoro Lawangfor 10 years Dan was well aware of the post office system and had warned that it could take a month or so for any post to reach its destination, if it reached the destination at all!! However, we were happy to find that the postal system has come on leaps and bounds in the past 10 years and we were even given a website address to track our mail!! We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the local malls!.
The next morning we jumped on another train which took 2 hours to get us to Probolinggo where our hassels would start. Again, similar to Banjar, Probolinggo is merely a transit point for tourists heading to Mount Bromo. Lonely planet had warned us of the dishonesty in this town, and boy were they right!
Heading out of the train station we were mobbed by the usual pestering becak drivers and private minibuses all offering to take us direct to Bromo for an extortionate fee! One mini bus group were especially persistant and would not take no for an answer. So we avoided these and headed to the main road and flagged a local bemo down to
Probolinggo
Amy seemed happy enough! take us to the bus station 7 km out of town. "RP 1000 Mister."
Ok no problem, beats paying 20,000 for an uncomfortable ride in a becak.
As we were driving down the road we noticed a familiar minibus behind which was identical to the one which had been hassling us at the bus station. As one of the passengers started communicating with the bus behind (Dan's Indonesian was useless at deciphering what they were saying as they were communicating in Javanese,) we began to get a sinking feeling that we were about to be ripped off.
The bemo stopped at the side of the road next to a tour agency and NOT the promised bus station. The private bus driver came up and said a few words to the bemo driver before telling us that we had to get out here and get a private bus to Bromo at a cost of Rp100,000 each. Dan got argumentative, and the conversation got heated. They were claiming that the private bus was a public bus, Dan mentioned that this was a lie as the bus was licensed to Surabaya, 100km away. Dan kept trying and trying, but when the bemo driver
Probolinggo
We waited for what seemed like at eternity! switched off his engine we realised the game was up! Finally we argued the price down to RP25,000 each, which we could live with. In the end you are always going to lose in Indonesia as everybody knows everybody else and they all work together, but we went down with a fight so we were as satisfied as we could be.
Time came to pay the Bemo driver RP 2000 for the two of us. "RP10,000 Mister." Ah Come on! Dan argued (again,) saying it was evident that the Bemo driver was being paid or was paying commission and therefore had raised the price. After a bit of grumbling we paid. Were we starting to get out numbered 2 to 10 and with safety in mind we were basically robbed of a couple of thousand, but better than getting a beating! So we disembarked and were told to wait in the tour agency. We waited and waited until an empty public bus pulled up. This was more like it! We finally paid the Rp25,000 each, put our backpacks on the roof, introduced us to a dutch guy also traveling on the bus and we were off to bromo.... well
Probolinggo
OK, the bus is full, can we go now? not quite.... a km or so down the road we finally arrived at the bus station we originally intended to catch the bus from. We had another wait. As this is a public bus we had to wait until the bus was full before we could leave the station. An hour later and we were full... literally! Sardines! There were 12 seats on the bus (not including the driver) and 2 stools in the asiles, one for the conductor. "Full" meant 23 people (not including the driver or conductor,) 3 hanging on the side rail and 3 on the roof sitting on the bags!Now this was the experience we were after! Not only were there bags and people on the roof we also collected an entire vegetable garden to transport!
As we climbed up the hill, through winding roads, the mist settled in and the rain fell in buckets! Add to that, that the outside temperature fell causing the windows to mist up. Add also that there was a leaky roof which was dripping water down the window and onto dan's leg. Add to that that the water was freezing. Add more to that that we were desperate for
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Nope...not full enough! the toilet which was not helped by the rain or the incessant dripping of water. Oh and did we forget to mention that all the baggage on the roof had to be moved inside to stop it getting wet!
About an hour and a half later we reached our destination of Cemoro Lawang, a small village perched on the edge of . We checked into Cemara Indah hotel and marveled at the view of Mount Bromo only meters away from the hotel! The one thing about Bromo is that it is cold. Even more so as it was wet and misty and it really felt as if we were back in the UK during winter. We so realised that the only good thing about the hotel we were staying in was view of Bromo. The staff were uninterested and unfriendly and the food was disgusting so we decided to spend most our time in the lava lodge hostel (the only warm place and where they were more friendly.)
We noticed that the majority of tourists only came up to Bromo for one night, climbed to the crater the following morning for sunrise and then left on the first
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Amy needed some air! bus. We decided to have a relax so chose to stay 2 nights. We spent the first evening chilling, and deciding where to head after Bromo. We spent the next day walking around the local area and decided to book a couple of horses for our trek to the crater the following morning. The majority of people go by jeep up to the higest point to get better views before going to the crater however, we decided to take the original mode of transport, Horse. We also decidedd that after Bromo we wanted to take a visit to some local plantations and so booked a trip to the Ijen Plateau after the agent told us they did coffee plantation tours on the first day.As this included transport to the ferry to Bali and a volcano trek we decided it was value for money... but this will be another story!!
So back to Bromo... Due to the weather and the change in temperature, Dan as usual, suffered from a cold! It didnt stop us from getting up at 4 am the following day to trek with a horse to Mount Bromo. After some waiting around and confusion about our horses
Probolinggo
After the people were crammed on it was time to load up with some veg! (as we hadn't paid the previous day the guides didnt bring us horses!) we set off a little late. Horses in Indonesia are more like donkeys in forms of size and so Dan looked ludicrously over sized compared to his horse. We set off down into the infamous 'sand sea' , a baron desert surrounding Bromo. We reached the crater and trekked the last 50 meters up steps to the crater rim where you can walk around the edge. It certainly was impressive and we threw in some change into the crater in order to keep with the tradition. This crater is worshiped by Hindu's and there is a temple right at the foot of the crater,which we stopped at on our trek back to our hotel to pack our bags for our next tour.
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