A Short Trip to Bromo

On March 21^st  2013, me, my brother  and my father left for a short holiday to Bromo. We went by bus because we want to try travelling by bus. We rode on an executive bus named “Gunung Harta” , the bus fare is about Rp 220.000,- per pax. Our first destination is Surabaya. We had left at 2.30pm from Depok, then arrived in Surabaya at 10am. When we got in Bungurasih Terminal, Surabaya, we immediately found the bus to Probolinggo. The bus fare to Probolinggo is about Rp 24.000,- per pax. Jurney from Surabaya to Probolinggo is one and a half hour  long. We arrived in Probolinggo at 11.30am.

            We dropped off in front of the terminal gate. When we were dropped, there was an old man approached us and asked where we were going, and we answered him that we wanted to get to Bromo. Then, that old man took us to the base of cars that would take us to Bromo. The cars calls Elf. The elf car was enough to carry 15 passangers, the fee is Rp 25.000,- per pax if the elf car is full. But in that time, there was only five foreign people that waited the elf full. Because we didn’t want to wait any longer, eventually eight of us (me, my brother , my father and also that five foreigners) agreed to immediately rode to Bromo with more expensive fee, we had to pay Rp 40.000,- per pax.

            We arrived in Bromo at around 12.30pm. When we got there, eight of us were ushered into a guest house by the elf’s driver. The room price is Rp 200.000,- per night, room could be occupied for three persons and the price is included one extra bed. The room in pretty comfortable, a queen size bed with two blankets, the bathroom has a shower with hot water.

            After took a shower then changed clothes, the three of us got out from hotel and took a walk in the settlement. The scenery there was so amazing, I could see the vast desert and the mountains very clearly though a thick fog covered the upper part. After a long walk, we looked for some food. We stopped in a small canteen.  There were many food offered in that canteen, from noodle, fried rice, rawon, soto and local pancake.

            Then we met the owner of the guest house, ordered a Jeep to drive us toward the climbing to see the sunrise in the next early morning. The fee for a Jeep is Rp 400.000,-, the price included some trips, to climbing, bromo crater, savanna and also vast desert. Then we went back to our room to took a rest.

            At 8.00pm we left the room for dinner. We met a satay seller. We decided to eat satay for our dinner that night. After had the dinner, we went to some hotels there to check the room rate. After that we got back to our room then sleep because we had to gotten up earlier.

            At 3.00am, the hotel’s owner woke us up, we prepared to go to the early morning tour then got the jeep. The jeep was ready in front of the guest house.

            Along the way to the climbing, we met a lot of people, there were some with motorcycle, some with jeep and even tracking. After about one hour journey, we arrived at the top of the climbing. it was very cold at there. In the climbing, some benches provided there for the visitors to see the sunrise.  There were a lot of merchants that offered beanie, shawls, gloves, edelweiss flower and also rent out thick jackets and sweaters.

            When the sunrises slowly emerged, many people were perpetuating with handycam, camera, and picture taken with the sunrise as the background. Turned out to see the sunrise at the top of the mountain is more beautiful than on the beach, and people were excited in waiting for the sunrise eventhough the cold air almost made them frozen.  When we were satisfied with  the sunrise, we went back to the jeep and continued our tour to Bromo crater.

            When we got the location of Bromo crater, the jeep was parked in a parking lot, we had to hike up to the top of the crater. There are a lot men offered a horse to brought us to the top, but my brother and I prefer to hike, so only my father got the top by horse. The hike is approximately 45 minutes long. When we got at the top of Bromo crater, we took some pictures. The foodhold at the top of crater was very narrow, so we had to be very careful.

            Down from the top of the crater, we hurried to the savanna or commonly called ‘telletubies hill’ because the shape of the ground looked like a telletubies park. The scenery in savanna is very fresing the eyesight because there are so mary trees and the grass were grew thick. After that we went to the vast desert.  The desert was so beautiful, surrounded by mountains and soft sands that looked like it had been blown by the winds because we could see some smooth stroke there. We only briefly in the desert, after that at 8.30am, we returned to the guest house, had some breakfast then looked for elf to got back to Probolinggo. The elf’s driver said that the elf would leave at 10.00am. Then we were get ready to leave.

            At 10.00am, we set off with a full elf to bus terminal in Probolinggo. So we only had to pay Rp 25.000 per pax. Arrived at the terminal, we went straight to the bus to Surabaya.And until we got in Surabaya we also immediately found the bus to Depok. Unfortunately, the bus had already departed towards Depok, we finally took the bus to Lebak Bulus by passing Rawamangun.

            The next day, Sunday, the bus had entered Jakarta at 9.00am. We got off from the bus in Rawamangun then looked for a cab for Depok. We arrived in Depok at 10.30am.

            Well, that is my trip to Bromo. Very tiring but so much fun.