Bromo; Mist of Heaven
Thea January 26th, 2009
It’s like I were in the top of the world. The place where beauty and nature combine perfectly. It also answers my curiosity of what people keep saying that it’s indeed a really tranquil place, where my friend, Nora, thinks that God has given too many stars above it’s sky. Bromo and it’s surroundings.
Plan has been set. My trip there isn’t only me and my hubby. Instead, we go with with other five friends. People call that I have another honeymoon, but I call it a reunion with old great friends. Too much work and study, of course we need a great vacation. The choice was swinging between Bromo and Lombok. Lombok is too far and needs extra time while Bromo is relatively near. That’s why we choose Bromo.
To get to Bromo, we took train to Surabaya, where Sasti welcomed us warmly. Hot tea, snack and delicious fried rice were served for our hungry tummy. She’s lovely, isn’t she?. Then the trip should be continued to Probolinggo and Cemoro Lawang. It too about two-hour-bus trip to arrive at Probolinggo. If you plan to go to Bromo, from bus station of Probolinggo, you have to take Bison. Bison is a call for a 12-passenger car that serves Probolinggo-Cemoro Lawang route.
Along the way to Cemoro Lawang, the scenery is very beautiful. The rain was pouring down on the half of our journey. Right and left, we could see greeny valley with tall-sturdy trees. Getting the higher altitude, palms are scattering everywhere. The temperature got cooler. We tightened our jacket. One hour passed and we arrived at Cemoro Lawang.
Cemoro Lawang is the common place where tourists like us rest before go to Taman Nasioanal Bromo-Tengger-Semeru. Arriving around 4 pm, not much too see there as it was raining. We stayed at local’s house. Besides homestaying like what we did, tourists can also find lodging around Cemoro Lawang. The fare varies, ranging between 200 thousand to 500 thousands. Homestaying is much more price-friendly. For a house with four rooms, we only paid 400 thousand.
Tummy needed to be fulled and we searched food after settling our carriage in to the house. There’s a food stall who served more choices of food than other. The food? Not bad. The price? Pretty much expensive. But what you can expect more in a place where delicious food is a luxury?? We prefered paying more expensive to get the tastier one, thought it broke our backpacking principle.
In the night before going sleeping, we stared at above and watched so many stars. Beautiful. It’s just a blessing for us who rarely see stars as we never have clear sky in the polluted city like Jakarta.
Alarm was set. We had to wake up at three in the morning to catch the sunrise. The experience of catching the sunrise was more like off road experience. We got in to hartop, an old jeep car with huge machine capacity, that took us in to a place where sunrise can be seen. The path was so damn rocky in several spots. Wooww…what a experience. We bumped in the car where cruised the pre dawn to the sunrise place.
Unexpectedly! There were many people arrived before us. We thought the spot would not crowded. We went wrong. It turned out that the gate to Taman Nasional Bromo-Tengger-Semeru are not only Probolinggo and Malang. But many people also depart from Pasuruan. Well, it’s paid off with great sunrise, even not too clear because of the cloud. And the eruption of Semeru, which my hubby said occurred in every fifteen minutes. And again, with good pics and good models like us. No offense:p
After sunrise, we went to Bromo crater. The hartop went down from the sunrise place and took us to the sand desert. There are two ways to reach the ladder to see the crater. First, walking and second, taking horse. Walking is free and taking horse needs 75 thousand rupiah. We chose walking. It’s not about price actually but to measure how fit us and know our endurance:D. People believe that the number of the ladders isn’t precise, meaning no one knows the exact number of the ladders. Maybe it’s around 200-250 ladders.
After Bromo crater, my friend, Yanto, suggested us to see the savana. He said that it was very beautiful. Actually it’s not included in a package we took. Therefore we had to pay 75 thousand because of the extra trip. It turned out worth-seeing as it’s so drop-dead beautiful. Had Peter Jackson seen this place, Lord of The Ring would have been taken in this place and not in New Zealand. It’s like I see a scenery which I often see in the calendar. The land is flowery, yellow and purple. The valley is green and gives calm into sould. Just like it very much.
I don’t know any other word to express my feeling to that place but heavenly:). You should go there.