Bromo; The Absolute Beauty

The history about Bromo dated thousands of years ago. Actually, the name Bromo it is not perfectly suite with the fact that Bromo is only one small part of the Tengger Caldera that holds several volcanoes and of course the amazing sea of sands. From the illustration in the internet, there used to be this big-tall-enormous size volcano (4000 meter), named Tengger. The eruption 50000-10000 years ago leaves Tengger with 8 kilometers of caldera and several new-born volcanoes: Bromo, Batok, and the famous Semeru (the highest tip in Java). The named Bromo came from Brahma, Hindu’s God of creation.

So here I am in Surabaya, the capital of East Java Province. Gosh, I am so tired. It was one of the most tiring trip that I ever had in my life. Imagine, it took more than 12 hours railway trip from Bandung to Surabaya. Well actually, it is kind a far, almost like from West to East of this island. It is 10 AM and I need to go to Purabaya Bus station to catch a bus to Probolinggo and then directly go straight to Cemoro Lawang, a small village in the tip of Bromo Caldera.

It was around 5 PM, when I arrived in Cemoro Lawang and everything is almost dark, though I can still see Bromo from this village. So I decided to stay in one of the houses here. Basically, there are numbers of staying lodges and hotels. Price wise, everything turned absolutely cheap when you decided to rent a lodge. And instantly, you will get two bedrooms and a living room. But of course, we need to be extra careful with all the bugs and some weird smells coming from the sofa and bed. So maybe for some good fortune, it’s better to stay at hotels next door. And who need a living room anyway?

In the morning, I woke up quietly in 3 AM. It’s absolutely cold up here, well, of course. Especially in summer, the temperature could drop to 0 degree. So it is better to put on some extra clothes or jacket. The sky just terrific with all stars leads me down to the sea of sands inside the caldera. Dark and cold, some 4X4 WD jeeps pass me by every 20 minutes, leaving ashes and smoke only. Beside jeep, horse is an alternative way to reach Bromo without any sweat by all meaning. It turned out the road is steep before finally reach the sea of sands. It took only 20 minutes by foot downhill from the nearest village. Everything is still dark. I walked like a blind man with a small torch in my hand to lead the way. Sands had beaten my legs.

Oh ya, the people that live around Bromo practice Hinduism. Some say that the people of Tengger are part of the old Majapahit Kingdom people that still exist until today. The Tengger people believe that Bromo is a sacred volcano. Once a year, they hold Kesada Festival in a temple that stand strong in the middle of the sea of sands. The festival will be started every 14-15 of Kasada (Java’s Calendar) when the full moon approach the horizon. The Hindu practice in Bromo is holding almost the same culture with Bali, because basically they came from the same roots: Majapahit.

It’s 4.30 AM. Everthing is dark and quite. I decided to hike a bit to Pananjakan Point, to see the enormous caldera landscape with Bromo from the top of the hill. So basically, we could find this mid-to-small size steep road that could bring us up to Pananjakan Point. But the problem is about the inclination that could come until 40 degree. That’s why people choose jeep to go up here. But everything is really worthed to see after reaching the Panajakan Point. Because the sun rise in the east and give us this breathtaking view that looks like.... I have no words to describe it. I mean, this is an absolute grace with all the volcanoes, sea of sands, everything is perfect. I can’t believe my eye. And even when I started to make a picture of myself with Bromo as a background, it looks so unreal, almost like a Photoshop illusion. From up here, I can see the smoky Semeru, one of the most active volcanos in Indonesia that killed Soe Hok Gie (Indonesia’s Student Activist in 1966).

After taking several amazing pictures, I went downhill and heading to Bromo that sit in the middle of Tengger Caldera. I met a Checz guy, he is a photographer for an European based traveling magazine. I was so lucky, because he rent a jeep to reach Pananjakan, letting me to join him on my tiring effort to go downhill to the sea of sand. We spend times to talked about this great location and finally reach Bromo as our final destination for today. It’s almost 8 AM when we started to climb stairs to see Bromo’s active crater. Whew..... But it’s ok. Before climbing up the stairs, I found a Hindu temple that going to be very hectic in Kesada Festival.
All the white smoke from the crater comes up with some sulfur smell that we need to be carefull, because we are dealing with an active volcano. Oh yeah, prepare yourself with information from the local geological bureau for update info about Bromo before visiting Bromo.

Basically, the crater of Bromo is not a very safe walk able are because it only hold limited space for people to walk freely, except small area that being design for visitors to see the crater. But some people, including the Checz Photographer, have the guts to walk around the crater. I am not sure about this idea. Especially, if you have a phobia in height, it’s not recommended to walk around the crater. From up here, you can see everything from the center of the caldera. All of a sudden the Checz guy just missing in action. And the sun is already stinging my face too much. So I decided to left him behind, I am not sure whether he still around here or left me behind. I went downstairs and walked toward the Cemoro Lawang with another super challenge from sands and sun, but with big smile in my face.

Info:
Kasada Festival held based on Tengger’s people Calender, for this year it will be on 25-26 August 2008.

Transportation
- Airlines
There are numbers of international flights from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, but you might want to choose Airasia (budget flight) from KL to Surabaya as the cheapest options, though SQ provide more expensive flights from Singapore to Surabaya. For locals, it is easy to access Surabaya through air as it's one of the major hub in the country.
There's also Jetstar and Tigerairways from Singapore to Jogjakarta and from there you can go on either with train to Surabaya or travel agency directly to Bromo.

-Railway
Surabaya is the last stop for the major Java's Railways, so you can reach the city from any direction.

From Surabaya there will be several routes to Bromo, the most popular one will be Probolinggo route. Catch a bus from Purbaya Bus Stasion to Probolinggo. In sum from Surabaya to Bromo only cost you around Rp.40,000 if you are using the cheapest mean of tansportation. But lately, everything is cost a bit higher than that.

If you in Jogjakarta, you can also use some travel agency in Jogjakarta that will arrange a trip to Bromo.


Hotels

Cafe Lava Hotel, Cemara Indah Hotel probably will be something that tourist will choose. But, locals also provide houses that cheaper than hotels that I mention before.

Jeeps or Horse?
Jeeps will cost you Rp 100,000 (2005) to cross the sea of sand and go uphill to Pananjakan point. Horse probably only take you to the sea of Sand, but it's worth to try!!

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