Indonesia East Java Active Volcano Climb : Mount Bromo (Part 1)

A short recap on this trip:

Mount Bromo (Part 1)

– Go to Probolinggo by train

– take bus/taxi to Cemoro Lawang

– Stay at Café Lava

– Walk up Mount Bromo / Penanjakan

Mount Ijen (Part 2)

– Go from Probolinggo to Karangasam

– Sleep at Kampung Osing Inn

– Share a truck or take an ojek

General tips

– Eat at the local warungs (the name for a local cheap restaurant)

– Take a sweater and rain jacket for both volcanoes

– Take a mouth mask and possibly wet it to help with the sulphur fumes at Mt. Ijen

TO BROMO

Website: https://tiket.kereta-api.co.id/

To get to Mount Bromo, leave early morning in Surabaya and go to a town at the base of the center called Probolinggo. From Probolinggo take a small bus (~5k Rupiah) to Cemoro Lawang but you have to go from the train station to the main bus station (or a tourist office). There are private taxis that you can take or the local bus (~25k-30k rupiah).

Our first flight out of Singapore on Tigerair

First meal at Surabaya airport, rather expensive compared to local stalls

Took a cab to Gubeng Station and bought sim card just outside the train station
Chose the Matrix Ooredoo company sim card costs Rupiah 33k (SGD3.45)
Covered right up to Mount Bromo and Mount Ijen for 7 days
Here we checked in and print our train tickets
It was rather easy and convenient
Here are the breakdown of train expenses we spent for both Mount Bromo and Ijen

Transport Breakdown	Description	T.Cost (IDR)	T.Cost (SGD)	/Pax (IDR)	/Pax (SGD)
Surabaya Gubeng Station to Probolinggo Station	Train, Economy	Rp210,000	$22.13		$11.07
Probolinggo Station to Karangasem Station	Train, Economy	Rp210,000	$22.13		$11.07
Karangasam Station to Surabaya Gubeng Station	Train, Business	Rp207,000	$22.20		$11.10

Comparatively cheap but trust me, get the business class train

The economy train is too cramp especially for bigger size people

And it would be comfortable for long journeys

Must try the famous Teh Botol from Indonesia
I guess we should take the less sweet ones

From time to time, train attendants will sell cup noodles and rice box
Fret not, you wont be hungry on board

And after approximately 2 hours, we reached Probolinggo Station
And were picked up by our host
We stayed at Villa Nandi booked via Airbnb
Situated at Cemoro Lawang which is about an hour drive from the train station

It was fortunate for us as we arrived the place after downpour
We quickly had our dinner and prepare for our first climb at 1.30am
We reached there at about 7.30pm and had dinner at 9pm
Then we head out for our favourite activity
Shooting the milky way by 11pm

Searching the milky way and identifying it isn't that difficult

And ta-da here's our not so professional pictures
Present to you, our Milky Way shots

Slept for 1.5 hours and got up to meet our guide of the day
I supposed he should be the guide of the night

We had the jeep all to ourselves
And he drove us up to Pondok Seruni
We gotta hike up Mount Penanjakan
To escape from paying the entrance fees of course

Everything appeared to be pitch black 

Luckily we had our torch ready for this hike

It can be a difficult hike as I was gasping for air

I thought I will give up halfway but I made it up

Setup my tripod and camera awaiting for sunrise 

There were many other photographers too and 

AHEM they were so professional 

It was pretty cold we managed to reach at bout 3am 

Hands felt like frozen fish fillets but I was lucky I was wearing my winter jacket

At about 5.30am, the sun finally rises and it happened too fast
We hurriedly take pictures and returned to our jeep

Crowds were crazy and uncontrollable

And at the same time enjoyed this marvellous view
Mount Bromo beautiful yet stunning from Mount Penanjakan

This part looked like some scenes in the movies

You know those war genre movie

The general will raise a sword in his hands and chiong ah....

On the way to visit Mount Bromo crater

Yes, we requested our guide to stop here
And we got down to take few pictures

Amazing looking desert-alike place

Reaching the foot of the volcano, we had to take a slow walk in

You can't see anything beyond those thick fogs omg

Like making my way to heaven

We refused to ride on those horses
They weren't well taken care of and they seemed tired
Malnutrition and kinda pitiful
So we decided to walk to the crater no matter what

It took us quite a while to reach the foot of the crater

Many people started wearing masks or scarfs

I don't find it necessary and I felt okay without mask

Places covered with ash that looked like snow (=

Here we go, final shot before climbing up that Mount Bromo 

See that steep slope behind me

No regrets I had to climb that and my bucket list ticked off

Here we go.. slowly wade our way up as my feet were covered with ashes

I think I took bout 20-25 minutes to get up there

Looking down at the crater was scary
Hey, I am afraid of height mah lol

Let me clarify this picture below
It is the only washroom at Bromo
And you will be charge a small fees

Back to the town of Cemoro Lawang

Our airbnb view was great in the morning

And we stoppedby at the local stall to have our breakfast

And then we head to Probolinggo Station at bout 4.40pm
We will head to Karangasem Station and the journey took us approxiamtely 4 hours
We had to give Madakaripura Waterfall a miss as the weather forecast showed bad sign

Additional Fees	Description	/Pax (IDR)	/Pax (SGD)
Mt Bromo : 1.) Transport from Probolinggo Station to Airbnb. 2.) Jeep transport to Seruni point, Mt Bromo crater and back Airbnb. 3.) Transport from Airbnb to Probolinggo station.	Include private transport, driver, petrol, parking.	Rp1,000,000	$104.17

Our private tour costs us SGD 104.17 per person

All booked with Shamany - Villa Nandi from Airbnb website

I like him being frank about all the charges

However, we got to hike to Mount Penanjakan from Pondok Seruni

It was a very tough hike for me; he didn't tell us how steep it was

Other than that, he is fine although a little expensive IMO