A Trip Summary

Our short trip was a blast. My husband and I were so lucky; a good friend invited us to accompany them in a short trip to Batu and Bromo National Park (East Java, Indonesia).  We spent three nights at a luxury resort at beautiful Batu city. The room has wonderful balcony view –mountain and swimming pools. It’s a kind of comfort that we still can’t afford :)

 

Singhasari Resort at Batu city

Batu is a resort city that surrounded by many nearby tourist destinations. We landed at Juanda airport Surabaya in Thursday afternoon and reached Batu city in three hours. It’s already dark when we entered our hotel room.

Coban Rondo Waterfall

In the morning next day, after having full breakfast, we planned to visit several destinations in Batu city. My friend’s son doesn’t like playing grounds so his mother chose natural places to visit. That day, in the same day, we could go to Coban Rondo waterfall, Banyak Mountain to see paragliding sport, Kusuma Agrowisata the fruit garden, and Museum Angkut (the Transportation Museum). Actually there are lots of other interesting destinations but we had to rest and prepare for the main destination – Bromo!

To see sunrise moment at Bromo, we left hotel at midnight. Thanks to the driver of our rented car. Mr. Anto is a helpful, funny, talkative man and a good driver too. We’re so supported.

Visiting Bromo can’t be done without earlier preparation. Anyone who plans to visit Bromo should ensure first that they have booked before the jeep transportation as only rented jeeps that are allowed to enter inside the huge park. You may join a tour package and let the staff arranges it for you. We don’t join any tour package since fortunately our driver knows a friend who rents a jeep there.

 

Paragliding at Banyak Mountain. My friend tried her first experience.

A great variety of transportation devices at Museum Angkut, Batu. 

We arrived at the house of the jeep owner in three hours. The car was parked at his house and we continued the journey with the jeep to reach a sunrise spot. There are several sunrise viewpoints like Love Hill and Mt. Penanjakan; we chose Kingkong Hill as it’s the nearest viewpoint from the main road. The jeep road was a great fun. It’s a one hour ride that full of extreme winding roads. I didn’t see any view as it’s still totally dark.   

 

Watching Bromo sunrise at Kingkong Hill

That Saturday, I saw lots of visitors at Bromo. It’s because not only weekend but also there’s a great event called Jazz Gunung performance (Mountain Jazz) started in Saturday afternoon till nite. It’s a pity we didn’t get the show tickets; it’s already sold-out.

When waiting the sunrise moment in cold and dark, I heard people around talking with different worldwide languages. The sunrise wasn’t a perfect one but it’s no problem at all. We still enjoyed the beauty of colorful shades though the sun was hiding. Kingkong Hill is a nice spot to take pictures. The place wasn’t too full of crowded people. I saw some professional photographers there; they leaded us to great photography angles.

Jeep ride to Tengger Caldera

Leaving sunrise viewpoint, we continued the jeep ride, passed through Ngadisari sandy caldera and arrived at Tengger or Sand Sea Caldera.  The jeeps were parked at this caldera. Visitors may continue the journey to the peak of Bromo by foot or take a horse ride till the nearby horse terminal. The distance is about 1 km. We rode horses and enjoyed the amazing views. I’d like to take photos during the horse ride but I was too scared to move a lot. The sandy caldera landscape is not a plain ground; there are rising and falling paths that made my heart beat faster.

 

Horse ride to go near Bromo Crater. Mount Batok in the background.

Don’t forget using a mask to protect you from volcanic dust and sulfur smell. Sulfur gas gives you hard to breath, nausea and headache. The Bromo Carter occasionally releases sulfur gas; so it would be better to take safety. From the horse terminal, we took a short walk to reach stairs to the Bromo crater and peak.

The next stops are savana and another sandy ground named Pasir Berbisik (Whispering Sand) that looks like a desert. We just took a few shots as we’re tired already. It’s still in the morning, but the sun was scorching hot.

 

Landed at Jakarta -Sunday night

We didn’t visit other tourist destination anymore. Checked out on Sunday afternoon, we straightly reached Juanda Airport to take the night flight. Arrived at Soekarno Hatta airport, my husband and I took airport bus to Bogor city. While my friend and son took a taxi ride.

Well, it’s my trip story. I only share a few photos here; I’ll share others in next posts. Whoaa, I have many photos to share!