Thursday, July 22, 2010

East Jawa

Sorry for the long hiatus.Finally,it's time to post up this blog!

It was the most adventurous and exciting trip that I had ever been so far.From Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia to Mount Bromo and Mount Ijen.Simply beautiful and awesome trip. Most importantly I've a bunch of coolest, sporting and awesome travelling partners to go with, Sophia,A-Teh,Poh Ling and Teguh.

The journey commenced at sunset by driving from Surabaya airport to Mount Bromo hoping to see sunrise the next morning. It took roughly 5 hours to reach a small village near Mount Bromo.We spend a night in that village in an utterly basic and cheap hostel.The weather was pretty cold at night. We were urged to use freezing cold water to shower that night. Thought that was quite an experience and fun.

We departed from hostel at 3am the next morning by a cool-looking and sturdy black jeep driven by a good looking and photogenic(according to my travelling partners :P) Indonesian travel guide. It took about an hour to reach the view point to watch sunrise and Mount Bromo. It was extremely cold at view point. The sunrise was astonishing as well as Mount Bromo. After sunrise, we went to climb Mount Bromo. The trip by jeep to Mount Bromo was horrendous and thrilling. The road was scarily bumpy and rocky. It was about an hour journey to the base of Mount Bromo. Before climbing Mount Bromo, we visited "The Whispering Savannah". Took many shots from there with the vast and beautiful green sceneries. The climb to Mount Bromo was easy. Each of us rode a pony up to mid of Mount Bromo and climbed 250 staircase to the peak of Mount Bromo to spectaculate the crater.The amazing God's creation.

Day 3- It was an extraordinary day. The journey to Mount Ijen was an excruciating ride.It took us 4 hours to reach the base of the mountain. The road was again extremely rocky, winding and narrowed. Plenty of potholes on the road.We had to cease in the middle of the journey to push our car which wheels stucked in the pothole. Praise the Lord that we managed to reach the base of mount Ijen safe and sound. We hiked up to the peak of Mount Ijen to see the crater.Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the crater,the blue lake and yellow sulphur for mining operation as the weather was too misty and wet.However,we managed to watch a few strong and hardworking sulphur collectors hand carried sulphur down the mountain. We left Mount Ijen quite late in the evening.Visited coffee plantation as well. When almost nightfall, everyone was antsy and hoping to reach destination ASAP as the road was completely dark. The road trip was really a nightmare and dangerous. Thank God that we reached Bondowoso town safely that night.

Day 4- we drove all the way back to Surabaya and catch the next day's flight back to KL. On our way back to Surabaya,we got the chance to try the finest mango in town as well as the bad and tasteless durian :( 


I love this trip. Let's do this again,guys!







The sunrise at view point




Mount Bromo from view point


The "Whispering Savannah"












The Mount Bromo's crater






250 staircase to reach Mount Bromo


The ponies that brought us up to Mount Bromo



Paddy field


Lapindo Mud





















At the top of Mount Bromo


At the base of Mount Bromo with our driver




That was where our MPV's wheels stucked. Not forgetting to snap picture for my 3 excited travelling partners :)


One of the sulphur collector.



We had only junk food almost everyday for our lunch. Picnic at Mount Ijen.


Group photo with the strong sulphur collector

The finest mangoes


My favourite Indonesian style mee goreng



more food....

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