The World Behind The Viewfinder

Leaving from Malioboro Street, Yogja, we took city bus (Rp2k) to arrive at the city bus terminal. It was a long journey from Malioboro to the city bus terminal - it took us 45mins, and a few 'free bus entertainment' (if you know what I mean!). The city bus was cramped and crowded but I managed to reserve an extra seat for my backpack. An old lady starts to chat to me a little bit, and she was heading to bus terminal too to catch a bus back to Surabaya... (read more)

More photos from the trip at http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Java2007/content/

She guided us through the many bus lanes at the terminal and pointed us the bus to Probolinggo and then we parted. The bus leaves soon after we boarded at 5:30pm. It is a comfortable A/C 40-seater bus, and it costs Rp 50k for the 7-hour ride - good thing about night bus is that at least we will save a night's hotel charges. It was after 1-hour that the bus arrived at Solo bus terminal. Just 2 days ago we were taking bus from this Solo terminal to go Yogja!

The bus stops for at least 30mins here while it transforms into a market place. Hawkers are boarding the bus selling anything imaginable, from real food to junk food, as well as books & newspaper, toys and flashlights, and many more. We bought a 6-piece donuts for Rp 6k as our dinner, as well as some junk food, and I began to doze into Dreamland soon after. Like most other long distance buses in Java, the bus driver speeds through the night like meteor over the narrow inter-city roads. There was another 'pee stop' around 1:30am, and by 2:30am we were told arriving at Probolinggo.

We were immediatey greeted by a young chap, who turn out to be a van driver. He offered us a ride up to Cewang Indah for Rp 200k, and he assured us that we have enough time to make it for sunrise view over Mt. Bromo. We contemplated whether to put up a night at Probolinggo (which will delay our trip progress for one more day) or to take this chap's over-priced offer, in which we later slashed down to Rp150k for the one-way trip. All of us are OK with the lower price and off we went into the beat-up minivan, which stalls and needed some push-start after a petrol stop. The undulating route up to Cewang Indah took us 90mins in the dark, and it was getting freezing cold inside the minivan when we ascended that my thin windbreaker just unable to provide me warmth. Couple with the strong benzene smell, an uncomfortable ride is an understatement of this midnight drive. At least the minivan brought us safely to a hotel at Cewang Indah at 4am in the morning.

The temperature here was around 10~15C with pretty strong wind. We went into the hotel reception and chatted with the guys. We were told that we will have to take another jeep ride, which costs Rp 75k per person, to reach the sunrise viewpoint, and we will have to decide fast in order to reach there in time as the sun will rise around 5:30am, and the jeep ride will take approximately 1hr. They know that we will have to bite, because we just don't have any other choice! The jeep ride includes the ride up to the sunrise viewpoint, back down to the Mt. Bromo foothill for Mt. Bromo trek, and then bring us back to the hotel.

Not long after we boarded the jeep, we reached a checkpoint. We were made to pay for Rp25k per person for the Bromo entrance fee, insurance etc. The price is clearly displayed at the checkpoint sign so we promptly paid up, but only later of the day that we noticed we were given receipts for the locals where it prints Rp2.5k per person. I didn't check the receipts as it was still dark then, and the personnels must have been pocketing the difference in price, so please check your receipts next time!

The route up to the sunrise viewpoint is even steeper and narrower, only the jeeps are able to ply. I can start to see at my left side the silhoutte of the mountains, and the tiny bit of light on the horizon makes me nervous - can we make it in time for the sunrise, and if not, does it mean we have to waste one more day to do the same thing again tomorrow?

By 5am the jeep stops beside the road. We can see there were already tens of jeeps lining both side of the hilly route, and we must be the last to arrive here. There was another 15 minutes of trek up to walk pass all these jeeps to reach the sunrise viewpoint. It is still dark with just a tiny bit of light from the horizon, but there are already hundreds of locals/tourists crowding at the stands setup at the viewpoint, all battling the strong and chilly wind, armed with cameras, waiting for the moment. The stand is setup facing East where the sun will rise. I gentle sneaked into the lower level of the stand and slowly making my way into the middle where I was able to get some space between the crowd. Soon after I took out my camera and took some photos of the line of sunlight at the horizon, with ISO1600. The photos turned out to be not impressive at all so I decided to move around to see what I can do for another 15mins until the sunrise. 

I walked out from the stand and went to the right side where there was another batch of people crowded together along the bench. I managed to get into the crowd and immediately learn that this is a much better view than the sunrise itself: this is the actual Mt. Bromo itself, with Mt. Batuk and Mt. Semeru! Mt. Bromo, at the left side, releases white smokes being blown by the wind to the right, just over Mt. Batuk, and the highest peak, the Mt. Semeru, sits quitely at the background.

It was still quite dark so I took some photos at ISO1600 and ISO800, and decided to stay at this spot to see the first ray of sunlight hitting the mountain groups. The sun has actually risen but still hidden behind the thick cloud, so no direct ray yet to hit the mountains but the sky is getting brighter by the seconds. Then, suddenly without any sign, Mt. Semeru blows up dark smokes at the background. Of course it is not like Mt. Semeru is erupting, but this is something new to me. So my shutter clicks, and lens changed from 17-70mm to 70-200mm and changed back, and ISO from 1600 dropped to 800, and 400 is starting to be possible.

Then someone starts to cheer, "oh!" - the sun finally shows up from behind the think morning clouds. Many spectators are turning to see the sunrise while I just stay put to wait for the moment where the sun ray hits the Mt. Bromo complex, and to me, it really worth travelling 7 hours in night bus, 1.5hr drive in a lousy minivan, another 1hr in a jeep, 30 minutes of chilly wind, and not to mention to $$ we have to fork out, to see this:

Is it all the travels and hardships that made the view so much more majestic and unforgettable, I don't know. All I know is that, I am not the only one that feels this way. All around me, the tourists were all using words like "unbelievable", or just "WOW!". The actual view of the sun slowly litting up the whole Mt. Bromo complex is just so amazing that viewing the photos alone will not do the justice. You HAVE to go see it with your own naked eyes!