Mt. Bromo

Mel, Me, Nancy and Paul

Stairs leading up to the crater

Enjoying the sunrise

Me, Mel and Nancy with Bromo in the background

Last weekend Melis and I, along with our friends Paul and Nancy went to Mt. Bromo.  A bus picked us up from Jogjia around 8:30am on Friday and we endured an 11 hour bus ride to Bromo.  We stayed at Cafe Lava, which is a great little hotel that is right next door to the park entrance.  It has incredible views and fairly good food.  When we arrived we checked in and ate dinner, I enjoyed sate ayam and a Bintang.  Shortly after eating we all went to bed.  

The next morning at 3:30 am we got our wake up call from the hotel staff.  We got dressed and grabbed our packed bags.  We took an hour long jeep ride to a vista point over looking the steaming and very much still active Mt. Bromo.  We arrived at 5am, there were a lot of tourists there so I quickly set up my tripod in the front row in order to get a good view while the sun began to rise.  The view was one of the most spectacular mountainous views I have ever seen.  Bromo is in the middle of a caldera which traps in the morning fog.  Bromo and a few other mountains were jetting out of the fog while the sun began to light up the sky.  Breathtaking!

After an hour we took the jeep back down to the base of Bromo where we hiked up to the crater.  It was an easy 30 minute hike up the path/stairs to the top of the crater where steam was actively seeping out.  After enjoying the views from the top of the crater we returned to Cafe Lava and had a nice breakfast.  The rest of the day we relaxed in the small, hilly town of Bromo.  I was very surprised at how quite and peaceful it was there.  We took motos (see video below) to another hotel Yoschi's and had hot chocolate.  Motos are great, it's a great way to see the countryside.  That night we ate at a the Bromo hotel restaurant, where the food was fairly good but nothing special.  The rest of the night we relaxed and chatted it up over some tea and cookies.

The next morning I got up at 5am and went to a look out point near my hotel.  It was nice to shoot the view from a different angle.  This time I could see both above and below the fog.  The fog was cutting through the mountains like it was trying to divide it in half.  It was quite peaceful and I chatted it up with a few locals who were also taking in the view.  After breakfast, we started our long, long journey home.  I know it's hard to believe this but the 11 hour bus ride was well worth the wonderful weekend in Bromo.

I will soon have more photos posted on my Indo photo blog.