We came to Yogyakarta primarily for the UNESCO site, Borobodur, which I somehow feel, pales in comparison to Cambodia's Angkor Wat (but it's an unfair comparison). Apparently, the sunrise at Mt Bromo is also not-to-be-missed. There are tons of tours departing from Yogya to Bromo (and Ijsen Plateau, almost chose this, but we thought otherwise) and dropping to Bali (or return to Yogya). Some things to note: compare, compare, compare, and read the fine print (hotels, bus etc). A lone Indon traveler actually paid more for a comparable tour than us tourists! How unfair! Indonesians' concept of time is pretty fluid, the bus ride can be long, boring and tiring, and we practically arrived in Bali, totally caught unaware late and without accommodation (about 3 hours late).
After some rounds of comparing and discussion, we decided on a fairly good tour operator, we left early in the morning in a cramped minivan, with a stop for lunch, before arriving in the Bromo area for the night at a hotel (cheapest one with heated water, we aren't picky). If you ask me, the operators look like the friendly-mafia type of people. We awoke early for a Jeep drive to the lookout point for sunrise, then continued on to Mount Bromo itself.
The sunrise - didn't seem like much at the beginning, but blink, and you'd miss the best part of it (somewhere in the middle for me). You would wonder if it's worth it at time (almost 20h on the bus to and fro), but it's one of the rare opportunities you'd get to see an active volcano up close.
Some kind soul lighted a fire and left it there
I'm really sorry, Shan! I was getting a bit hard of breathing climbing halfway up the slope (poor fitness and lots of smoke and dust) so we didn't get to the top. As it turned out, after the sun rose, we realised it was just some stairs up. Although steep slopes faze me, stairs don't! But it was too dark to see! Wasted!
Don't judge my attire. Mixed dressing from Bromo to Bali.
The Best Part
With bikes and horses
We had our first horsey ride (we were struggling and sinking in the sand). Wish the horses all the best!
I think it's my first jeep ride too. Think.
View from behind our hotel
This much sand. Oh. Should have saved some in the bottle. Like the Italian dudes.
Breakfast in the mist.
Next, we headed back to the hotel to wash up (we were very, very dusty), had breakfast, and waited for a minivan to pick us up. Several bus changes and a ferry trip (the bus boarded the ferry) later, we arrived in a random bus terminal in Bali in the dead of the night. We asked helpful bus terminal people (ignored the taxi touts), got our bearings, checked out Lonely Planet, lucky for us, there was a listed hotel nearby (within 5 minutes walk). It was one creepy hotel though, we moved drawers against the doors, and practically couldn't sleep that night, but it was an adventure~~~
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