Mt. Bromo

Our time visiting Guning Bromo was great, though took a little effort. In general, we try to do things independently, without joining a tour. In addition to being probably 5-10x cheaper, you have a lot more time and flexibility to experience things your own way. From the town on Probolinggo, the first step to Bromo was finding your way to the town on Cemoro Lawang. From the train station, we needed to head to the bus station, which turned out to be more of an ordeal than expected. We were panning to take a public minibus to the train station, but were approached by two old guys with bicycle taxis. They were about 3-4x more expensive, but still cheap so we decided to have the experience of having an old man, probably 60-70 who spoke little English, biking us around. The ride was nice -- slow and peaceful. They took us through more back alleys through neighborhoods than the main streets. They dropped us off at the 'bus station' and we were on our way. After talking to the guy there for a bit, trying to be sold his tour, being told there were no available rooms in Cemoro Lawang, I started to feel a little unsure of him and where we were. Looking back, being dropped at the small building with no buses around should have been a clue this wasn't the actual bus station, but a private tour company -- probably a friend of our bicycle guys. I had my doubts from the beginning, but it did say 'public buses' or something luge that out front, and as it was a small town I gave them the benefit of the doubt. We later learned even the public minibuses will drop you off at these private companies, the real bus station in probably about a km. down the road. We walked to the bus station and began the process of trying to get our minibus up to the town where Bromo was actually located. This is another hassle in itself. The drivers will not budge until they have 15 passengers, or the equivalent fare of 15 passengers. The whole system is frustrating as they are all private buses, so the majority of the time the 15 passengers are spread out all over twin just waiting. People can end up waiting 3+ hours, and then still having to pay 3 or 4x the actual fare for the bus to actually start. There is no time limit, if enough people don't show up, either you pay up or don't go. We ended up waiting about 1.5 hrs at which point snow people arrived on the train, along with an older couple who paid the remaining fares so we could go. With that we finally reached Cemoro Lawang and Tengger Nasional Park, home of Mt. Bromo!! The other thing we were worrying about was the entrance fee to the park. There is a different price for locals abs tourists, and in recent years the tourist price has inflated about 10x to around 300,00 IDR, or about $30/person. I'm not sure what the thinking behind this crazy price increase us, but seeing as that's double what it would even cost to visit Yosemite back home, we weren't looking forward to paying it. A helpful lady at the bus station, had told us that if you walk in on a certain path you 'don't have to pay', which I think basically just means you're sneaking in -- but with the crazy entrance fees it's a common practice. We followed that path in, pitched our tent and settled in for the night and our 4am wake up for sunrise. This was the 3rd day, of 4 in a row, that we'd be getting up between 2 and 4 to either start a night/sunrise hike or catch an early train. The night was cold, much colder than we thought (we aren't carrying sleeping bags, but rather base layers, emergency blankets, and a silk sleeping sack), but we managed to get some sleep and get up for sunrise. Sunrise was quite beautiful, we watched from the valley. You hike down a cliff from the town, and find yourself in a big flat valley, from which Mt. Bromo and the surrounding mountains rise out of nowhere. The mountains coming our of this flat plain make their firms look exceptionally beautiful. I assume everything is so flat partially due to the lava flow from when Bromo erupts, which a local very casually told us happens quite often, about every 5 yrs., and that it will probably happen again soon. After sunrise in the valley, we began our hike up to Bromo Crater. (I am again writing this on the train - this time to Yogyakarta - and half our car has seemed to suddenly break out into song, compete with a drummer. I assume it's some kind of religious ritual?). The hike up to the crater made me feel like I was in the Arabian Desert, like a scene from Aladdin. Once again, there were lots of locals, due to the holiday. There were tents set up selling goods, it was dusty, we were surrounded by sand dunes, everyone was wrapped up in their scarves abs old men were walking around dragging their horses. We stopped at a stand for coffee and were immediately asked by some locals if we would take a photo with them. We happily did, and tried to enjoy some time interacting with these incredibly friendly people, though English was very limited. We started our climb up the crater. It was a nice hike, and from the top gave amazing views of the whole 'Arabian nights' type scene. The scenery itself was enough again, to make you feel like you were on another planet. Couple with the actual view down into the crater/volcano it was an amazing sight. Seeing a huge hole plunging down into the depths of the earth, strongly smoking away is a rare sight. I find it hard to believe that if Bromo were in the states, people would ever be allowed to get so close. Most visitors seemed to hike up, look down at the viewing area protected by a guardrail, and go back down. There was a small path traversing the whole circumference of the crater and Paul and I decided to do that, something we wouldn't of had the time and flexibility to do on a tour. The path was admittedly narrow, rocky and a little scary at points, (it was a steep fall down to the valley on one side and a steep roll right into the volcano on the other), but the changing views were worth it. On the far corner of where we started we found a little shrine, and from here was the best view. A steep sloping view, right down into the crater unobstructed by any rocks or cliffs. Once we made our way around again to the crowds, Paul was stopped by probably 5 or 6 groups if people wanting to take a photo with him, I got to hang back this time and capture it in photos (when I'm alone many people think I'm local and will try to speak with me). After the photo ops, we headed back into the valley and into town to find a room for the night. We were quite dusty at this point, and weren't up for another cold night of camping. We found a room, showered and quickly fell into a nap. We got up a little later, ate, and turned into bed again around 8 or so for our wake up at 3:30 to being our hike up to the recommended viewpoint for 'postcard views' of Brono during sunrise. We hiked for about and hour in the dark (walking back in the light, I couldn't believe how rocky it was bad how many potholes we avoided), found the viewpoint and settled in. It was indeed a beautiful spot, and really gave a striking view of these grand mountains rising out of the flat land. Towards the end of sunrise, a group of students asked to take a photo with us. They were very friendly and we talked with them a while. They were all students, majoring in Pharmacy, from the nearby town of Semarang. They said our goodbyes to us and headed back down the trail. We met up with them again in the way down, and when they found put we walked, invited us into their jeep for a ride back into town and down into the park. Jetting through the rocky roads, with a bunch of locals very much enjoying themselves early in the morning was a real treat. They wanted us to join them for the hike up to the crater, but as we did it the day before, we exchanged emails and said our goodbyes. Getting the minibus back to Probolinggo wasn't as much of an ordeal, there was only one bus this time so it filled up quickly. The majority of other travelers were French, and as they were speaking French, I ended up settling in next to the drivers to wait for our van to fill up. We had 10 out if the 15 and the driver offered to leave for 50,000 vs. 35,000 (about a dollar difference). Paul and I, and a Norwegian couple who had also settled in next to us were happy to leave, but the French were hard bargainers. We ended up wAiting about another 15 or so minutes, and the driver offered to leave for 45,000 each, then 40,00 which the French were still hesitant to accept. The driver had Paul act as his negotiator, and it was quite funny sitting with the driver and other Indonesian locals as the French were close to rejecting the 40,000 offer. The driver and friends were saying, 'no good, all they care about is money', which I am sure was probably the exact same view of the others on the other side of the bargain. In the end, we left without waiting too long, and it was some interesting people watching. Arriving back to Probolinggo, we successfully avoided all the scans we had researched, and made our way to the train station to find out our train was full. One of the other couples we were with were offered the chance to buy tickets, for 3x the price. We were happy to buy tickets for the first train the next morning, which turned out to be a great decision. We ended up spending a wonderful, but unexpected night in Probolinggo. After learning our train was full, we were approached by a man telling us about a cheap place to stay in the area. We were wary, as in the Philippibes, these people usually get commission - paid for by an extra cost added on to your fee for the room. We knew of nothing else in the area, so just listened to him -- and in addition to the group if students earlier who shared the rise in their jeep with us -- he ended up being the second friendly and helpful local we encountered during the day. After taking a couple wrong turns walking to the hotel he suggested, we ended up asking a guy walking his bicycle if he knew where the hotel was. He took it on himself to spend 15 minutes or so walking with us and trying to secure a room. All the time children and riding by or sticking their heads out of windows, telling hello to us. It's so funny, and they are genuinely so intrigued and excited to see you being a foreigner, it just makes you smoke. Even older guys on the street will smile brightly at you, and give you a thumbs up. The man helped us find out hotel, but as it was Muslim run they would not allow us to rent a single room as we were not married. Refusing to pay for two rooms, we told the guy we were going to head back to the information center and look fir another room. He wished us luck and a good journey, not wanting anything fir his time but to help. 3rd friendly and helpful encounter of the day. The guy at the info center turned out to be our 4th friendly local, and took it on himself to find us a room, call and secure a price and reservation. He then asked us what our plans were for the night. After telling him nothing, he asked if we would like to accompany him a his friend, an English teacher, to his class that night. After already enjoying talking with the kids around town we said yes, and they made plans to pick us up at our hotel later. After making some friends with the employees at our hotel (more friendly people), we met the teacher and headed off. Going to the school was really a fun experience. There were about 8 students in this after school program, about the age of 15. One by one, they got up introduced themselves, told us their names, where they lived, their hobbies, favorite foods and drinks and their ambitions. After each student we were each supposed to ask them a question, so that they could practice their English. Afterwards, Paul and I each introduced ourselves the same way, and took a question from each student. Funnily, they kept asking about the traditional dances we have in our country -- as it is such a big part if the culture here. After explaining we don't really have many traditional dances and Paul trying to demonstrate 'square dancing' the follow up question was, 'how many different kinds of traditional dances do you have?', so I'm not sure how well they were able to comprehend a society in which dance is really bit a central focus of the culture. After our time with the students, the teacher invited us to dinner and picked up a local specialty along the way. (We were each getting around on the back of motorbikes, with the teacher and the guy from the info center, avoiding police the whole way as we didn't have helmets). Dinner was lovely, it was so nice to sit and talk and meet family members -- probably one if the best experiences you can hope for traveling us being invited for a meal into someone's home, so I was very grateful that it was all happening because our bus was full. Friendly locals 4,5,6 etc. We are now en route to Yogyakarta, looking forward to exploring a new city and meeting more locals. Indonesia has been such a beautiful experience thus far -- going to sleep last night recounting all the crazy sights we've seen, delicious food we've had, and the people we've met, I told Paul, 'this is like, the best country', to which he replied, 'pretty much.' * I also need to include this other friendly local story. While waiting to be picked up to go to the school, we bought plane tickets for our flight out of Bali. The site was having issues accepting our foreign cards, so we picked an option to pay locally at a bank. Getting there we realized we needed an Indonesian card for this option, but the teller at the bank said maybe he could help us? He ended up transferring our money into his personal account and using his card to go in and pay off our tickets. It was something so out of his way, and out if his job obligations, and really just something that would never be offered in the states. Our tickets were confirmed and we were on our way, again grateful for the genuine helpfulness and friendliness of the locals.