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| Taken from the air, Bromo and mount Semeru at background |
Bromo is a volcano on
volcano… You might be confused about
this ?, well, it is true. Bromo is a volcano that exists on a big caldera of
Tengger Volcano, Located at east Java Indonesia. Easy to accessed from Surabaya
city or Malang city. And there are so many hotels, guest houses, or home stay
up to the lips of the Caldera. Bromo is one of the favorite tourist destinations
in east Java. Traveling here is considered cheap, using own car or by public
transport.
I have no idea, how many times
I’ve been here, but as long as I remember, this is my second trip with my
family.
Bromo indeed “a never ending
story”, never bored to talk about it, and never get tired to visit again and
again.
It is my trip about two years
ago. In this trip we choose to drive to Ngadisari while our previous trip was
to Penanjakan. - the other lips of the caldera of Tengger.
At Penanjakan, we focus on the sun rise
moment, which is so beautiful, when the sun slowly rise behind the Bromo. Meaning
that Bromo become foreground. And if you
lucky, no cloud, and the sky is clear you will have an unforgettable sun rise
view.
At Ngadisari, we can explore
more, such as the life at the village, exploring sea of sand on Tengger
Caldera, hiking to Bromo crater, etc. And
there are so many hotels, guest houses or home stay. Also stalls with
traditional food at affordable price.
We were
visiting Bromo during the Eid holiday, just
imagine how crowded Bromo on Eid holiday season as it is today. We choose to take the
route Ngadisari up to Cemoro Lawang. And yes ... all hotels was full,
all home stay also full, finally we were offered by local youths to stay at his house, with rates
such as five-star hotel in Surabaya, with
two simple rooms, and a bathroom outside
the house, not bad for a break
this evening, the children did not
mind otherwise sleeping in a car. So, my suggestion is don’t go there in holiday season, or if
you do so please make a well proper plan of trip. Book the hotel far before you
get there.
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| Cars, parking anywhere at Ngadisasi |
That night around 9
pm. we had arrived at the terminal Ngadisari, right after Bromo Permai Hotel. To
simply eliminate the fatigue, we enter the hotel and had coffee in the café.
Nice to get some time for rest, and we need to toilet anyway.
International and
local tourists are here, the various languages and dialects of Europe, Asia and
Indonesia milling in our ears. It is interesting to observe the behavior of
many groups, mingle among them with their own language, and without disturbed
by other group in different language. After having coffee and toilet we go back
to the house and get sleep. Tonight, we only have one event – sleep. To physically
prepare for tomorrow morning to explore the sea of sand ... that is what my daughters
target, since departed from home ... they didn’t interested to watch the
sunrise from the lip of the crater Bromo, perhaps because they did on previous
trip to Penanjakan.
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| Morning at Ngadisari village |
This morning
was so bright, almost
cloudless sky, a
tinge of morning sunlight touch everything on earth. Likely, all await
exposure to sunlight, as well as us, the sun
such as warmers god in the morning
... but then, the
cold air is still cannot detained. Even though the sun was leaning
upwards, we still
wrapped in jackets, gloves, and hats
slayer against the cold ....
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| Bromo covered by morning fog |
There was no
shower that morning. Not even wash the face, tooth brush is the only ritual we
have. When I peered in the
direction of the sea of sand Bromo,
all
still closed with
dense white fog, beautiful....
Soon we shod and breakfast at
roadside stalls Ngadasari. Along this
road is a lot of home stay
and stalls with
typical menu of
Java, at normal price or I would prefer to say
cheap. But the taste is considered special.
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| Breakfast |
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| Hard Top, awaits us |
After having
breakfast, "Hard
Top" – a four wheel drive Toyota - is waiting, ready to take us to explore
the oceans of sand of Bromo. We wear the masks as mandatory equipment
at this time, it is because the intensity of dust is still a lot due to the eruption that occurred
a few months ago
....
Ngadisari
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| Vegetables field, at Ngadisari Valley |
Is a quiet village, cool, peaceful, fertile land, overgrown with vegetables that owned by local residents.
The ethnic of the community here is Tengger, and the religion is Hindu, and the
tradition is still maintained to this day. They have
a personality that is polite
and unpretentious. The village is relatively prosperous, beside farming, most people working in
various fields around the tourism
in Tengger, such as having kiosks, rent the house for lodging, car
for the tour, rent
a horse, a guide etc. The existence of Mount Bromo as a tourist destination brings its own blessings
for the people of Tengger. Tengger tribe is said to
Majapahit citizen who fled from his home at
the end of the reign of Majapahit
kingdom.
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| Hindu's temple on Tengger Caldera |
Hindu Tengger community has a
tradition of Kasodo ceremony, the ritual is performed once a year in honor of
the tenth Kasodo or mountain Brahma (Bromo) which is considered sacred by the
inhabitants of Tengger tribe. The ceremony conducted in a temple just below
Mount Batok (a mountain next to the Bromo), in the middle of the night to early
morning, every full moon around 14-15 month Kasodo, according to Java calendar.
Exploring the sea of sand Bromo
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| Bromo, Sea of sand |
By driving "jeep" Hard Top, we slid
down the path directly toward the sea of sand Bromo,
some motorcycles and
horses we see
pass over the sea of sand, each footwork of horse and wheeled
motorcycle or car
definitely flowing the dust of the sand
into the air, causing the view so blurred.
It forced me to close the car windows so that dust
does not get into the cabin.
Strong winds also blow away the sand, even
the dust of the sand that blowed away by the wind was to surpass the peak of
Bromo. To walk and hike safely, masks
and glasses required to be worn to
avoid the eyes sore and irritated.
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| dust behind the car |
“Teletubbies” hill is
the first location that we were headed, so called because humps land that previously - before eruption – are green, clean and
tidy it was like
a hill of green grass in a children's movie "Teletubbies"
were once famous. Teletubbies hill now
looks brown due to the long drought and the impact of last year Bromo eruption that
spewed sand into the air. The
grassland also seems arid., sand and
dust occasionally fluttering in the wind. I won’t miss
the moment, so I take the camera and start to photograph. Whatever it is, Teletubbies still dazzle
..
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| Lion Stone |
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| On sea of sand |
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| Teletubbies Hill |
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| My Family, sitting on the field that supposed to be green |
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| Dry field and the green hill on backround |
Next we approached "Batusinga", a rock
that looks like a lion, located around "Whispering Sands" I don’t
know why it called whisper sands, but if you seeing the desert, its formed like
a calm sea waves, as far as the eye could see, waves of sand is there up to
Bromo volcano and Mount Batok, or on the other background, Tengger caldera lips
presents a beautiful painting. The bright skies with sunlight without cloud
over Bromo add the spectacular appearance, once again capture the beauty with
camera.
Bromo Crater
Satisfied to enjoy the sea of sand, we move
towards Mount Bromo, to hike and enjoy the Bromo crater phenomenon. We stopped
at the site bounded by concrete, these concrete as markers that vehicles are
prohibited passing because in these restricted areas, there are earthquake
monitoring sensor beneath the earth, it is feared if the vehicles entering this
area, wheel vibrations will disrupt the work of the sensor.
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| Starting point |
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| On the way to Bromo |
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| Free |
Down from Hard Top,
some horse owners approached us offering horseback
riding to the stairs
to the Bromo crater, but we've agreed
to proceed on
foot, so there is the sensation of hiking, My 7 year
pretty little daughter, agreed to
on foot.
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| Desert storm |
Bromo crater is still far away, the temple was looked
small, but we keep the spirit, any way, many other people also walk, it keep up
the spirit of the children to continue walking. Amid our trip, we see on our
left, into the sand, a "storm sand "moving to our direction, a bit
nervous to see it, then we urge all to wear masks and glasses, as well as hold
your breath and close your eyes during sand storms that crossed us. At the
direction of the peak of Bromo we also see the sand dust moving upward across
the top of Bromo, as if he were moving like smoke lightly follow the wind
direction, this is incredible, we've never found anything like this before
Bromo eruption.
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| The Gorges |
We've been through the temple and now stands at
the foot of Mount Bromo, after down thru gorges and hiked towards the stairs,
the little girl began to seem slow, but she did not give up, we cheer, you can
Baby, come forward .... so her older sisters gave spirit, we continue to move
forward, slow but sure, sand lining the streets is very disturbing, our steps
become so heavy, sometimes making us slipped down. The step cannot be long
because it's slippery sand.
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| At the stairs that full of sand |
Finally arrived at the first rung, but it was
surprising, it turns out this is not the first rung, because half of the stairs
is already submerged in the sand, so in fact we've been half way of the ladder track, even this
ladder path to the peak also covered by sand, so it must be careful because of
slippery, some concrete safeguards the right of the stairs on the left is also
missing, so little trouble climbing stairs because we climb without a handle,
we continue to climb until we actually at the lips of the crater
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| On the lips of the Crater |
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| The Crater |
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| The Crater |
The lips of the crater are narrow, actually there is
concrete fence as high as adult’s chest to safeguard the visitor. Now the fence
is beneath the sand from the eruption. This is really dangerous for tourists,
especially because the crater wall now looks very steep, the surface of the
crater becomes very deep and narrow and looks still boiling. The local
government may soon build a new fence for the safety and convenience of
tourists.
Strong winds that bring sand is very disturbing visitors,
jacket and pants we wear has been filled with sand, even though we wear masks
and always cover mouth, still feels
grains of sand between the teeth, sometimes by accident we chew sand too.
Several times I rubbed my eyes, the same reason, because of the sand, despite
being protected with sunglasses.
My little girl several times seen took off his shoes and throw sand were deposited
therein. Sand that is very disturbing, but it does not diminish our spirit to
mingle with Bromo ....
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| Horse and Batok mountain, on the way down |
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| Happy, successful hiking |
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| On the way back to Ngadisari |
The sun is already located right above us when we came
back, the children are satisfied and the little girl proud she finally
successfully hiked to the summit of Bromo. And in my heart I promise, I will
visit you again ... See You Bromo ...
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