Mt. Bromo

From Surabaya to Probolinggo, our next destination, it was only a two-hour train ride. We got up early, went to the train station early, raided the local Dunkin Doughnut shop for some savoury doughnuts and decent cups of coffee and settled into our executive class seats. Once we arrived in Probolinggo, a friendly driver awaited us for the 45-minutes’ drive towards the first homestay of our world trip. Located very close to our goal for that evening, Bromo, Guduk Ndeso was just… Wauw. Not the best view, but nevertheless the two buildings with three rooms each were perched on a small rising, overlooking the hills, mountains and village around it. The room was spotless clean and the patio in front of it provided shading from the sun on the comfortable wooden chairs to relax. Jip, this was for 16 EUR a night definitely completely worth it. So after checking in we just enjoyed the view, ate a small lunch of satay and mie goreng (fried noodles), worked some on our website stories, ranted at the Belgian tax authorities about outstanding taxes which I needed to return, cursed my bank Argenta for not allowing transfers from abroad to Belgian accounts, and eventually ended up in the local  for another diner of local food. We went to bed early once more, because we had to be “fit en monter” for our 2 AM drive to Mt. Bromo. We left very much on time in a pimped-up but clearly old Toyota land cruiser jeep, following a seemingly endless stream of similar jeeps up towards the viewpoint. Once we arrived there, we still had to walk a pretty steep 200 metres, according to the driver. It turned out to be more like 1.5 kilometers. Steep. And stairs. Véro despises stairs. But OK, the view over Mt. Bromo during sunrise was totally worth it. Check out the pictures…

After sunrise, we continued with our driver towards the crater in the middle of Mt. Bromo, where we joined an endless parking lot and string of other tourists climbing up the crater in windy and very dusty conditions, ascending another flight of 100-some stair steps. You should’ve seen Véro… But OK, the view from the crater rim was not that spectacular, so we quickly descended again and drove back to our homestay. Which we had booked for another night, and not regretting it one iota. We took our breakfast of toast, tea and fruit, relaxed some more on our patio, enjoying the sun on our face. We went out for a truly generous and delicious lunch at a small warung, cooked by an old lady, with a view and next to the busy winding road to Bromo. We took an afternoon nap in our homestay and took our diner once more at the family’s restaurant, because we were too lazy to go much further. We enjoyed every bit of our stay here and the amazing sight of Bromo this area has. Hopefully, our next destination Ijen is more of the same!