Indonesia 2012, Surabaya, Mt Bromo

Surabaya 2012-7-4

Volcanoes seen on the airplane from Jogyakarta to Surabaya

We were short of two air tickets to fly to Surabaya from Jogyakarta, and two of us must take the train leaving early in the morning. Someone asked if I wanted to. I didn’t mind, but Ching objected to it. And finally Lan and Man took the train. My GPS was not working on this flight, and I couldn't identify the two majestic volcanoes which I saw from the airplane.

Clean river along Jalan Gunungsari

Workers rolling cigarets in Sampoerna Kretek 

When we arrived in Surabaya airport, we found out that our transportation had been downgraded to a small 12 passenger minivan, and our luggage were carried in a separate small truck. This kind of vehicle would be assigned to us for the remaining of the trips. The airport in Surabaya was surrounded by fish ponds. We saw a large mosque on the way to the city centre. Like in Jakarta, there was also a large creek passing through the city, but the water and its surrounding were much cleaner. The traffic was heavy, but we didn’t experience any serious jam. We stopped at Gubeng train station to meet Lan and Man. The station was very clean and orderly. And they arrived in time. We then went to a restaurant specialised in barbeque country chicken. It was tough and bony, and the chicken in Padang was certainly tasted much better. We visited Sampoerna kretek cigarette factory. It was started by a Chinese, and the building that we visited was built in 1932. It was now own and ran by an international company. We saw a big hall behind the glass where workers were rolling the cigarettes using the hand roller that I was playing as toy when I was small. The workers sit on rows of workbenches separated by an aisle. Each workbench seated 12 workers on each side facing each other. I noticed that all of them swung their heads as they rolled the cigarette. It was like they were taking ecstasy drug in a music party. I was surprised that they still used this antique hand-held machines to manufacture cigarettes, and I liked to take a good photo of this hall, but a security guard stopped me. We then continued on the road to Probolinggo.

Levee to contain the mud from volcano mud flow in Sidoarjo

On May 29^th, 2006 a mud volcano erupted in Sidoarjo near the newly drilled borehole for gas exploration. At its peak, the volcano spewed up to 180,000 cubic metre of mud per day, and inundated the surrounding villages. The mud flow was still on but its rate had been reduced significantly. Levees had been built to contaminate the mud, and a section of the levee was very close to the highway that we were travelling. This levee had become a tourist attraction as many people were riding motorbikes on it.

Sion View Hotel

Heavily cultivated land on the steep mountain slope

East of Pasuruan, we were travelling south-east around the foot of Mount Bromo. We then turned into a side road going to Sukapura and Mount Bromo, and passed many villages along the way. But it was getting dark, and we could not see clearly. It was dark when we arrived at the slope of the mountain, and stopped at a large buffet restaurant specialised in catering for large tourist group. The dishes were simple and were only good for the hungry stomach. We then continued climbing until we reached our hotel  Sion View Hotel. We had simple and small room with two beds. Everyone had warmed us that the water was cold and the hot water didn’t work. We were all tired and I was glad to find that the hot water in the shower worked. Peddlers came from the village selling knitted hat, gloves and scarf. They warmed us that it was cold up in the mountain, and these things were very expensive there. Ching ended up buying two hats. Although it was not of good quality but it proved to be a wise decision.

Surabaya 2012-7-5

Road built on the top of narrow ridge

We were up at 3 am, and quickly had toasted bread for breakfast. An Australian with his adult son and daughter stayed in the next room. We had hired 3 jeeps to go up the mountain to watch the sunrise. They were mostly 1980 Toyota jeeps. We drove on narrow, bumpy, very steep and windy road through many villages. It was generally full of potholes, but some sections were smooth and in good shape. I didn’t know how they brought in the heavy construction vehicles to repair or re-build the road. Later, on our way back to the hotel in bright day light, we saw the road was mainly constructed on the top of narrow ridges. Houses on both sides of the road were built on stilts standing on the steep and deep ridge side.

Jeeps parked along the narrow road

We then descended into a desert like plain, and the jeep was running on trails formed by deep trenches. And then we started ascending again. The jeeps seemed competing against each others on the plain by following different trails, and passing each other on the narrow road on the ridge. We stopped just before we reached the observation area. It was then become clear as why they were racing against each other. There was no proper parking area anywhere near the observation platform. All the cars must parked on the side of the narrow road built on the top of a sharp ridge. The late comers would have to park the car farther from the platform.

Sunrise at Mt Bromo

There were many souvenir shops near the platform, and one offered toilet for the public and was doing very good business. The temperature was cold, and people were using a portable stove  to keep warm. There were already many people on the platform when we arrived. We managed to get seats on the benches to wait for the sunrise. I was experimenting of taking photos with different setting and angles. This proved to be a mistake as it created problems in synthesizing the progress of the sunrise. The scene of the sunrise started from a narrow blur strip of blue on top of orange band in the horizon. This strip was then pushed up by a more intense orange colour arch. The arch gradually became a band covering the whole horizon. The height of the band increased and brightens the whole sky.

Mt Bromo in sunrise

I was concentrating watching the changes in colour during the sunrise in front of me and not paying attention to others until Lan signaled me to see at a different direction. It was the spectacular view of Mount Bromo bathing in the bright early sunshine. We could watch sunrise in many other places, but this was the only place to watch Mount Bromo in sunrise.There was a large eruption in ancient time. It created a large, tall and steep Tengger Caldera. The observation platform was at the top of Mount Penanjakan which was a high point on the caldera. In the middle of the caldera sit the active Mount Bromo, the dormant Mount Batok, and the massif Widodaren. Between the volcanos and the caldera was a large depression which might have been filled with water. Now it was dry and like a desert and was called Lautan Pasir (sand sea). The area of this desert behind the Widodaren was now thick grassland. The platform was very close to Mount Batok.

Mt Batok, Bromo, massif Widodaren, and Seberu

Watching sunrise on Mt Bromo

The stair going up to the crater at Mt Bromo

The top of Mt Batok

Mount Batok was a perfect cone shape volcano with many ridge on its slope and a small crater on its top. Half of its slope facing the platform was green, and the other half facing Mount Bromo was grey and dry. Mount Bromo was completely grey in colour and had no vegetation on its slope. More than half of its top had been blew up in the last eruption and created a large and deep crater. At the base joining Mount Bromo and Mount Batok was a Hindo temple. The people living in this mountain area were called Tenggerese and their religious was Hindu. They might be forced into this remote area to preserve their religious after the Dutch colony government brought in the Islamic people from Madura. A trail had been cleared to climb up Mount Bromo on its smooth slope to the base of its crater, and a steep stair of less than a hundred steps had been built to bring visitor up to the top of the sharp edge of the crater. With a good 40x zoom lens, we could see clearly the people on the crater watching the sunrise. The massif Widodaren hugged Mount Bromo and Batok. It had several crater features on its top and was completely covered by vegetations. Further south beyond the Tengger Caldera was another volcano mountain complex. It had a perfect cone shape active Mount Seberu which was much higher than Mount Bromo. The low angle early sunshine coloured the mountains with gorgeous bright orange and gold. There was a wall of human wall blocking my view to see the volcanos. Fortunately, a nice middle age white tourist saw me disappointingly standing behind the wall, and let me take his place. I was very grateful to his consideration.

Houses built on stilts

We left the platform at 6 am, and only then did we realize the large number of visitors who had come up on motorbikes, jeeps and pickup trucks. And we saw the shops near the platform were actually hanging in the air supported by stilts on the steep ridge. The jeeps were also parking dangerously right on the edge of the ridge, and I didn’t know how could they did it in the dark when we came. Now, the race was in its reverse direction, everyone was trying to leave as soon as possible.  We could see the jeeps racing  in the Lautan Pasir like toys.

The condition of the bad road

When we came in the dark, we could only felt how bad the road was. And now, we could see its condition as well as suffering the bumpiness.  We descended into the desert, and the jeeps were free to race on the open field filled with many deep trenches. We could hardly see things very far ahead due to dusts created by the jeep in front. People in the pickup trucks were all wearing scarf, and they wrapped it around their heads to protect them from the dust. The worst were those on the motorbikes, they not only had to endure the difficulties of driving in the fine sands, and also had to cope with the blindness created by every passing jeep. 

Jeeps parked in front of the Hindu temple

A Tenggarese on horse back

There were many jeeps stopping in front of the long and low fence in the desert. It was about one km from the temple and no car was allowed to go beyond the fence. The fence was made of square concrete pillars buried in the sands with two feet of its height showing above ground. Many Tenggerese with their horses surrounded every vehicle arrived in the lot soliciting for the hiring of their horses. People hired the horses to ride them freely on the desert or for going to the temple on horseback. I was surprised to see many young native girls who showed no fear and hesitation in riding a horse.  The Tenggerese no longer wore their traditional clothes, and only wrapped a piece of sarong across their shoulder. There were also some simple food stalls made of benches and stools. They were probably sold something hot to fight the cold weather.

The wall of the caldera

The desert like Pasir Laut turned into Grassland

The driver of our jeep offered to take us to see the grassland at the south-western foot of the massif Widodaren by paying some extra fee. The desert became narrower as we drove deeper into the desert around Widodaren. Two motorbikes raced toward us loaded with freshly cut grass for the horses, and the desert was gradually covered by tall grass-like vegetation. The steep caldera wall was very close in front of us showing the many layers of bare rock formations. The wall was covered with green grass, and tall trees grew in the cleft of the wall. We arrived in the grassland in about 15 minutes. The desert was completely covered by tall grass, and the nearest peak of the massif Widodaren seemed close and not very high. The wall of the caldera had also turned into gentle slope with more tree covers. We might like to stay longer enjoying the scenery if there were any place to rest. We didn’t see any animal.

The observation platform at MT Penanjakan

On the way back, we saw an old man wearing a knitted hat and having a dark green blanket wrapping his upper torso and walking barefoot. His right hand carried a sickle and a pole was on his shoulder. He must be on his way to the grassland to cut grass. We saw the observation platform on top of Mount Penanjakan surrounded by communication towers. It was a man-made structure at the edge of the caldera. We climbed up the lower section of the caldera and reach Cemoro Lawang, a village at the edge of the caldera. This was the gateway to visit Mount Bromo. We followed the road built on top of narrow ridges. On both sides were neat village stone and concrete houses with tile roof and heavily cultivated land on the steep slopes.

An old village woman on the road

I saw an old woman walking barefoot alone on the road in front of our hotel. She had a red knitted hat with a fancy pattern on her head covering her untidy grey hairs. Her back was covered in red heavy blanket or sarong with a knot under her neck like wearing a poncho. And she was holding nothing but a white blanket in her hands. In the city, we might think of her as a homeless soul wondering on the street. In this closely knitted society, I wondered why she was like that walking alone on the road. The area must be reasonably wealthy and prospered according to the exterior look of houses along the road.

Trip in Mt Bromo

On the highway back to Surabaya, we saw many motorbikes carrying a big load of neatly bundled grass. I didn’t see this in the other part of the country. One of them was on a regular bike, and unfortunately it was turned over due to the unbalanced and heavy load. We stayed in Midtown Hotel in the busy district of the city, and then went to a food court in a nearby shopping mall for some simple and late lunch. Each of us was given a voucher for the lunch. Most of us skipped having dinner.

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