East Jawa Trip - concluded

Alright, I know i should have posted tis like over a year ago, dragging tis for over a year is juz crazy!! but trust me, i really really wanna go bek to blogging again, but there's juz so much going on tat i hardly have any time to blog at all!! still, i'm, serious about going bek to blogging and i'm gonna start with where i left it, erm, briefly (coz i've forgotten most of it already!) anyway, here goes~

We woke up at 130am (serious!) and got ready to leave at 2, but when we were ready we couldn't find the driver anywhere. We kept looking and he finally showed up at 230, apparently he overslept, haha. so we started our journey and reach the foot hill at around 3am. A lot of people were there, mostly drivers like ours, waiting for their clients at the foothill, they started a small fire there, n we sticked with them for about half an hour coz it was SO COLD!!! seriously, we could hardly make ourselves move away from the fire, n I've already wore like 3 layers of jacket! DAMN COLD!! at 330 we juz couldn't wait anymore so we finally started the hike. The one thing tat i will probably remember for the rest of my life was the starry nite sky, it's the most amazing thing i've seen ever! there were so many stars! it's like u hardly see a space for 1mm! really really nice.

Hiking in pitch dark was fun actually, although it was kinda tough, but we made it to the peak after 1 hour or so. At the peak was a few guide, and some people waiting for the sunrise, and we were all wondering, wat's the blue thingy tat we can see?? so we started asking around, and they tell us we need to go all the way down to the sulfur mine to see it, but we were already all excited to see it from afar!!

can u see it? the blue light near the lake?

and we made our way down to the mine

NOT NEAR AT ALL

when we reach there it was already sunrise, and we couldn't see the blue flame anymore, so we took a close look at the sulfur mine, it was really interesting

and the lake was really beautiful!

posing~

on our way down we stopped at the canteen to get something to eat, coz we din eat anything at all! n the only thing they have was instant noodle, n tat's probably the best instant noodle we ever had!

the view was great on our way down!

the entrance

After we went back to the hotel we took out bath, n the hot water juz ran out when it's my turn! juz my luck! >__<>

strawberry flower

And after everyone done showering, the people there gave us a tour at their coffee processing factory.

they leave the coffee beans out in the sun for them to dry

separated by class

some machines to separate them

tis is a LUWAK!

and tis is kopi luwak before they are processed!

coffee beans b4 they are dried

they use tis to roast the coffee beans

beans are soaked

and dried

these are macademian nuts! love them ^^

more coffee beans processing

the process flow

and it's done!

guess wat are these?

it's baby carrot!

some nice flower~

After some strolling there we had to leave, need to get to surabaya before sunset, and it's at least 4 hours drive! The view was not as nice as from yogyakarta, n we were really tired, so basically we juz slept in the car :-p

We stopped half way to have our dinner, n it was the best food we had in days!

it's ginger inside, but it's nice

name of the restaurant, drop by if u happen to come here!

The driver sort of lost his way at surabaya, and cant find the hotel we wanna go to. so i think we spent about an hour juz wondering around the city. Surabaya is the 2nd largest city in jawa, so it's quite a big city actually. Finally we found our hotel for the nite, Ibis, and we manage to get a room at around RM130.

The room is not bad

After settling down we were extremely tired, so we asked for massage in our room to relief all our hiking in the morning ^^

The next morning we decided to walk around on our own and asked the driver to pick us up juz before our flight. so we explored the city a little, went to the local market, souvenir shop (tat took us some effort to find) and tried some local food. It was really fun.

Finally it was time to go bek, so we packed our stuff and the driver drove us to the airport. We had our lunch at the airport and surprisingly the food was great! and it's the best meal we had in whole east jawa!

As we're flying off to different destination, I said goodbye to beautiful East Jawa first. It was truly an amazing trip, and it's still the most beautiful place that i've been until today. I might juz go bek again someday, hoho~

East Jawa Trip - Day 4

I was totally blur, n super cold when i woke up around 330am tat morning, I could hardly make myself to go wash up before going out. I wore 2 long sleeve and a wind breaker, with my scarf n hat n glove, really regret i din bring my wind breaker pants, i wore normal jeans n i was freezing when i step out of the room!

Shamron helped us to rent a jeep to get to the best viewing point for mount Bromo, The tip of Gunung Penanjakan. The jeep cost IDR 300,000 (RM107), it was a steep ride but it wasnt very far from the hotel, i was surprised tat there were so many jeeps along the way, there's a short walk upwards after the driver parked his jeep. A lot of shops at the side selling food, hats, scarf, etc. After the short walk i felt warmer, but when i reach the viewing point, I din felt cold at all, the place is CROWDED! I can hardly see anything but the crowd, but i made my way towards the front, n manage to get a few snaps. The view is juz too dreamy, I can hardly believe it even seeing it with my own eyes~

The crowd waiting for sun rise

almost~

can u see the settlements under the clouds?

Amazing... n tis was snaped using my phone!

Look at the crowd

sun rise~

me in the crowd

a clearer view

The entrance

Around 630am we moved down from Mt Penanjakan and start heading to Mt Bormo, tis time upclose~ On our way down there were a lot of ppl selling flowers and corns, if your planning to buy flowers it's cheaper here, u can bargain till 5k per bouquet.

The jeep brought us to a distance away from foot of Mt Bromo. As soon as we reach there some horseman started gathering around us and ask if we want a ride, a round trip cost IDR 125,000, I was too tired to bargain tat time, but actually i believe u can get a cheaper price if you bargain with them, on our way up I did hear some horseman offering their ride for IDR 40,000 per way. Anyway, u can choose to walk up by urself, but the place is quite dusty, and smelly too (coz of all the horses), riding the horse is much faster, n it's quite fun too. It's been ages since I last ride a horse, missed those days somehow, haha.

Mt Batuk, juz next to Mt Bromo

The crowd at the foot of Mt Bromo

start climbing!

long stairway up

Thr crater of Mt Bormo

Actually there's nothing much up there, but the view was great. Feel like we're somewhere in Mongolia or something, especially when ur riding accross the big dusty desert-like field. There's a temple near the foot of Mt Bromo, but it'll cost extra $$ if you want to get there by horse, and i'm not sure if any entrance fee is needed. We didn't went there, all of us are already starving!

Around 830am we went bek to cafe lave to have our buffet breakfast, included in the room rates.

taken juz outside of cafe lava

breakfast

The variety is quite limited, but still ok, juz plain water is not provided by the kitchen, u need to buy them for IDR 66,000 for 1.5L of mineral water.

After breakfast we took our bath, packed our things n got ready to check out and began another long journey to Ijen. Acording to Shamron the road to Ijen is quite bad, and the journey will take around 8 hours. I asked if it's gonna be as cold as Bromo, he said, almost the same, mayb colder, i ws freaking out already coz I heard they dun rent jackets like they do in Bromo, worried worried worried >_<" well, watever it is, we'll juz settle it when we get there, no point pondering about it now.....

After few hours of driving we were down from the mountain area and back to normal grounds, at noon we stopped by to hav lunch...

empty as usual...

sogem?? yuck.....

honey dew... but y they put condensed milk in everything??

mee soto, not bad.

Lunch cost IDR 132,000, around RM47, the food was not bad, but the drink..... I'd advise juz stick to ice jeruk.....

After lunch we continued our ride, n to our surprise, we saw beaches and the sea on our way to Ijen, I tot we were in the mainland, did expect tat. Anyway, the road to Ijen was really bad, it's almost like riding a horse... At the gates we paid IDR 100,000, I'm not really sure wat tat's for though...

At around 5pm we finally reached Catimor Homestay, there was a little fuss about our acoomodation there, but luckily in the end it was all sorted out, but the condition of the room was really bad... n the worst is, the heater in the bath room was broken! we asked the reception to give us another room but they say they were all fully booked, and they onli can let us use the bathroom for a while b4 they check in. Bad experience with the room, but honestly speaking, it's actually a nice place. Catimor is a coffee plantation, n besides coffee they also plant a lot of other stuff like strawberry, avocado, macadamian fruit, carrot, etc etc and there's a lot of nice flowers around. And did I mention it's COLD up there? i think slightly colder than our Cameron Highland. I was already worried about going to Ijen the next morning and started asking if they rent any jackets, well, obviously they juz took any jacket from dunno where and ask if we want them, but they were not wind breaker at all, so i rejected and deciede to risk it to see if i can bare the cold with just wat i have.

Catimor Homestay

Fat Papaya Tree

Nice Flower

Our Room

After our bath we ordered dinner, they have a buffet tat cost IDR 50,000 per person, and some ala-carte menu, well, the buffet menu doesnt seem very attractive, so we decided to order ala-carte instead, it's also much cheaper tat way.The kitchen say we have to wait till they gathered all the orders, well, we dun really hav any other choice, so we waited pathiently.

The water fountain, our table is juz beside tis

inside the comman room

The swimming pool, and the hot spring juz beside it

A funny thing is, we were all wearing long sleeve and freezing while waiting for dinner, the swimming pool is juz behind us, and the ang-mos were all wearing swimming trunks and enjoying themselves in the water, haha, wat a big contrast!

After wat seems like ages, our dinner is finally served!

The strawberry juice, made from fresh strawberry!

mee goreng

cap cai

nasi goreng

nasi goreng ayam

After dinner there was nothing much to do actually. So we asked Shamron about tomorrow's plan, and he said, we need to start going at 2am! why we hav to leave so early?? After a long conversation we finally understood tat there is some blue thingy we can onli see at nite and before sunrise, n we need at least an hour climb to get there. It really sounded interesting and I was really curious with wat we're about to see, so we went straight to bed and get ready to wake up really early tomorrow!