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!