Trip to Surabaya - Malang - Bromo

I just wanted to visit another country since I haven't been on the plane for almost three years now so when my housemate, Kak Dai, suggested us to visit Bromo, I agreed without knowing what the place is famous for. I started to get excited when I finally read about Mount Bromo; it's a freaking active volcano!

To get to Mount Bromo, we had to land on Juanda Airport in Surabaya as it's the nearest airport. We planned for a 4 days and 3 nights trip but actually this trip might as well only for 3 days as our flight to Surabaya was at 8.00pm on 8th Sept and to KLIA2 was at 6.20am on 11th Sept. When we do research and planned for the trip, we found that most people who went to Bromo would spend a day trip to Malang also so that's the route we planned to, Surabaya - Malang - Bromo.

Day 1 (8th September 2018)

We took StarMart bus from Ipoh to KLIA2 and having to go through heavy traffic, we arrived KLIA2 around 5.00pm after 5 hours journey. The flight to Juanda Airport took us around 2 hours and 30 minutes. The flight departed at 8.20pm and arrived Juanda Airpot at 10.00pm (local time). We met our pre-booked driver, Pak Randy (not a real name) and went straight to Malang to check in our pre-booked hotel at Tulip Guest House and Cafe which was about 3 hours journey from Surabaya. 

I won't reveal our driver's contact because I don't recommend him at all. The biggest flaw on our trip was on the driver's fault;

• He didn't do any research first about our hotels' locations so we ended up wasting our time searching for the hotels. I even had to make a call to the hotel myself because he said that he didn't have any credit on his phone. Seriously, bro?
• He didn't take us to any souvenir shop even though we reminded him multiple times. 
• He didn't have a proper plan to bring us to a good restaurant for lunch and dinner and in fact, we had to starve on the second day at Malang. He kept saying that we should go to all the attractions first since the routes were on one way and would have our lunch outside of the town but we ended up starving because we were stuck in the traffic. There were a lot of restaurants along the way but he insisted to get out of the traffic first and eventually we slept the whole journey so we didn't get dinner too. 
• He also didn't help us to buy tickets and stuff. All he did was drove us to the attractions and he'll stay in the car, not moving an inch to help us. I'm still mad thinking of him.

Day 2 (9th September 2018)

We had our free breakfast at the guest house and it was our only proper meal for the day as I mentioned above, at point 3. Our first destination was Gunung Banyak where Omah Kayu and Taman Langit were located at. The wind here was very strong so I recommend you not to wear loose shawl style. I prefer Omah Kayu rather than Taman Langit. Taman Langit only had structures and landscape to have photos but Omah Kayu had structures made from wood for us to hop on and experience the height. The scenery was mesmerizing. There were few photo spots that required extra fees but we only went for the free ones. The ticket counter for these two places was at the same location so if you want to go to both attractions, you have to buy two different entrance tickets.

After almost 3 hours spent at Omah Kayu and Taman Langit, we arrived Museum Angkut around 12.30pm which was very ideal because it only opened at 12.00pm. There were not many people when we first arrived, thankfully. Museum Angkut was a new attraction and just opened last year so there were many local tourists also.  The museum showcase all sort of vehicles from the 60s, 70s and so on and divided into zones to differentiate countries. Even though I'm not really a fan, but the museum was still a must visit attraction and we spent almost 3 hours in here. Before entering the museum, we walked through the floating market by the entrance. I love the floating market but we didn't spend much time there, what a waste!

We continued our trip to Coban Rais around 3.00pm. Coban Rais was a bit like Omah Kayu but with the need to buy tickets to every photo location. We only wanted to try riding the sky bicycle as it looked scary in photos others uploaded but actually, it wasn't scary at all. At last, we decided to ride the sky bicycle and went to The Hobbiton, pretended like it was The Hobbiton in New Zealand tehee. If you plan to go to Coban Rais, you need to plan your trip well as the ticket counter will be closed at 3.30pm. There was also Ojek (motorcycle) services to go up the hill to the ticket counter but we declined their offer though they pressured us a bit. Seriously, it's only 1 km walking distance to go to the ticket counter so I don't recommend you to take the Ojek, it's not that far. But it's only IDR 10,000 for the Ojek though which was around RM3.

It's quite late that we exited Coban Rais to go to Kampung Warna Warni Jodipan. In Indonesia, night time was early, around 5.30pm so it's already dark when we reached Kampung Warna Warni at 6.00pm. Not much to see since the colours couldn't be fully enjoyed because of the darkness but we took few photos nonetheless. We spent only around 30 minutes here and went for almost 3 hours journey to Probolinggo for hiking Mount Bromo the next day. 

We arrived at Tengger Indah Hotel in Probolinggo around 12.00am. The hotel didn't provide toiletries but it's still okay for a moment stay. Though it's late and we were starving, we were still excited for the next day, the highlight of our journey. Anyway, this was the one thing Pak Randy was helpful as he was the one who booked us the jeep to hike Mount Bromo. We only had a few hours of sleep because our jeep would be ready at 3.00am. 

Day 3 (10 September 2018)

Exactly at 3.00am, our jeep driver knocked our hotel room, telling us that he's ready to pick us up. The jeep tour for Mount Bromo would start with watching the sunrise at Gunung Penanjakan. Bear in mind that the weather here could reach negative celsius plus with the heavy wind so a winter fashion would suit the weather here the most. But I only wore a few shirts with an ordinary sweater so I was freezing I thought I could die. A mask and shades also were a must to wear because the heavy wind also brought sand and dirt which could hurt the eyes and the nose. Kak Dai's eyes were swollen the next day because she forgot to bring her shades and there were no stalls that sell it. Before the sunrise, we got to enjoy the night sky which was full of stars, it was the most beautiful night sky I've ever seen. I couldn't share the photos because I had no good camera to capture the view at night. You must go there yourself to experience it.

After we were satisfied watching the breathtaking view of the sunrise, we continued on the jeep tour to Savannah Hill or also known as Teletubbies hill. We were informed that the hill was burned last week, presumably because someone threw his/her cigarette butt so the hills no longer had beautiful grass view, only almost the same as Pasir Berbisik which only had sand on it. But the view was still mesmerizing so we took quite many photos here. A big thanks to our jeep driver as he was a good photographer and was very friendly to us, I wished he was our driver for the whole trip instead of Pak Randy.

Then we went to our long-awaited destination, Mount Bromo, the active volcano. The jeep couldn't bring us right to the foothill but there were horses ready if you don't prefer to walk the 2.5 metres journey. We took the horses initially just because we wanted to ride it but thank god we did the right thing as the journey was quite a challenge with the hilly sand road. Before hiking up the stairs to reach the peak of the mountain, I bought a chocolate to eat as I didn't get to eat anything at all. Knowing myself, I was worried I could vomit along the hike because of an empty stomach. To reach the peak, we had to climb up more than 200 steps of sandy stairs. But we were quite lucky as there were too many people at that time so we had to follow the orders so the hike up wasn't that hard at all. After spent quite some time up the hill, we continued our jeep tour to Pasir Berbisik to take more photos and ended our tour around 10.30am.

We took a rest at the hotel and only check out the hotel at 12.00pm to have our lunch. Then we continued the journey with Pak Randy to Madakaripura Waterfall which was around 45 minutes from Bromo. Here are a few tips for visiting Madakaripura Waterfall; you'll be fully wet if you don't wear a raincoat. There would be a lot of sellers who want to sell goods such as slippers and raincoats so if you plan to visit the waterfall you should bring your own instead. But if you want to buy it there, buy it in the waterfall area as they sell those at a cheaper price, IDR 5,000 only. We thought there wouldn't be any seller in the waterfall so we bought our raincoat before the entrance for IDR 10,000, sobsob.

There were also locals who will persuade you to take a guide to enter the waterfall which would be around IDR 100,000 to 150,000 because of the slippery and dangerous route. We insisted to go on our own and thank god we did because all the worries like the guides told us weren't even there. After enjoying the waterfall, we finally went to Surabaya and check in Ibis Hotel which was located near the airport.

Day 4 (11 September 2018)
Our flight to KLIA2 was at 6.20am and we had the hotel to help booked us a taxi to the airport terminal.

Despite the flaws here and there, this trip was the most exciting trip I've ever gone to. If you love an adventurous trip, you should spend some time to visit Mount Bromo, I mean it's not every day we could visit the active volcano since there's none in Malaysia. I hope my post here could help you in any way if you plan to visit Mount Bromo.

> For next post of my expenses during the whole trip: click HERE

Till then,
Lya