Mount Bromo

From Solo we found our way to Probolinggo by train at an unbeatable price. Though the journey took 9 hours it was really quite enjoyable for the first 4 hours. There was a steady breeze coming into our car and a constant stream of vendors offering us everything from fried tofu with chili to interesting pancake balls that were still piping hot. The last 5 hours were a little more tedious as the train took longer and longer stops at stations and the food became less frequent.

Probolinggo was our “jumping off point” (LP's favorite phrase) for Gunung (Mount) Bromo a climbable volcano. We arrived at night in very cool temperatures. For the second time on my trip I was very happy that I’ve lugged some long pants and a sweatshirt around the steamy heat of Thailand, Malaysia and now Indonesia. It was actually so cold the first night I kept on all my clothes and heaped two blankets onto my bed. Nevertheless I was pretty excited by the prospect of sleeping next to a volcano!

Brilliant Mount Bromo smoking in the center.

I stepped out my door the first morning and I had a brilliant panorama of Bromo and another peak set in a huge sand caldera. We were all super tired from the train the day before and took the day to relax, read and eat. It was just as well because the day was very cloudy. I think we struck gold when we happened across a little warung (traditional restaurant) down in the village. The woman who runs it is definitely the best cook in Java if not all of Indonesia. Tahu Telor may be one of her personal creations and it is my new favorite food. It’s a tofu and egg pancake (not sweet), on top of rice, topped with a freshly made peanut sauce. It was perfection for 5.000 Rp. Eating there as well was a man, Sheen, with his BMW motorbike parked outside. He drove from Nice, France to Malaysia last year and is on the second leg of his trip to Australia via Borneo, Java and Bali. We spent a great afternoon drinking tea and listening to horror stories from the road in Kalimatan and corrupt Indonesian immigration officers while the rain pounded down outside. Here's the link to his blog.

We lucked out completely when our second day, climbing day, dawned clear and blue. We were already pretty far up the mountain so there was not very far to climb to the top of Bromo. It took less than an hour to cross the sand sea that is at the base of the peak. The view was spectacular. The entire landscape was so unique we took hundreds of photos each. We spent 7 hours total roaming around the rim of the volcano, watching the white sulfer cloud billow out of the hole in Bromo, and then we hiked back and around to another peak along a skinny little trail that finally led us back down to the sand sea. It was definitely a superior way to spend a day.

At the summit of Bromo.