Bromo experience!

Bromo... what a crazy trip!!

The day after Merapi we bought a tourist pack to visit Volcano Bromo, in east Java. This volcano horribly erupted twice causing the top of the mountain to have a large crater and a vast sand sea around it about 200 m deep approximately. The crater was formerly the vast sand sea then some new hills gradually came up forming seven new mountains. Of those seven mountains, Mt. Bromo is the most active volcano erupting many times and forming new crater.

Before we visited Bromo, we went to another mountain called Mt. Penanjakan (2.706 m.a.s.l) to see the sunrise. It was very nice and we could see Mount Semeru (the highest mountain in east java with around 3.676 m.a.s.l) and other volcanos which are inside the National Park.

The views were amazing, really but personally, I will not recommend you to do it. If you want to visit it, you should go without tourist agency (as I always say and prefer), taking public transport, eating in traditional places ("warungs" in the street) and talking with local people who are not involved in a tourist context.

I have to explain that it was my first bad experience travelling in Indonesia because of the people from the tourist agency who only see that you are "white" and their eyes change into  dollar signs ($_$).

Other thing to bear in mind is the season to visit Bromo.

Of course, rainy season is not recommended because, as I said before, there is a desert around the volcano. But what I mean is that do not visit Bromo in Idul Fitri (Festivity after Ramadhan) and neither in July and August because it will be full of people.

The place, in my opinion, doesn't look natural. Someone built a stairs to go up the volcano in 10 minutes (it is good for old people or disabled people... but to go there, for them is not easy because of the sand... then, we have the same problem with or without stairs). And some people offer to rent and ride a horse to not walk 15 minutes from the place where the jeeps stop until the foot of volcano (where the stairs start). It makes a lot of dust, whick makes it, with the sulfur smell, very difficult to breathe. 

What is the best thing of that trip?

Well, we enjoyed a lot making jokes all the time, we ate a lot of chocolate waffles (the best waffles I've ever eaten) and I saw the biggest crater I've ever seen!!

After this trip, our ways separated. Felix and Anastasia went to Bali to continue enjoying their holidays, and I went back to Salatiga to continue with my voluntary service.