Journey to East Java - Mount Bromo and Ijen Blue Flame (5D4N)

Journey to the East Java (5D4N)

View from King Kong Hill,
Surabaya, Indonesia.

It was Tongariro Alpine Crossing (An active volcano in New Zealand) that started my obsession with volcanoes but it was Mount Bromo that really sealed the deal. East Java is a place where you can visit an active volcano, milky way and majestic waterfall through horse rides, desserts and cold mountain weather. I was so excited while planning for the trip because mountain, milky way and

waterfall are my top favorite thing.

We booked a tour guide online after comparing price and services with few tour providers. With a group of four, it’s cheaper and better to hire a local tour guide so we can avoid some hassle from taking public transport and getting lost in the city.

Cost of the tour

*4 pax = Rp 2,750,000/pax ==> 4 pax (in total) =RP 11,000,000

*Entrance fee Bromo (Weekday) = Rp 230,000/pax ==>Rp 920,000

*Entrance fee Ijen (Weekday) = Rp 100,000/pax ==>Rp 400,000

*Tips for the driver =Rp 100,000

*Tips for tour guie =Rp 100,000

Total = Rp 12,520,000

Included

-5d4n transport and accommodation

-tour guide

-Entrance fee in Bromo and Ijen

-Mineral water

-4 x hotel breakfast

Excluded

-Lunch and dinner

-Riding Pony horse to Bromo Crater

-Travel insurance

-Personal expenses

Day 1

On the first day, we reach Surabaya airport around evening time. Once we reach there, we were picked up by the tour guide and drove to Bromo directly for hotel check in. We stayed at Bromo Ecologde Hotel for the first two nights. What I remember is it's a pretty simple hotel with basic supply like hot water shower, wifi and breakfast. We booked two rooms and I stayed with my friend, Hanna Yong. The room is quite small, imagine we can't open our luggage at the same time due to limited space. Overall, it's not a fancy hotel but fit our basic need.

After we took a short rest and had our dinner at the hotel, we headed out for milky way. On the way to the view point, I was so excited because we had a clear night sky with milky way on the sky above our head (Sometime we can't see milky way even the sky is clear because it is not always well placed to be seen, like the sun, the star rise in the east and set in the west, due to Earth's rotation. Sometime it's lie flat around the horizon).

We had an hour of car ride to a peopleless forest viewpoint. It was freezing cold up there, I was underestimated the weather in Indonesia. We reached the viewpoint around 11.30pm and we were the first and only group up there for the milky way, once our tour guide dimmed the light of the car, we waited for few minutes to let our eyes adopted to the low light and this was what we saw when we gazed on the night sky with our bare eyes! Breathtaking <3

We even managed to see few meteors bolted through the night sky! What an unforgettable night.

Milky way at Bromo
Photo by John Lau

Day 2

Bromo sunrise tour starting at 3am, I can barely open my eyes. It was still completely dark outside but the area was incredibly crowded with cars, jeeps and motorbike parked on each side of the road. We were forcing to walk in the middle of the street and once we reached the entrance, a footpath lead all the way to the view point. As expected, full of people cheerfully sit and wait for the sun to rise. Wish we could depart much early so we can find a good spot to sit and chill.

View from KingKong Hill
Photo by John Lau

Managed to take a photo together after sunrise. The view is absolutely stunning!

Horse ride to Bromo Crater
Photo by John Lau

The next stop is Bromo Crater. The walk to Bromo Crater isn't hard. It took around 45 mins to an hour walk all the way from the drop off point to crater. Wearing a bandana or mask is high recommended as there is quite sandy along the way to Crater.

Bromo Crater, Indonesia.

Once we reached the top, we smelt typical rotten egg stench, it was the sulfuric gas from the crater. Again, it's crowded up there. We hardly have space to stand. We just took a few wefie with the crater and chill for 15 minutes before heading back to packing lot. The cool thing is you can actually walking along the crater! We didn't do that as we are short of time and it was pretty hot that time =D

Whispering Sand, Indonesia
Photo by John Lau

We spent some time to take some photos with the Jeep while on the way back to hotel. Typical tourist. HAHA

Day 3

The next day we headed to Bondowoso (5 hours drive from Bromo) around 9am and we managed to

visit the beautiful and powerful Madakaripura Waterfall along the way to Bondowoso. This incredible waterfall hidden at the end of a deep valley. This tour consist of 20 to 30 mins mortobike ride follow by a 15 minutes walk before reaching the waterfall. For most of the way, we walked through the river without getting wet but for some point we have to pass to the failing water. After made it through the river and climb a little section, we made it to the main waterfall. A 80m height massive waterfall with leafy wall curving around us. It was pretty impressive!

We continued our journey to Bondowoso after visiting the waterfall. Reached hotel around 7pm. We took a nap and departed to Ijen for the blue flame hike around 11pm.

Day 4

The journey to the Ijen Crater took around 1.5 hour. Then the hike to viewpoint took about 90-120 minutes. On the clear day, you can see the magical blue flame. Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs that day. We reached around 1am and yet we still want to hike even it's raining out there. The hike was not hard nor easy. We shared the narrow rocky path with other hikers. There was no time for photo, every step was carefully calculated. The wind was strong and at some points, the sulfur gas was so strong, we were still uncomfortable even with our gas mask on. Sometime the gas covered us from head to toe and made our eyes water.

Me at the Ijen Crater

Sulfur given by a miner :)

Was it an incredible experience? I'm sorry to say, for me, it wasn't. It was cool. But I was so disappointed of the crowds and the rainy weather during the hike. We were not able to see blue flame, sunrise and even the view at the viewpoint was not pleasant, covered by haze and gas. The scary climb and the danger of being exposed to acidic sulfur gas just wasn't worth the hike (Just my personal point of view). Hope you guys enjoy reading it =)