Trek to Bromo!

Last weekend, I got to experience the Bromo sunrise. My friend, Sharon, and her friends visiting from Korea were going to Bromo to watch the sunrise and invited me to come along. What a treat to be able to experience this! We left at 1:30 am on Saturday night/Sunday morning and drove the 3 hours to the lookout point. We went back and forth watching the sun rise to the east of Bromo and taking in the view of volcanoes Bromo & Semeru. It was gorgeous! It was amazing to see how many mountains/volcanoes are surrounding Malang from the view we had.

Bromo & Semeru from the lookout point right before the sunrise

After the sun rose, we got back in the car and made our way down the lookout point on the very winding, narrow road. We drove through the valley, which looked like a desert, covered in ash from the eruption that occurred back in January. We drove to the base of Mt. Bromo and got to climb the stairs up to the top of Bromo to look down into it. This is something they have just recently opened back up after the eruption and is accessible to the public. There were so many people going up and down Bromo! Some were sightseers and some were regulars who make offerings into Bromo. The offerings is a Hindu tradition that is made regulary and there are many Indonesians who take part due to the Hindu population nearby Bromo. 

Everyone lined the brim of the volcano…it made me so nervous to watch kids run along and skirt in between all the people, with nothing protecting them from falling down either side of the volcano! Below are some pictures from the base and from the top of Bromo.

Looking down from the top of Bromo...there are steps to climb up.

This is a pic that Faith took...it made me crack up when I saw it!
Surrounded by Indonesians...do I stick out of the crowd much??

Looking down into the caldera. Before the eruption in January, there was no gaping hole. It was completely covered and only had cracks with steam coming up. Now it is a big hole that puffs every 10 minutes. It kind of reminds me of something from Star Wars :)

On the way back to Malang, the man driving took us to a waterfall. The surrounding land is so mountainous and the Tengger people who live there use every single piece of land they can for agriculture. This was a picture of the way they farm the land. I have never seen anything like it before!

Most of the crew that went...Faith is m.i.a.

The waterfall we hiked to see on the way back...so pretty!

It amazes me how different the land is here in each place you go. In 10 hours, we went from the city in Malang, to the mountainous and desert-like terrain of Bromo, to green, hilly farmland, to the lush forest where the waterfall was.