Can you imagine how the sensational feeling would be, if you could see sunrise from 2770 m height above sea level?
I'm sure you can't until you try it by yourself. And for me, thanks to God, i had experienced it once when i traveled to Bromo mountain, East Java, Indonesia.
Well actually, it's not an easy way to go there. I mean, you really have to sacrifice your sleeping time since you have to wake up at 3 a.m to get ready. It's such an early morning, isn't it? How many times in your life you can set your self in stable consciousness on three o’clock in the morning?
Oh, by the way, it's not the only 'sacrifice' you have to do. I'll tell you many more here!
I forget to tell you that you must get up at 3 a.m in a hotel room, in a village near to the mountain which has temperature around 5 degrees in Celcius. In that case, usually i prefer to stay under my blanket rather than walking to bathroom, washing my face, changing my cloth-with a very thick one- and preparing my stuff for hiking in such cold weather.
But you know what? Many people who come to Bromo do that!
People from Japan , Malaysia , Europe or Indonesian people it self -which come from another province, do that (sacrifices) for the sake of seeing sunrise from Penanjakan, the highest point at Bromo area.
Like me, for example, i started my travel from Bandung (West Java), went to Jakarta by bus to see my friend who came from Palembang (South Sumatera), so that we can travel to Bromo together.
In Jakarta , we took a flight to Bali and decided to stay there a few days before continue travelling to Probolinggo. From Bali, we departed at 9 pm and arrived in Probolinggo at 5 am in the next day. Yup, eight hours boring time just sitting and sleeping in the bus. But that's the way though! It's one of the route you can take if you wanna come to Bromo.
In Probolinggo we stayed in a hotel for a while. It was really exhausted since we had spent our energy sight seeing around Bali and had to travel 8 hours more to reach Probolinggo. No wonder i and my friend slept like a baby from the beginning we entered our hotel room until noon.
After feeling fresh and having a bowl of tradisional food called 'Soto Probolinggo' for lunch, we tried to find a minibus which can take us to Cemoro Lawang, the nearest village to Bromo mountain. It was already afternoon, so the passengers were quite rare at that time. I only saw a couple of tourist from Europe and two girls who also wanted to go to Bromo like us. So, instead of waiting other passengers in such a hot weather (yup, Probolinggo has hot weather at noon!), finally we -six of us- decided to hire the minibus so that we can leave soon.
Not long after that, the minibus moved uphill along the twisted road. But no problem! The panorama i'd seen during the trip was beautiful with the green trees and the brown ground in my left and right side. I enjoyed those sceneries till, hey, i already in Cemoro Lawang! After 2 hours!
Well, in Cemoro Lawang, you can choose any hotel from the cheapest until the most expensive one. But to reach Penanjakan, you only can do it by using a motorcycle or rent a 4WD car which is provided by the villagers.
These villagers who will gonna wait in front of your hotel at 3 am. They will drive you to Penanjakan through the dark and cold of the night for chasing the sunrise. It’s really really dark along the road taken. You can’t see anything except the light sourced from other vehicles.
About 100 metres from the view point to see sunrise, the vehicles stopped. All people must walk, hike along the path and the stairs, before entering the gate of Penanjakan.
And then finally, there we were!
Stand up in the same level with the white cloud, gathered with other tourist from various countries, waiting for Mr. Sun coming up.
Seriously, it's really an amazing moments!
You will forget all the sacrifices i've mentioned before and the only thing remain is nothing but a yell in your heart : AWESOME!
A Adnan
Penanjakan Bromo: A Kingdom Upon The Sky
