Active Volcano Expedition : Mount Bromo

Mount Bromo is an active volcano located in East Java, the name Bromo derived from Javanese pronunciation of Brahma, the Hindu creator God, and really, this place is incredible. Hiking up to the smoking crater of Mount Bromo is one in a lifetime experience but it's also a very touristic thing to do. Some people end up paying a lot of money for it. But if you are like me, always traveling on a tiny budget, here's how to make the trip way cheaper!

First you have to find a way to get to the town of Probolinggo. That should be easy, plenty of buses and train go there. But once you get out of the bus/train, be ready to be harassed by a crowd of local men trying to sell you tickets to Bromo. You don't look Indonesian?

Then you must be a tourist and there can only be one reason you find yourself here in Probolinggo: to get to Mount Bromo.

We were riding a bus from Surabaya with two British women we met earlier and who had no idea what to expect.

As we arrive towards Probolinggo, the bus driver makes a random stop and tells us "Here your stop, Probolinggo".

He clearly thought we were stupid because first: it isn't even a bus station; second: no other passenger on the bus moves, clearly they know this isn't the bus terminal; and finally it happens to be a travel agency called "Bromo Travel" right where he stopped... How convenient! We smile and say "Not our stop, we go to the bus terminal" and we leave him no choice.

Once in the bus terminal, many people follow us to ask if we are looking for a ride to Bromo. We ignore them nicely (Even though I really want to have fun and say a few random sentences of Indonesian to confuse them) then we walk out of the bus terminal to get a minivan.

Here we found 4 desperate travelers happy to see us. See the thing is, the minivan which goes to Bromo only leaves when it's full, so you need 15 passengers. If you are only 4 people, technically you can still go...if you are willing to pay the total price.

We are now 8 people but to have the best price possible, we still need 7 more travelers and it is now past 4 pm, the chances of more travelers arriving are very low.

We have to all agree now: either we pay 75 000 rupiah each (about 5.5 USD) and we get to leave right now or we try waiting for more passengers. But the unlucky four travelers have been waiting for 4 hours already and we are the first to show up so it's not looking good.

After a few minutes of negotiating, we agree to pay and go now. With our heavy backpacks in the minivan and 8 of us, there isn't much space, we wonder how they can even fit 15 people in here.

After 40 minutes ride on a winding road, we get to the little town of Cemoro Lawang. We have to pay a "fee" to enter the town, I don't remember exactly how much it was, but it was definitively less than 20 000 rupiah. Maybe they change it depending on the season.

It is now raining pretty hard, the two British Women already have a hotel booked so they leave but the rest of the group, 6 of us, we don't know where to stay. We use the Maps.me app on our phone to find a cheap accommodation and after a nice fried rice dinner and a cold short night of sleep, we leave at 2 am, ready for the 3/4 hours hike up.

We have a nice little team: 2 Chinese, 1 Indonesian, 1 Canadian and 2 French. The plan is to hike up "Gunung Pananjakan" a neighbor mountain with a nice viewpoint from which you can see Bromo.

We start hiking through the night, you just have to follow the road for a while then it goes up on a little path. Local people try to make you take horses but honestly, it is a super easy hike as long as you have a headlamp. We are not the only one here, everyone wants to be at the viewpoint for the sunset.

But as we go higher, it seems that the clouds are getting lower and thicker. Not a good sign. Around 6 am, we realize that we are deep in the clouds and there will be no view for us today.

We are disappointed but probably not as much as the poor tourists who just paid 40 dollars (or more!) to take a jeep to the viewpoint. Thirty minutes after the sunrise (that no one could actually see!) every single jeep drives down.

We are not in a rush, so we take some group pictures (not of the view obviously) and after having breakfast decide to hike down.

We are joking but deep down, we are all very disappointed we didn't get to see anything. Ira and I buy stickers of Bromo, as a bittersweet memory of the non-existent view.

As we are getting down, suddenly, Ira, hiking ahead of us, yells: "There's a view here! Guys!!".

We all rush to see that "view" not sure if Ira is joking or not. But he isn't, there is a view and what a view! Bromo is here, smoking in the distance. Sure the sky isn't blue like on the pictures you can find on internet, but at this point, we do not care! Bromo isn't so impressive in terms of height, at 2,329 metres (7,641 ft) it is not the highest peak around but with its intense white smoke coming out of its crater, it is a pretty amazing sight!

We decide to hike down all the way to the crater but are reluctant to pay the 25 USD entrance fee. Ira remebers he saw a path last night, there is a sign saying that it is forbidden to walk down this path but, we take that as a challenging invitation.

The land around the volcano feels like a desolation land, the vast "Sea of Sand" plain (which is called like this because, well obviously it does look like one) seems endless!

It is not always possible to walk around here, depending on the degree of volcanic activity, the Indonesian Centre for Volcanology and Disaster Hazard Mitigation sometimes issues warnings against visiting Mount Bromo and the whole area around the crater is closed.

As we get closer to the base of the volcano, we start seeing these "canyons" made of sand. Obviously not as dramatic looking as the Grand Canyon I suppose, but it is really fun going up and down these small canyons. We are all alone here, it looks like most tourists are already gone and the rest of them took jeeps to get to the crater.

I start singing the soundtrack of "Lord of the Rings" in my head, I feel it now, this is my destiny. I'm like Frodo (same size!) and I carry my precious ring through the Mordor to destroy it in the flames of Orodruin! (I'm such a nerd!)

There is an ancient hindu temple here, it is funny to see this temple standing alone in the sea of sand, next to an active volcano.

We finally reach the bottom of the stairs that lead to the crater. We go up and there we are, standing on the edge of the crater.

In case you didn't know, active volcanoes are extremely loud! The volcano is roaring furiously, it is a little scary, standing here listening to Bromo "talk", he sounds mad!

Except from the smell of rotten eggs (because of the sulfuric fumes) it is really nice up there, but do keep in mind that in 2004 when it erupted, 2 people died after been hit by rocks from the explosion. So it isn't exactly the safest place to have a picnic ...

There is a chicken here, tied to a chain. I guess the local people brought it here to sacrifice it, unless someone really wanted to hike up there with their pet chicken...

I don't have much hope for this poor chicken, knowing that during the Hindu Festival of Yadnya Kasada, the local people throw "offerings" in the crater, usually food or flowers but sometimes they also throw livestock for the mountain gods (to have a barbecue I guess).

Ira wants to do an offering to Bromo too, after considering his options, he opts for the flower bouquet which he throws down the crater for good luck.

We spend a good 15/20 minutes here and finally decide to go down, not sure how healthy breathing these fumes really is.

We slowly hike back to the town, feeling really tired but happy with our experience.

Now it's time to leave the town so we have to find other travelers to share a minivan back to Probolinggo.

It is now past 2 pm and since most people leave right after the whole sunset viewing around 9 am, we are only 6 of us (we didn't see the British Women at all today). After unsuccessfully trying to find more passengers, we agree to share the price of the minivan between all of us.

Conclusion

We paid a total of 160 000 rupiah for the minivan in and out, probably about 10 000 rupiah for the town entrance fee, about 80 000 rupiah each to sleep one night (sharing a room) and some extra 50 000 rupiah money for dinner, snacks, lunch and drinks. All of this comes to a total of about 22 USD.

You can probably pay less if you are lucky enough to get a full minivan, but be careful not being overcharged by the locals. Honestly, it was money well spent for us, it was an incredible experience, we met very nice fellow travelers and got to sacrifice flowers to an active roaring volcano like Frodo with the Precious in "Lord of the Rings"!

How often can you do that really?