richard kurniawan's site

Had no plan for Ied holiday, I finally agreed to go to Bromo Mountain and its surrounding. It was not me, if I just went to Bromo without additional adventurous plan, especially when I had been chosen to lead the group :D. So I planned to search great waterfall on south Semeru mountain, using information from Google Earth combined with GPS.

I got no ticket on 12 Oct 2007, so I went on 13 Oct instead. The streets were pretty empty during this holiday. Early in the morning I arrived in Surabaya, went to pick up car, had quick ‘nasi pecel’ breakfast and then directly drove to Bromo mountain.

I was stucked in Lapindo mudflow for about an hour, but that was okay for me (comparing with the traffic in Jakarta). The mudflow forced every car to exit from Porong toll way. From Porong, the car headed to Gempol thru regular road, and then to Pasuruan and so on. My plan was to have lunch in ‘Rawon Nguling’, but too bad it was close; So I changed the plan and had lunch in ‘Tongas Asri’. It was pretty crowded, but the foods were pretty good. From the sms, I got information that the other participants would join directly from Tretes to Bromo and met up there in the hotel.

Finished my lunch in small city, Tongas, I directly headed to the south, Bromo, thru small town, like Lumbangkuning and Sukapura. I just realized that the sun was still high, so I would arrive in Bromo during bright day, much earlier than the plan. That was why I changed the plan, I went to waterfall ‘Madakaripura’ close to Lumbang. After paying Rp 2500 per person (with no receipt ticket?) I arrived at the Madakaripura parking lot.

I never regretted changing my plan. The waterfall was great, and lucky me that on the afternoon the waterfall was not so crowded. I could take great pictures of it. Several things to be noted were unfinished bridge, so that I had to drive very carefully; And the trekking pedestal to waterfall, where many spots were heavily damaged. I never intended to use guide, but since I had never been there, I allowed one person to come with me as guide without asking the price (this was a mistake).

I found that the route to the waterfall was actually not that difficult as I thought before. I also found that I should bring my raincoat or umbrella to avoid water splash from the waterfall. Lucky me that there were people who rent the umbrellas; Too bad that the umbrella was not that big and strong, so that it was close down when I was using it to pass under small waterfall to go to the right place to take pictures. My cloth became wet; Lucky me that the camera bag was pretty good to protect the camera, so that only few splash came into the bag, but the camera and lenses were okay.

Finished taking pictures, I gave back the umbrella with some fee. On the way back, I also took some pictures of the river stream. I was surprised when the guide asked for the fee, it was very expensive! I should have asked him before using him. Okay, I paid anyway, but I promised myself that I would never use it again for such services. It was not worth at all. And I was more surprised when I found my car washed and some kids asked for the fee too. I never asked them to wash my car, beside that my car was clean! And no need washing at all. I told them in very polite way, that what they did was sleek extortion to tourist and it will deteriorate their image. They finally understood, but I gave them some money anyway for the sake of compassion.

After changing my wet clothes, I drove to Ngadisari. I arrived at Bromo Permai I – Ngadisari hotel after dusk.  The hotel location was great, right on the edge of Bromo caldera. I and other participants had some discussion about the plan for tomorrow and lots of chitchat since we had never met for such long time. We also planned to rent car for tomorrow morning to see sunrise in Penanjakan thru sand sea in caldera. It was surprising that local people did not allow tourist car to pass the caldera. Their reasons were too dangerous for tourist and some un-logical reasons.

If they would like to conserve Bromo as National Park professionally, there were many other ways for sure. Anyway, I paid the ticket to rent car for Penanjakan route of Rp 250K (while the Ranupane route would cost me Rp 350K) and the officer advised me to deal directly with the driver if I would like to use it again to Ranupane. In the meantime, I was proposing that they should let tourist car pass the sand sea route if the tourist were willing to pay the same amount, so every body felt okay. After I was back to the hotel, the long discussion still carried on after dinner. In the same time, I had to take care of my camera, lenses, and its bag, since the bag was heavily splashed by the water in ‘Madakaripura’ earlier. I finally fell asleep almost midnight.

At 3 am in the morning, the rented car driver woke me up. I was ready at 3.30 am and headed to Penanjakan. As soon as I reached Penanjakan, I walked to the peak where so many local people offered long john jacket for rent and warned that it would be very cold up there. I was not so cold that time, so I was just wearing one long hand t-shirt plus short hand t-shirt and glove. Right after I reached the peak, I prepared my photo gear. I took position in the front of the stage; Even so, I realized that the stage fence became an obstacle for me who used tripod. But I got no choice, so be it. All I had to do was to get the best tripod position setting. Other participants were curious to see what I was doing; And they helped me too. This was meaningful, since I needed to try several filters and change lens. I got many lessons using several filters and lenses. Not that long, it became so crowded, so many foreign tourist came to the front and their feet touched and moved my tripod, till I had to tell them that they were annoying me taking pictures. However, I could not merely blame them, since they were so enthusiastic to the breathtaking sunrise and would like to memorize it into their camera, just like I would.

I also found out that even though my body could stand against the chilly wind, my hands and fingers were shaking; But if I used my glove, I lost my feeling on my camera, phew what a dilemma. Few people sang a song just right the sun rose while others shouted happily; so good to hear that. One important lesson was I had to be prepared for strong wind that might bring dust that was surely not good for my camera especially when I was changing lens. Finished taking pictures, my groups had small breakfast of ‘Jagung Bakar’. 10 plus 1 f.o.c. ‘jagung bakar’ at Rp 2000 each were gone within few minutes.

My rented car headed back to the hotel. But on the way back, I stopped at Penanjakan II, and I took few pictures. The car moved again to the sand sea and I stopped again close to Bromo-Batok mountains and Temple in middle of sand sea. I did not want to miss the chance taking picture even though I did not have much time. I had no chance to go up to the Bromo crater thru hundreds stair and neither Widodaren Cave (many people said it was small and not worth to see), however I was pretty satisfied taking pictures in surrounding area.

I needed to save time, since I planned to go to Ranupane and Ranuregulo. I did not want to be too late to reach both Ranus, so I rushed back to the hotel. By the way, looking at the Ngadisari – Penanjakan route taken by the rented four by four car, I was so sure that even two-wheel drive car with two thousands cc engine (or more) made in year two thousands or later would be okay to be used as long as the driver was capable enough.

My group had pretty quick breakfast in the hotel and prepared simple logistic to go to Ranupane. I found out that even though I used the same car that I rented before, the driver did not give any discount for renting the car to Ranupane, that was Rp 350K. To my perspective, they did not have sense of business. However, I just wanted to enjoy my vacations, so let it be. They should learn as time went by. It was between ten and eleven a.m. when I was ready on the rented car heading for Ranupane.

On the way to Ranupane, the car stopped in front of ‘Teletubies’ hills, a hill that so called ‘Teletubies’ since it was green with grass just like in the film ‘teletubies’. I used this chance to take pictures again. Too bad that the color of savanna was not good. It was supposed to be colorful, not just one brownish color; But perhaps it was because of long dry seasons, so that only one species of grass could grow while other species waited for rainy seasons. Most of the time the wind blew from the front, so that the dust did not become obstacle, but from time to time the wind direction changed, so the car had to stop to let the dust go away; However, the dust was so annoying, since it was coming from the active volcano, so that it was not ordinary dust, plus the rented car was not air tight so that the dust could get in the car.

I saw Suzuki two wheel drive from the opposite direction; It ensured me that two wheel drive car was actually usable in this area. While my rented car reached the junctions up the mountain, I remembered that I had been here so long time ago using Isuzu Panther from Malang (at that time I was not sure to carry on to Ranupane nor to Bromo). I had quick shot of Semeru ‘coughing’ from inside the car.

Right after my rented car reached Ranupane area, I walked to Ranupane, took several slow speed shots and carried on to Ranuregulo. I saw simple cottage was being built on Ranupane, while other wooden building on Ranuregulo was not well maintained and started to rot (might be there were not lots of tourist?). There was trekking pedestal that was just finish lately, but this trekking route was not completely circling the ranu, too bad. There was also small damage concrete pier with lots of kid playing around; some of them were fishing.

I made fire out of dry sticks gathered from surrounding area to grill sausage in Ranuregulo; And I had simple lunch of grill sausage, with bread and margarine under damage shelter close to Ranuregulo. I had to be very careful with fire due to lots of dry grass in the surrounding area and doused the fire with water from Ranu before I left. After I had some chitchat I got back to the car and drove back to the hotel. And again I was lucky enough since the wind direction in the sand sea had changed again; However, there were lots of dust entering the car and made my nose so itchy and hard to breath. Beside that I was always concern with my camera, phew.

Even though I felt so tired, especially my leg, I could not take nap at all. So, I took a bath and then reviewed my pictures taken. I needed to delete several pictures due to I forgot to bring photo bank. Finished that, I had discussion with hotel officer about tourism issue in Bromo, hoping that I got what they had in mind, and they would understand what tourist in mind. Not that long, I and some other participants walked to the east, passing Lava View hotel. Actually there was rear gate of Bromo Permai hotel for shortcut, but the rear gate used to be locked up, so that I had to pass thru front gate. I found camping ground and volcanology inspection post with their damage viewing post on the edge of caldera. I took several interesting pictures around there and surely spent some more time till sunset.

Other participants used their car to explore the west side, and they found that actually there was road from Ngadisari to Penanjakan thru the mountain instead of caldera; But this road was cut in the middle and I believed that was because of business reason (I hope I was wrong). They should learn about this impropriate act, since if the tourist felt lots of ease they would share to others and more tourist would come and then economic would grow faster. Finally I was just lying on the bed at night and having dinner on the bed :D.

I woke up a little late in the morning; And I and other participants once again walked to the east, enjoy the morning dew in the bromo volcanology viewing post. Some local people passed by bringing grass for their cattle, while other brought dry sticks and charcoal for sale. Satisfied taking pictures I got back to the hotel, had breakfast and then packed up before checked out. After I finished all the administration, I headed again to waterfall Madakaripura.

In Madakaripura, I would become a guide this time. This time I asked ticket as I paid the entrance fee. The officer advised me to tell the kids in the parking lot not to wash the car if I did not want the car to be washed; And I surely followed this advise. On the trek to the waterfall I also needed to talk to the local people three times that my group did not need guide since I was there couple days before, while other participants also frequently came there. I was more prepared with umbrella to face the water splash close to the waterfall. Since I came there around noon, the place was pretty crowded so that I got difficulties in taking pictures. But hell with the pictures, I had it before, so that I took off my t-shirt and jumped and swam into the waterfall basin. My action was followed by others, ha3x.

I stayed there for a while, and finally I had chance to take picture when all the people had gone away. On the parking lot, I found that my car had been washed again, even though I left message to the kids not to wash my car. After changing my clothes, I gave couple thousands rupiah for the kids for the shake of compassion, just like couple days before.

While other participants went back to Tretes, I was driving my car a little bit faster to south Semeru, trying to reach bridge close to Piket Nol (and huge waterfall that nobody knew before) before dusk. I finally reached the lovely concrete bridge over the Semeru lava stream. The bridge was pretty and high; A good place for bungee jumping. Some cars and motors stopped by the bridge to enjoy the scenery. There were few ‘warteg’ close to bridge selling simple meals and beverage. Too bad, there was one truck stopped on the bridge; I believed this was forbidden. How could they be so careless?

The journey on the south Semeru carried on to find the huge waterfall; But it was dusk already, so that I decided not to search it. But I got the better clue of the situation, so that next time it would be easier for me to reach there. The road on the south Semeru was smooth but not wide enough. However, I believed that the scenery during the day would be wonderful since I had been around long time ago. The whole route taken from Tongas on north side to the south Semeru and backed to Surabaya via Malang was Tongas – Probolinggo – Leces – Ranuyoso – Klakah – Lumajang – Tempeh – Pasirian – Pronojiwo – Dampit – Turen – Tumpang – Singosari – Lawang – Pandaan – Gempol – Porong – Toll way to Surabaya.

I did not have lunch, since I missed the recommended restaurant in Probolinggo due to I turned before the intended junction where the restaurant was located at. I had a piece of cake and instant noodle instead (while taking pictures of the bridge). In the nite, I had ‘nasi rawon khas HTS’ for dinner at HTS, Singosari. After that I continued driving my car till Surabaya and reached the lovely bed almost 11 pm.

Next time, I will surely go to the unvisited huge waterfall and … Ijen mountain.