A tale of real story to visit Mount Bromo for Free & without conducted tour by a solo family traveller

This post is a part of our full tour of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. We (husband, wife and two sons) are preparing ourselves from August 24, 2017 for this journey which is already posted in this blog as "Believe me. Visit Singapore, Java and Bali of Indonesia via Johor-Bahru of Malaysia together at the cost of Domestic Tour and without any Travel Agent".   If these documents will be used as a travelers guide of any one then we feel happy.

The most exiting part of this total tour was Mount Bromo, active volcano tour. We found that International tour operators are usually concentrated on Bali tour of Indonesia and the volcano tours are not so popular but this volcano tour was our life time achievement to observe active volcano so closely.

240 steps remains to climb bromo crater.

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This tour was start from Johor Bahru(JB) city of Malayasia at 18th March 2018, Sunday and bye bye to Bali on 22th March 2018, Thursday morning by a flight of Scoot Air from Denpasar Airport Bali to Singapore.  We found that many solo tourists are going volcano Mount IJEN Blue Fire Trekking tour with this Bromo tour which was more tough and skipped by us due to time constrain. 
New regulation: Citizens of the 169 countries are allowed to enter Indonesia without a Visa.

Currency of Indonesia: IDR= Indonesia Rupiah
conversion rate on March 2018:  
A. 1 USD = 13,767 IDR, B. 1 SGD = 10,500 IDR, C. 1 Indian rupee(Rs.) = 211 Rupiah (Rp.) but actual market rate to buy IDR is very high. We purchased it from Kolkata, India Rs.1=Rp 180 and found rate in Bali is Rs 1 = Rp 170
So we purchase small amount of IDR for Indian and purchased USD or SDG to change it in Indonesia.

Reference: 1. The toughest volcano trek in Indonesia, 2. Striking Photos of the men who work in an active Volcano. 3. Ten Stunning Volcanoes in Indonesia That Deserve a Visit

# Please note that Johor Bahru city is the 2nd largest city of Malaysia and the gateway of Singapore.  Johor Bahru Sentral city is in the border of Singapore of Malayasia and from Senai aorport to singapore it is 48 to 50km by road via JB Sentral Emigration Centre.

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Mount Bromo: Most popular active volcano (reaching the summit could be effortless).

Our AirAsia flight reached Juanda Airport, Surabaya of East Java at 12 noon from Senai International Airport of Johor Bahru, Malayasia. After clearing entry stamp by Emigration department of Indonesia Government we came to the arrival lounge of airport. Then and then some touts of airport asked us about taxi and mobile sim card of Singapore. We want to go to Bungurasih Bus terminal Purabaya of Surabaya and also requird a local SIM card.  There was no booth of telephone co. and no man in taxi booth so we asked one of them for SIM card and purchased  IM3 Ooredoo SIM by IDR 80,000 with 3GB data and IDR 2,000 talk time. We knew the price was high but at that time we were not sure about the availability of SIM for foreigners.  Then we asked another tout for taxi fare to Terminal Purabaya and he asked 70,000 IDR. We convinced the tout for 60,000 for 4 because we came to know from the website that DUMRI bus will take 15K per head, but it was an old rate. DUMRI buses are provided by the local government (no tout) to deliver passengers to Surabaya with IDR 25,000 per head. Fixed tariff taxis are available to various destinations in Surabaya and surrounding areas.

DUMRI and other buses arrival terminal at Bunguraish

Travel from Surbaya to Probolinggo:

Taxi dropped us by the Taxi stand at Bunguraish Bus terminal and we choose one food stall among many, where we found images of different dishes with local name and it helped us to choose our food. We placed our orders for NASI GORENG (fried rice with chicken). In the mean time I went in search of bus to Probolinggo in order to avoid touts for buses and taxis. 
 

Taxi Stand (controlled by touts) is the entrance of Bungurasih Bus terminus

Entered into the Departure terminal from this taxi stand. This is like a market area with various booths at both side of this lane. Then, I found a series of Bus ticket counters with no passengers for long distance buses like Jakarta or Denpasar (main city of Bali). As per the picture men roam about outside the counter and ask people about their destination. To know about the system I asked for the bus to Denpesar. One of them told me that no bus are available now, one sleeper coach will stat at 11PM night. Then I moved straight and found a large AC waiting hall for passengers where very few peoples were waiting. In front of this waiting hall there were several platform with Counter no., Destination and type of Buses written on the top of the platform. All buses were run by private agencies.

Platform no. 9 to 14 of PATAS, Economy and Super Economy buses at Bungurasih bus terminus.

I Found many express buses available for Probolinggo. AC non stop PATAS (Platform 9 and 10) bus fare was IDR 30K, Economy AC bus 25K and Non AC bus 20K. There was a queue of different type of buses waiting to start one by one. Every 5 minutes a bus departs from the bus terminal. Touts were roaming everywhere and they asked us to board any one. I found an AKAS (Co. name) AC bus for Probolinggo with IDR 20K per head which was waiting far away from the queue and the conductor of the bus told me that it will start after 30 minutes. I came back and finished our lunch. Then we all moved towards the bus with our luggage. We found our bus and boarded it. Tickets are bought once you get inside the bus. Our bus started at 13:30 and reached Probolinggo bus terminal at 15:15. 

Entry Gate of Probolinggo Bus terminus

How to go from Probolinggo to Cemoro Lawang (Bromo):

From Probolinggo, a small bus leaves for Cemoro Lawang (the base of Bromo) when it get 15 passengers (5,25,000 IDR per bus).  A lady shop keeper of a stall advised us to move out from the bus terminus and get to the left side of the main road for that bus (200mt). It can also be arranged for 50,000 Rupiah one-way at Toto travel at the Probolinggo bus station. We went there and found one Australian lady waiting for more passengers. At 4pm one young couple came via tout and it was the time to start. So the driver asked us to pay 75K per head for 7. We discussed among us and waited for some more tourist. We waited till 5pm and accumulated 11 tourists with 50K per head. 

Waiting for more tourist in front of Mini Bus (Blue)

Inside of Mini Bus: Driver+2,baggage+helper, 2, 3 , 4

Mini bus started at 5pm. There was heavy rain on the way to Cemoro Lawang. After one hour journey our bus stopped in front of public booth were some young men were collecting 10 thousand IDR per head to develop the village. We all asked for some government permission or any government receipt but they behaved like goons and we all were bound to pay else return back, or wait there till we pay them. The village was small and most of the houses were used as home stay. Conductor asked the names of different home stay and dropped accordingly. The best hostel was Cafe Lava, where no room were available, and one needs to book before 6 months via email. So we booked Home-stay Livia  (2.6km from Mount Bromo) beside Cafe Lava through booking.com with extra paid facilities of private car (jeep) for going to penanjakan (sunrise), the mountain and savanna hills.  The bus conductor helped us to reach home-stay which is one storied house with 3 double bed rooms, a drawing room with sofa, TV and WiFi facilities, one bathroom and a kitchen with gas burner.  We booked 2 rooms and one room was booked earlier by one Australian young Lady (solo traveler) who was staying there from the morning. She had a plan to trek King Kong Hill at 2 am to watch the sunrise. Already she surveyed everything and she went to bed at 7 pm. There was one good restaurant at Cafe Lava and two shops nearby. The manager of that home-stay came to collect room rent for one night stay and offered us to go to visit sunrise by his jeep at Seruni point II. He asked for IDR 2,25,000 but after bargaining we settled for IDR 1,50,00 for four from 4 AM to 6 AM. The temperature was 15 degree centigrade in the evening. We quickly finished our dinner and went to bed early.

The man came with his jeep before 4 am and we started for the sunrise point (right side of the road from Cemara Indah Hotel).  Seruni point II is at an altitude of 2361 meters above sea level, which is 2.8 km by jeep and 40 meters trekking. From there one may trek 750 meters upwards to climb King-Kong Hill. There is no motor way to reach King Kong hill  from this side. You may go to Sernui Point by jeep through other side of the hill (12.3 km) to enjoy sunrise. The highest place at Penanjakan Hill is at an altitude of 2700 meters. On Monday when we reached Seruni point II at 4:30AM it was full of cars and tourists, but sunrise was at 5:32AM and we managed to come up front for the sunrise. In the weekend number of tourists increases so its difficult to go near the view point to have a clear view. One tea stall is there and horses are available to go to King-kong Hill. Due to the rain the previous evening there was much water vapour at the bottom of the mount Bromo. We enjoyed fabulous view of Tengger Caldera consist of Cemoro Lawang village, mountain range and volcanoes. Mount Bromo is an active volcano and so smoke comes out from its crater.

Panoramic view of Tengger Caldera with Mr. Bromo, mist and fog in Tengger Sand Sea at the time of sunrise. (3/2018)

Mt. Bromo volcano [Last eruption‎: ‎November 2015 - February 2016, Height: ‎2,329 m (7,641 ft)]  located beside Volcano Mount Batok in East Java, is the active volcano inside the giant 16-km-wide Tengger caldera. It is famous for its magnificent sunrise and panoramic view over the caldera with Semeru volcano in the background. Mist and fog at the morning often limit visibility in this part of the caldera. We were taking some snaps using our mobile phones and came back to home-stay at 6AM. 

Shortest path used by locals.

After taking our breakfast and we started our journey towards the Crater of Mount Bromo.  we have a plan to visit the crater by foot through the shortest downwards trek root (2.5 km) beside the guard booth in front of Cemara Indah Hotel which were using by the local people and horses. 
Already we discover the path last night as per the information collected from the web. Most of the tourist travel by jeep up to jeep parking area, Sukapura which is 1.6 Km away from Mount Bromo creator. There is another option to go there is to hire bike as a pillion rider which is also traveling up to the Hindu temple (Pura Luhur Poten) at the foot of Mount Batok. Horses are available here with IDR 50K to go up to the steps and returns.
 
 So we must trek up to the crater of Bromo of this tour. The pathway was muddy and slippery due to the rain of previous night. We came down within 15 m on the Tengger Sand Sea area. We observed a clear fantastic view of Tengger caldera and moved towards Bromo crater.

Highest point of horse ride: The son helped her to climb horse

The Tengger Sand Sea in Tengger Caldera is a special ecosystem. The area is covered in volcanic sedimentation of sand from Mount Bromo activities. The resulting area is believed to be the only known desert-like area in Indonesia. We moved towards Mt. Bromo by foot and Mt. Batok right infront of our eyes. We are enjoying the scenic beauty of this place much better than seeing it through the window of a jeep or through horse riding. If any one traveled by jeep then also its still quite far to walk towards the bottom of the mountain and hike up the mountain. So those who are coming by jeep are also walking towards Bromo. There are many horses that will take you up and back to your jeep as an alternative. There is a nice Hindu temple of God Bromha (God of fire) on the foot of the hill which was closed at that early morning. We sit-down here for a moment and take some picture of the temple. Only female member of our team was exhausted and we hired a horse for her to go up and down up to the place. Then we are moving towards the crater of Bromo. Smokes are coming from the ground. We are feeling hot and removed our jackets and caps. All horses were stopped but the journey doesn't end there. We still needs to go up the steps, its around 240 steps to go up the crater, we were pretty exhausted, but we went up slowly. This was another magnificent experience, the crater was quite big and gas come out from the middle big hole, but we can't go around it though.  After all the excitement being on top of the mountain which made us feel like a life time achievement, you really feel that you can do anything.

 
Please click here if you are more interested about Bromo Tengger Caldera volcano.


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