It was 3 AM.
My phone was mercilessly screaming out loud, making sure I woke up and moved to put it off. It was quiet, except for the cicadas singing merrily from the garden in front of my room. The air was crisply cold and outside was pitch black, yet I was super excited to get up from my bed and get ready. Sunrise was waiting for us and Mount Bromo, here we come.
My adventures in the National Park of Mount Bromo, Tengger, and Semeru, started in beautiful city of Malang. Series of meetings with various stakeholders in Malang brought me to the idea of exploring one of probably the most visited and photographed mountains in Indonesia, Bromo.
So right after finishing all my meetings in Malang, including having a meet-up with our dear Malang LGs and dearest Indonesian CM @NunungAfuah as well as other LGs here, I was heading to Mount Bromo National Park area with some friends.
We used the rented car to take us first to Bromo Hillside, a restaurant as well as an accomodation in the area. It took us around 3 hours from downtown Malang to go here, buying the entry ticket first before we can enter the National Park area.
We had our lunch at Bromo Hillside, enjoying the cool breeze of the mountain while enjoying our late lunch followed by some photo sessions. We need to buy a ticket as well in this property so that we can enjoy its raise platform, overlooking the famous hill, Lembah Watangan, in the vicinity. It used to be nicknamed Teletubbies Hill as it reminds us of the hill shown in this famous kids’ series.
We rent a special jeep that can transport us from Bromo Hillside to our accomodation in the nearby village, Jiwa Jawa. On our way there, we managed to enjoy sunset as well. And driving a jeep in a vast sea of sand is indeed an experience of its own. We took photos here and there as well, enjoying the sceneries.
Then we arrived in Jiwa Jawa, our hotel, in early evening. Once we finished checking in and freshing up, we had dinner in the nearby restaurant.
A nice hotel located in the vicinity of the national park, we stayed overnight in Jiwa Jawa so that it’s easier for us to visit and explore the national park the next day.
Check out my review about this hotel HERE.
Then our tour in Bromo started.
The jeep came at 3.15 and we jumped to this sturdy car. This time my jeep was blue.
Clearly, it was a busy morning as we have so many jeeps coming out in the area.
The jeep is an old, modified Toyota Land Cruiser hardtop (my mom used to drive this in her younger days) yet it worked perfectly well in the sandy area. As you can see, most of the area near here is sandy and it requires specialized car in order to be able to cruise the sea of sand. So first stop, we went to the Puncak Penanjakan 1 to see the sunrise.
There are so many spots to see the sunrise, but this one os probably the highest, being at 2.770 meters above the sea level. It was already packed with visitors, yet we really enjoy the sunrise.
Sunrise was short, but it was serenely beautiful.
After sunrise, we took tons of photos in the area. we had amazing view of Mt. Bromo, Mt. Batok and Mt. Semeru from above. I was also tracking a bit through stairs. We had many food stalls and souvenir shops along the way to the top. Once we have done enjoying the sunrise, we went down to explore more of the area, including heading to the savannah and pasir berbisik or the whispering sand, the area where the sea of sand sound like whispers due to the wind. We didn’t climb up to the caldera because we’re heading back to Malang that day.
Well, it was certainly a great experience and I know I would love to go back here again with family and friends. If you happen to be in the area, don’t forget to come and visit the National Park of Bromo, Tengger and Semeru.
Cheers from Indonesia and see you on the next adventures!
Thanks for sharing the beauty of Bromo 
