Ini adalah ketiga kalinya gue berangkat ke BROMO. Tempat ini mungkin memang nagih ya. Semua tentang Bromo gue suka. Langitnya, rumputnya, pasirnya, mataharinya, kudanya, bahkan hujannya. Ada enam hal tentang Bromo yang harus di ingrat.
I made another trip to Bromo in 2012. It’s my third visit. I never gets tired of it cause I find it very fascinating. The sunrise is spectacular and the view of its ‘out of this world’ landscape is a must see. There are just some things to remember.
Pertama, Bromo dingin. Bukan hal baru ya? Ya iyalah dingin namanya juga gunung. Hahaha Tapi ini serius deh. Di awal pertama kali ke Bromo dulu, gue tersiksa! HA! Dinginnya bisa menusuk tulang. Dulu juga nggak tau kalo Bromo bakal sedingin ini, jadi gue harus beli syal, topi, sarung tangan dan lain-lain dari penjual disini yang malah bikin boros.
Di perjalanan kali ini, gue udah siap. Koper diisi cukup bahan untuk bisa menghangatkan diri. Harus udah siap bawaan kita menghadapi dinginnya Bromo.
First, Bromo is cold. So never forget to pack some warm clothes. I didn’t realize it at my first visit here, so I had to buy the scarfs, the gloves etc. The temperature here can drop as low as 2 degrees Celsius. So, it should be taken seriously.
Dua, matahari pagi Bromo tak terkalahkan indahnya, jadi ngeliat matahari terbit IALAH WAJIB HUKUMNYA di Bromo. Bangun harus jam 2.30, atau paling telat setelah matiin alarm berkali-kali, ya jam 3.30. Malam sebelumnya, jangan lupa booking jip, yang memang banyak di Bromo untuk nganter ke atas gunung supaya pemandangannya maksimal. Kalau mau hiking alias jalan kaki bisa, tapi butuh waktu leih dari 3 jam. So, pastiin jip-nya stand by dipagi hari.
Gue sharing ini karena di kunjungan gue kali ini, gue lalai melakukan ini sehingga pagi-pagi kehabisan jip. Akibatnya, gue naik ojek! Dan udah pernah belum naik ojek jam 3 subuh di Bromo dengan suhu udara sekitar 5 derajat celsius? Menggigil, bibir dan jari mati rasa, muka kaku….oh my, it’s so bad! Hahaha!
Second, never missed the sunrise. Make sure your alarm rings around 2.20-3.30 am, so you wont be late for the ‘show’. The night before, you must book a jeep* (make sure you really get one) to take you to your sunrise trip to the mountain. You can’t bring your own car there, walking or hiking would take around 3 hours or more, and riding a motorbike taxi (ojek) in a cold morning is a complete torture (we experienced it when our jeep bailed on us and there was no other way but to ride a motorcycle to catch the sunrise. I couldn’t feel my lips and fingers afterwards because it was too cold to bear).
Tapi setelah semua perjuangan itu, terbayar kok rasanya begitu melihat semburan warna keluar dari cakrawala, diantara gunung, awan, pohon dan angin. Ahhhh cantiknya tiada tara. Secangkir kopi atau teh, plus indomie atau pisang goreng untuk makan pagi bikin suasana lengkap pagi ini.
But whatever effort you make, believe me it’s worth it. Bromo sunrise is very pretty and being a witness of it is truly a blessing. After sharing the moments with other tourists and locals, usually we hang out around the mountain and have our breakfast there while watching the view. A hot cup of coffee or tea usually prepared by the locals along with some cup of noodles or fried bananas.
Hal ketiga yang harus dicatat, berhubungan dengan KUDA. Yak, kuda.
Waktu turun dari gunung, gue memilih untuk naik kuda. Gue milih naik kuda mungkin karena capek, mungkin karena iseng, mungkin karena emang lagi pengen aja naik kuda. Poni adalah nama kuda gue pagi ini. Sangat nggak original nama kudanya. Sepanjang jalan, si Poni-nya happy, gue juga happy banget. Tapi sayangnya rasa senang gue ternodai dengan tiga kata: LUPA NANYA HARGA. Yak, kesalahan standar yang mustinya tidak usah terjadi. Orang Indo kok bisa lupa nanya harga sih Liv, ditempat wisata model begini? Ya dipalak lahhhh…
30 menit, 2 ekor kuda, mang-mang nya minta uang total Rp.600 ribu!!! Nggak percaya? Percayalah. Ini gue alamin. Ini pelajaran yang harus diingat selamanya.
In Bromo, you will meet lots and lots of horsemen swarming the tourists trying to make their only business of the day. If you are interested to ride a horse, never hesitate to haggle on the price. We thought it was going to be cheap and neglected to haggle. It was a fun ride and my horse (its name was ‘Poni’) was a nice one. When we had to pay, we were so surprised that they asked for around US$ 60 for 2 horses (around 30 mins ride in total). SO expensive! They didn’t want to take less money and I knew it was our own fault that we didn’t even asked for the price before riding. BAH! That’s the 3rd thing to remember.
Keempat, jangan lupa untuk mendaki gunung pasir di Bromo. Disini, pemadangannya persis seperti di luar angkasa. Planet Mars …. atau minimal bulan lah…
Gue jamin, ini adalah salah satu hal paling unik yang akan pernah kalian lihat di Indonesia.
Next, in Bromo please do try to walk down into the ‘sea of sand’ and walk about 30 minutes across to the base of Bromo. Climbing up to the mountain is quite hard, but once you get to the top it is awesome. Look into the crater you can see the sulfur water and smoke streaming out, then you can look across the sea of sand and surrounding mountains that looks like the surface of the moon or maybe Planet Mars. Such rare view.
Kelima, sempetin mampir ke Savanah yang ada di sisi lain Bromo. Hamparan hijau rumput tak berbatas yang bikin kita berasa ada di Selandia Baru. INDAH banget!
From there, consider to go to the other side of the mountain, to the savannah. Contrast to the sea of sand around the front — this is something the vast majority of visitors to the area simply do not give time to see. On the rainy season, the savannah is stunningly green and makes you feel like you are in New Zealand 😀 > Beautiful!
Keenam atau yang terakhir dari tulisan ‘enam hal tentang Bromo’ gue kali ini, yaitu cobain deh makan di ‘Mountain View Cafe’. Gue nggak dibayar untuk promoin mereka, tapi menurut gue makanan yang mereka punya rasanya enak untuk sebuah resto kecil yang nyempil di luasnya Bromo. Soto, ayam goreng lalapan atau pisang keju coklat, mungkin?
The last thing, try some food in ‘Mountain View Cafe’. For a small restaurant in Bromo, they serve some good tasting food like Soto Ayam, Nasi Ayam Goreng Lalap and Fried Banana with chocolate and cheese. Not bad.
Ini cerita singkat gue berisi Enam hal tentang Bromo yang musti diingat. Besar feeling gue, kalau gue akan kembali lagi untuk ke-empat kalinya. Sampai ketemu Bromo!
Well, it’s a short story of my visit to Bromo and I have a feeling that I will return again here, soon. See u, Bromo!
The mountains are where God proves He’s better than Michelangelo at sculpting
– Jarod Kintz
olivelatuputty.com/blog @shiningliv
