The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time, and a lot of travel.
Neil Armstrong, Astronaut

Yeah, to certain extend I have to agree with this gentleman. Sometimes I hate my job because it steals time from my life. Also I’ve had my words about my immense need of traveling for my job, hate it! But this guy, he traveled to the MOON! It IS a lot. eheh..

Monday morning, I was still busy with the never ending project. That project was really like a torture to me, day by day. All the sweats, bloods, and tears of hardworking (yeah, rock!) have never been as much as this before. Okay, I am exaggerating.
Actually the days in Jakarta were really so boring that I could sleep all day as long as the job didn’t mind.
So as soon as my boss asked me to go to Surabaya, 1000% percent yes, I’ll do it, boss! Whatever it is.

That’s how the trip started; vacation during job assignment, what could be better than this. eheh..
I’ve heard so much about how beautiful the sunrise is in Bromo. The beauty of the dawn as the sign of new hope coming through the freezing foggy dark night, fresh air with some mist forming water drop on the edge of the leaves, the view of the big savanna spread out as the sign of the big ocean of life. All can be seen from the large concrete mountaintop viewpoint accessible by paved road. We reached there by our rented jeep.

We left Surabaya around 10pm arrived in Bromo area around 3am. It was raining quite a lot during the journey, but as soon we arrived in Bromo area the rain stopped. Unfortunately the fog stayed. We could not see much until 6am. we missed it, the great sun rise view from Bromo.

A bit disappointed, we moved. Bromo is in fact only one of many peaks inside the massive Tengger Caldera, but it’s easily recognized as the entire top has been blown off and the crater inside constantly belches white sulphurous smoke. The inside of the caldera, aptly dubbed the Laut Pasir (Sea of Sand, pasir berbisik, EVERYBODY said “Dian Sastro was here”, norak) is coated with fine volcanic sand and the overall effect is unsettlingly unearthly, especially when compared to the lush green valleys all around the caldera. We took picture there, a lot. Eheh… We were such a poser.

Then we went to Bromo crater. To reach it on foot, pick the left fork at Cemoro Lawang’s solitary crossing, then head down the ramp into the caldera and then across the caldera to the Hindu temple at the foot of the mountain. From the temple a steep path of 250 steps leads to the edge of the crater and a precarious meter-wide ledge from where to gaze into the volcano.

Beautiful… beautiful.. I love every aspect of this Bromo thingy, except the annoying local people with their horse begging to much for us to ride their horse. Felt sorry for them and thanks for the offer, but please understand, I am young and active, I can still walk to the top and I love it more like that.
Oya, another thing: horse shit.. hate it.

It was a good trip overall.
We missed the sunrise. But I will come back someday in the future, for the sun-rise watch experience, probably with my wife just like these romantic couples do. *crossing fingers