A trip to Mount Bromo - Surabaya

Nausea. Motion sickness. Freezing cold winds. Four hours of sleep.

I must admit I’ve got a rather weak constitution – I still cannot travel on an airplane without feeling like I’ve just been thrown around like a rag-doll. Every time I travel, I find me asking myself the inevitable question as the nausea hits yet ­again, “Is it worth the trouble?” I have worked so hard to make money online and I want to use my hard-earned money to go on a trip which is worth the while. Is a step closer to financial freedom.

After just having landed on the charming city of Surabaya, Indonesia, we immediately made our way towards the famous Mount Bromo. The driver that we’d engaged could only speak Bahasa Indonesia. Not a problem for us as one of us could speak Bahasa Melayu, a language that’s mutually intelligible and similar enough to maintain simple conversation.

Or so we thought.

Exhausted from the flight from Singapore, we simply showed the driver our address for the Airbnb that we’d booked earlier and left him to his own devices. After all, it is a four hour drive and a good time to nap! Alas, as the sun fell and the temperatures dropped, we realized that we were nowhere near the lovely home-stay. After an arduous two hours negotiating the steep roads, we found out from the locals that one, we took the wrong entrance and two, in order to get to our booked Airbnb, we have to drive back down the mountain, circle around its base and ascend via the other entrance. Which would roughly be another four hours when it was already 7pm – an ordeal that none of us could bear to stomach. Especially me. Literally.

This led to us cancelling our lovely Airbnb and instead settle for Lava View Lodge, a small, slightly unfurnished hotel fairly near to the peak of the mountain. After dinner, we found out that we had to leave at 3am the next day to catch the sunrise. To say that I was appalled would be an understatement. My stomach was still doing cartwheels and cramping every few moment, which led to a barely eaten dinner and an unsatisfied me. This coupled with the fact that I barely had five hours to clean up and sleep was disheartening.

The room was fairly simple, a TV, a few sockets which we’d conveniently forgotten to bring a travel adapter for and a king sized bed and a mattress, enough for the three of us sharing the room. The blankets were thick and woolly but nothing prepared me for the cold in the early morning. Having lived in a tropical climate my whole life where temperatures barely dropped below 25 degrees Celsius, it was truly an experience. The hotel did not have any sort of space heaters and the only heat generating device was my phone charging via the socket labelled “shaver”. I remember being so tired I simply dozed in and out of sleep, shivering every now and then with the extreme cold even after wearing the only jacket I brought and with the thick blanket over me. Looking back at it now, it’s actually quite a funny sight.

Before the alarm I set could even go off, knocks were heard on my door. I woke to find my Bahasa Melayu speaking uncle of mine asking us to get up, telling us that we were actually late! Late not because we overslept the alarm, no. Late because he misinterpreted the driver’s instructions (here comes the miscommunications!), we were supposed to leave at 2.30am, not 3.30am. And so, the three of us in the room took a minute each to brush our teeth and change out to warmer clothings. At this point of time the temperature was roughly 5-10 degrees and nothing could be more tortuous than running your hands over the ice-cold water.

Then, came the jeep ride. Big, four-by-four monster jeeps are needed to climb the sulphur filled roads that are set in a steep incline most of the way. It was surreal, hearing the roars of at least a hundred jeeps all taking the same route up towards the peak, kicking up dust and sulphur and making visibility to less than 10 metres. With no street lights, there was absolutely nothing I could see, save from the red brake lights from the immediate jeep ahead. Everything else was a patch of darkness (sort of the same state of mind I had).

It took approximately an hour for the jeep to reach the peak of the active volcano and yes, you guessed it, nausea was with me again. So if you’re wondering what the opening line of this article meant, this is it.

It was only 4.30am when we neared the peak and so, we decided to stop at a little squalid and yet charming looking shop for some ginger tea to soothe our stomachs and to heat us up a little. When we finally felt better, the group of us decided to wait at the viewing lodge for the majestical sunrise.

The peak was actually replete with people: photographers, couples, kids, the elderly and local hikers alike. It’s funny how one thing we all take for granted could be equally seen as a wonder when you’re freezing your face off in the cold wind. It took another hour for the sun to peak out over the horizon. Once it did though, the crowd was jubilant. Tourists cheered and clapped, the locals heartily sang out a local tune as couples kissed amidst the glorious light. When the brilliant red hue begins to appear in the horizon and the light starts to ignite the nearby landscape, you’ll start to realize why men of the bygone age once worshipped the Sun.

You never really stop to appreciate the beauty of nature when you’ve always had it, how could you when you’ve always woken up when the Sun is already high up upon the blue sky? This has been a reminder for me to never take simple things for granted, simple things like even having a working water heater in the numbing coldness brought a smile to my face.

Then, came the 2km hike up to the crater of the active volcano, the part where honestly, I was most apprehensive about. The hike itself is a story: for one, I never knew a simple 2km hike could be this hard on an empty stomach and a body that only had 4 hours of quality sleep (not to mention my terrible nausea following the jeep ride). For another, damn was the route filled with horses’ dung. You have the jeeps, the motorcycles and the galloping horses kicking up all the volcanic ash and dust (and their own faeces), it almost felt like I was in a post apocalyptic nuclear fallout.

Of course, being in a group of rather foolish people, we refused the offer to ride the horses and instead chose to walk up towards the crater. The lot of us were all left breathless and panting as we negotiated the stairs and the steep incline. Some of my less fit family members even gave up halfway and rested at the base of the stairs.

Standing up there at the top looking down upon the mouth of the earth, now that's incredible. The sound of the deep rumbling Earth is in itself an experience to behold. If you've ever wondered what an active volcano sounds like, just imagine the engine of a fighter jet flying right above you on afterburners (except scarier). It is only then that one will truly realize the pure power and beauty of nature. Seriously, nothing is more satisfying than hearing the Earth yell out against you and seeing the red lava and smoke billowing out of this natural chimney.

Yes, this journey has also made me realize that one needs to work hard in order to

This had been of the more unique trips for me, a city person with not much exposure to the natural wilderness our Earth has to offer. And to answer the question I posed myself at the beginning, yes, this is worth it. Every part of it. The ordeals I faced in order to get to the end point further reiterated the experience of not taking things for granted and of appreciating the finer things in life. A truly sublime and yet, humbling experience.

If you wish to have the spare income to go on holidays, do not be afraid to try. I have already been there and done that. Now I am just imparting my humble knowledge to you. Try now!

![endif]--![endif]--![endif]--

#workhard #MountBromo #Surabaya #activevolcano