Mount Bromo – Indonesia

Day 1 Java, Indonesia
This is the fifth in a series of posts about my recent travels to Indonesia, and Nepal. You can click on the following links to read the other posts if you are intersted:  South Korea, Bali, Lombok and the famous Mount Rinjani.

A few days after arriving in Bali, and nearly missing my flight from South Korea, we made a 3 hour drive, and a short 20 minute ferry trip to Java Island. Although it’s very close to Bali, it’s a much different place in regards to the culture.

Mount Bromo – East Java, Indonesia

Bali is 95% Hindu, and the rest of Indonesia is primarily Muslim. My first thoughts when landing in Indonesia were “Dang it’s hot here”. Everyday, I would change my clothes a few times, and grab a shower or 2. It’s very humid and sticky, and it wasn’t even really the hottest time of the year. Once we arrived in Java, we had to drive for about 6 hours to reach Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. We had one of the most hardcore drivers I experienced during my whole trip; this guy was a very ruff driver, but very experienced…

It was much cooler up in the Semeru region, and it really felt good for a change. The next morning at about 4am, we woke up and walked down the driveway to wait for our 4WD Jeep to show up… They only allow Jeeps from the “Bromo Jeep Club” to enter deep into the park and up to the viewpoints. The road was quite rugged, and after about 45 minutes of bouncing around in the back of the jeep (literally), we reached the viewpoint. It was quite a madhouse up there, as this is one of the most famous tourist attractions in all of Indonesia. Had a hard time finding a decent composition up there because of all the trees and people. I would say there were around 100 people at the main viewpoint.

Early morning at Mount Bromo – East Java, Indonesia

After fighting the crowd around there a bit and waiting for the sunrise, our driver took us to another much nicer location where I made the B&W photo above. I wish we would have just gone to this spot for the sunrise in the first place, but we didn’t know about it. Next time I know where to go… Didn’t really get an amazing sunrise, but I was happy to witness this amazing scene while the volcano was spewing smoke and ash. A week later, it erupted and the area was closed off…

Mount Bromo – Smoke

Photo info: This is a single exposure at f/16, 24mm. I used a 2-stop soft GND filter to hold back the sky a bit. You can click here to read my articles on filters if you are interested…

Mount Bromo – Clouds

Despite this area being so popular and heavily photographed, I would still love to re-visit again someday..