Live free or die hard (part 2 - Bromo)

Ohhkayyy...im home, and here comes the long overdue blog about the amazing Bromo.

hmm...where do i left u all at Borobudur?? so, after watching hopelessly at the top of Borobudur from afar through the heavy rain and being mugged into buying all kind of souvenirs we head back on the road, supposedly trying to make it to Bromo. It was almost 7 and judging from the time we took to reach Borobudur I have my doubt about our chance of reaching Bromo in time for first light. Borobudur is in central Java, and Bromo is in East Java, and even further east from susahbayar. But the whole trip had been a mission impossible all the way, so what the heck. ever since we reach Jogya i've been the driver, and its still me behind the wheel this time around. We were suppose to pick a 2more passenger at sby, jack's cousin and jack so called "lil sister", yeah...you know how one of those work *wink*

good news came from the new member as we don't have to pick them up at sby but some small city outside sby that i cant recall, so that cut our road time for like......errrr....an hour?? jack??

A few thing i hate about indonesia's highway are that they are extremely dark, at one point we even playing "pitch black", turn off our head light when we were the only car on the street, its pretty daunting to say the least. and then they are bumpy, those idiots cant even make a flat concrete, its wavy and when you went 100km/hr its not a very decent feeling.

once we reach the location of jack's company factory to pick up our new members i literally couldn't stand straight, gravity failed me, i feel like im on a cruise ship in the middle of a storm. stuff our stomach on Kwetiau akang en back on the road again. This time jack's cousin drive.....joy to the heaven!!!

after figure out that the amazing Bromo photo from my photography magazine was indeed taken from Puncak Pananjakan site we decide thats our destination. When we stop at the control post we were told that we might give renting a hardtop (4WD) a thought or two. Jack was doubting his panther, but his cousin (being the only one that been to Bromo before) keep convincing him that the good old panther will get the job done. And being in indonesia, we know we stand a chance of being ripped off if we rent the hardtop. So the gung-ho spirit fights on. Up we go the narrow en twisted road.

We have no idea whats the exact temparature up at the peak of puncak pananjakan was, but it sure was bone chilling. alot of people already gather there waiting for the almighty sun to reveal the beauty of Bromo. Its still pretty much all darkness, but if we stare hard enough we can make out the sillhoutte of the trio of amazing mountains below us. The excitement creeps in again, at least to me. with all gear set up i try to snap a few long exposure, trying to get the stars when its still there

Stars studded sky above Bromo

While i was busy with my camera, the cold jack was getting restless, so i guess a few foto centil need to be done to neutralise him. so i set him up againts the camp fire and the amazing first light along the horizon.

Jack trying to be cool

Some of the bule trying to get warm with a backdrop of an amazing skyline

And now some of the picture of the amazing Bromo....


Ain't nature a beauty.....people, if you never been to Bromo...i urge you....please, do yourself a favour....go and see it.....I promise you you will forget to breath even just for a few second, no matter how good my photograph are (they ARE good....aren't they??) it just cant beat the experience of seeing it with your own wicked eyes

Sun light broke through the valley

Notice the ground where that small village reside is much higher than the ground to the right (of us)...it was formed by the volcanic blast of the Bromo, look at how the blast push all those ground away and then it stop right there like a sea wave

Bromo I'm in love

And of course...more pics at my personal photography site (craxguy.multiply.com) but i havent got the time to sort it all out and post yet. just keep checking back...untill you are bored and mad

Group shot.

the other two people are Awie (jack's cousin) Irene (jack's mei mei")

Hows Irene doing anyhow jack?? you two still playing "cliffhanger"?? still fun?? Mwahahaha...i don't think you gonna ask her to read this after this huh.....c'mon i dare you, i wanna see her commenting this blog. Special message to Irene: i still owe you cebantun for the "moni" i pay that old bag at the foot of bromo...remember to ask from me when we meet again

After happy the view from above (actually not yet happy, i still feel like shooting a few more, but my good people cant stand the cold and eager to run to the nearest hot drinks liau) we stop by at a waroeng and filled up with hot indomie and hot tea. those who try to sneak a peek of the bapak who cook our indomie said that he cook it together with the plastic packaging!!! me, i stay away from trouble, insult the bapak more and prob he will spit in your tea while ur not looking. well...plastic or not, it was probably the worst indomie i ever eaten, all this time i never thought its possible to cook a not yummy indomie.

then we decide to go down the kawah and then climb up Bromo to take a peek into its sulfur smoke blazing mouth. Another episode of bargaining with the locals took place. they again of course trying to convinced or rather scared us into renting their jeep, saying that it was sand all the way down there and we might get trap inside and it will cost a fortune to tow us up. and again jack's cousin feel there were absolutely no need for it. so the good old panther was called into action again. this time the road was extreme to the max. Its extremely steep en extremenly narrow, one car and one car only can go through. No safety fences or anything, a few inches off and off you go.

Once we reach the foot hill of bromo, where all walking and climbing will took place there was a lot of locals trying to offer us their horses' back, in exchange of money of course. but we determined to walk up there with our own two feet. It was a hard climb, never do it with empty stomach, you'll need all the energy you can get, and it was scorching hot. Yeah it was spine chilling cold up there and hell blazing hot down.

Bromo most eligible bachelor 2007
Also known as "the sejati shot" (kau yg sejati...berjuang dengan hatiiii.....)

A journey of a thousand steps begin with a single photo shot

Just so you know how far we climb
Kawah Bromo

The sulfur smell is pretty daunting up there, it took a while to get use to. There were some fences right after those long stairs we took but none to be seen a few meters from there. You can walk around the lips of the kawah but make sure you see where you put your feet at, no more fences to catch you fall. I walk around trying to find the best angle but didn't dare stray too far away since the heat and the smell is starting to get to me. once you fall theres no hope of survival anymore, im not even sure if they can retract your body.

On the way down Awie give up and decide to hop up to one of the horses, they all waiting down the stairs for a tiring tourist leg. and our only girl, Irene still refuses to ride the horse, If im not mistaken i over heard she ask jack whether or not he wanted to ride too, and after gave her a no she said "if you're not riding then im not riding too" awwww....sweetness befall Bromo...jack, she read this yet???

Then i run behind those horses and try to keep up with them trying to recapture a very famous shot done by a very respectable photographer at this spot. but of course mine is far fetch from the master's (but the elements were not all there for mine though)

Trying to recapture the famous "the wild of east jawa" by Kenvin Pinardy

failed miserably trying to copycat the master i ended up eating a lot of sand instead. Then i see an old flower seller lady sitting there offering me the edelweiss she were selling, instead i feel like photographing her, all the wrinkle that fill up her face really make an interesting portrait. so i approached her and she say yes, when i just about to press on the shutter she keep saying "moni" to me. At first i don't really understand and don't really care, i just went 'iya iya" but few second later i realised she means money!! and i went "ohhhh...iya bu...nanti dibayar" and she start to stare into my lense, and i start to suspect that this grandma was a super model once in her younger life. i try to posed her and she was very proffesional, even better than those young models we use at our photographer community.

Supermodel......

Nenek moni will close this episode of my Java trip, after all this suicidal episodes we were not yet done, its only fair that we close it with a bang...so from Bromo we go Wild water rafting!!!!

if you wondering why me and jack still alive, well....we were wondering too

untill next blog....