Surabaya - Bromo - Ijen

My lab friend Fabio mentioned to me about promotional flight ticket to Surabaya where we can go to see volcano from. We bought flight tickets 54 SGD per person for both way from 19 of September departure from Singapore to 22nd return back.

We got Surabaya Juanda Airport in the afternoon of 19 of September 2013. We took a public bus from airport to Surabaya Bus Terminal (or called as Bungurasih bus terminal) and paid 4 IDR (Indonesian Rupiah).

Our bus to Central Bus Terminal

We reached bus terminal within a few minutes. Then we found bus to Probolinggo and paid for it 25 IDR and it took 3 hours to get Probolinggo. We reached Probolinggo bus terminal in the sunset time. Fabio called the guy who were supposed to take us to his home for a night and he came by motorbikes with his daughter to take us from bus terminal. Then we reached their home after 10 minutes motorbike riding. Unfortunately I don’t have any outside photo for that home, but I do have inside ones.

Yes.. Now it’s not clear that how we found our accomadation. Actually I didn’t take any role at that point. Fabio wrote about his trip to Surabaya to CouchSurfing website and then one guy answered you can stay my family home but he was staying Yogjakarta which is one of big cities of Indonesia. After that Fabio accepted to stay in order to meet local people… But the problem all of the people in guy’s family almost cannot speak any English, fortunately we could communicate sufficiently. Actually this exaclty shows hospitality of Indonesian people what I am really appreciated for.

We had dinner together with the family and ate soup, rice and some vegetables. Later we asked him about next day’s Bromo Volcano trip and he called 2 motorbikers and arranged our trip for next day. At the time 10 pm, Fabio and me started to try sleeping. That home was the worst one I have ever stayed in my life.. I am not exaggarating it! Many bugs around… Since we had just 4 to 5 hours to sleep, I was okay to do so.

            Hall of home                        The room given to me to sleep

Anyway.. We or at least I could sleep adequately & woke up at 3 am to start our trip & got in our mototube (motorbike taxi). We paid 300 IDR per person for motorbike riders at the beginning of journey. We travelled for more than an hour to get one of best viewpoints of sunrise at Bromo mountain. Here are some photos where we were and how sunrise was.

After sunrise, we got our motorbikes to go to see volcano.

We required to walk to up when we were close to volcano. This is the way we walked:

Here is the volcano:

It was first time in my life to see a volcano and I was amazed from it and scared as well. It looks so formidable and marvellous. After half an hour walking around and watching to volcano we went down and visited temple close to volcano, can be seen in the photo. That temple affected me too since it’s so interesting to build a religional place in that area which exactly looks dangerous and not many people may live around there. I respect so much about the people has built it.

Anyway.. We finished our Bromo tour and went back to Probolinggo city bus terminal at 9 am and checked about bus or tours to Ijen Crater. We found a tour to Ijen Crater which will take us at 11:30 am from Probolinggo Bus Station and grabbed it for 650 by bargaining from 700. I am sure that it deserved that small amount of money, you’ll see either. It was Friday and I didn’t want to miss Friday prayer and requested him to postpone our tour for an hour. He said “I want to come too bro, let’s meet me at this mosque than”. So we had 2 hours until prayer and we were hungry. We asked good restaurant around with Wifi and we went the restaurant in the hotel lobby. The hotel was Lava Lava Hotel and restaurant was in the base level of it. We ordered really big plates of food and ate almost all of them J Restaurant was pretty nice. I ate real tomato soup first time at there, can be seen in picture. But I can’t say same for the prices..  We paid for soup  about 15, for orange juice 15, french fries 20, rice with something (don’t remember) 35… Actually I’m not sure about the prices but they were almost same as Singapore prices. I took a shower in that restaurant bath too since I needed to do it.

After eating lunch, I went to mosque just opposite of restaurant and Fabio waited for me. When I did my prayer, I saw the tour guide and he called me to be quick to get in bus since others were waiting for us inside. Then we walked fast and got in bus. There were more than 10 people in bus whom joined us at Ijen Crater journey J We followed this 230km path to get Ijen:

We stopped just 10 minutes after driving from Lava Lava Hotel to eat lunch. We couldn’t eat anything with Fabio because we just ate but the others were not same. The restaurant was very expensive for Indonesian standards. If you take the same tour, with high probabily you will stop by this place too.

It was very dangerous driving, driver was driving very fast and passing all possible cars from right side (reverse of US system, not faster in left line). After finishing big streets we came into forests and rised more than an hour. Here is one photo in the mountain way:

It got dark while we were in the way and got worse and more scary. We were going the rural roads, not motorway. But at the end we reached our hotel safely at 6:30pm. Fortutanely we were still alive!

We left minivan and moved to our rooms. It was very cold outside, maybe around 10 degree which we were not familiar in Indonesia. The bus driver showed us to stay one room with others but it was told us we will stay in a private room so I discussed with him as being picky or can be said nervous as well. He said “okay bro i will arrange a room for you”. Then we moved a room with 3 beds. The room was okay but outside was much better. There was a swimming pool and hot-water pool. We got in the hot-water pool directly to get hot and relax J

Wow yeah! It was really perfect to find a hotel in that mountain especially after a very dangerous and tiring road. We had rest at pool for half an hour and then we moved to eat our dinner. I don’t remember what I exactly ate but it was also included the tour package and we didn’t pay for main food except drinks. The food was okay and all people around went to their rooms in early night, about 8 or 9 pm. This was because all tours to Ijen start at before 3 am, ours was at 2:30 am.
We could sleep well because of last day was so hectic and luckily we could wake up easily either. The tour guide took us and started to drive thru Ijen Crater and after half an hour we left our bus since there was no way more for the busses. We started to walk and it has been done after half an hour walking when the time was between 3 – 3:30 am. We were walking in the mountain without lights (just some people had light). It was so dangerous walking, the path was very slippery and inclined. Anyway… I can’t explain my exact feelings, but you’ll see if you have a chance to go there. We finished our climbing to the mountain and saw the Blue Fire, ohh yes it was there!

But now, there’s long distance to go down and without any safety precautions on the way. We were walking down from the stones and it was slippery again. It was one of the closest moment of the death for me. Because if I just slipped a bit, I could go until the end and there’s no way to stop or escape. It is more understandable in the day time photos  (I don’t suggest old or physically deficient people to go down, so tour guides do).

At the end we were there! Oh yeaa!

It was very hard to breath when we got so close to the smoke. I borrowed one scarf from one of the guy in our tour to survive. After waiting for a few minutes there, we returned back. We went to another place to see sunrise.

We returned back to the point bus left us after sunrise.

This is the Blue Fire where we walked before. Yes, there’s no Blue Fire at this photo, but it was told us Blue Fire can be seen only in the night time, without sunshine. Actually that was why we came there at that night time.

We got all together to our bus and started to go back to Probolinggo. On the way to Probolinggo except me and Fabio all other tourists left bus to go Bali Island in the closest port. Then we continued our journey back to Probolinggo with only tour guide and bus driver in all minivan. It was very nice to go back with a few people since I could stop the bus whenever and wherever I wanted (so I did). When we reached Probolinggo we went to same Lava Lava Hotel Restaurant to eat with Fabio and took photo with our guide and driver before we left them.

I ate breakfast, which I can't skip even it's late, at that restaurant and it was nice again. I paid about 50.

Then we walked to Probolinggo Central Bus Station to look for a bus back to Surabaya. Most of the people said us there’s no more bus to back to Surabaya after this time, we have to take taxi! Of course I never accepted because I’m so nerveous and disputant. We went to our Ijen tour company and I asked him whom I went to Friday prayer together. Fortunately he said us how and when to go and we spent for couple of minutes and got in to bus. Furthermore, I chatted with him about Galatasaray which is the most well-known football team in Turkey and Fatih Terim J. Additionaly, I gave him 1 Turkish Lira Coin and I think you can ask him and see if you find a chance to go there. 

We slept on the way back to Surabaya and reached to Surabaya at the 7 pm. “Yes so what’s next plan” I asked to Fabio, but both of us neither knew anything to do or any place to sleep and nor had any internet access. We walked inside bus terminal of Surabaya and saw Information Center and we used computers to check hostels to stay. We found a few hostels to stay and asked how to go near that area. Most people said us again no bus take taxi, but luckily one guy said us about how to go there.. We got in public bus and paid 4 to get our place. I was always checking location from Maps by using GPS and we left the bus when we were close to it. By the way, if I’m not wrong, Google Maps route suggestion for public busses work at Surabaya too.

Photo on the way(don’t be surprised if you see so crowded streets):

We went to one hostel which is very famous for Backpackers. It was inside one big street, I don’t remember name but it was full of room. We were desperate and started to ask around any other hostel or guesthouse to stay. We found one close to that one but it was expensive and looked not safe place. Then I said my friend to go to the other hotel which I recorded the address of it to my phone. It was 3 km far away from our current location but closer to center of Surabaya. We started walking and one minivan stopped near us and asked where we are going. We said the name and he said okay come with us. We got in the back of minivan which was crowded. I could take one secret photo here:

We paid about 10 for total and they left us near hotel. We walked for 5 minutes to get hotel and asked about room. There were empty rooms including breakfast and not so expensive. Name of the hotel was Grand Sumatera, can be found in the web. We paid 350 IDR for 2 beds room. We settled our room and after resting for an hour we went out to get Surabaya night life. I checked some possible places we can go and took screenshots when I had wifi in hotel.

We started to search a place to spend a night, Saturday night. First we saw one place which was not on my list. It was written Karaoke and at the 5th or 6th floor of one car park building. There was a guy waiting with motorbike to take visitors to up. We went there and saw too luxury place and live music. They welcomed us so nice and we sat down to look menu. It was 10 times more than normal Surabaya prices. We looked each other and left the place with generating a reason to do so J (Actually I learnt that place was very nice and full of foreigners inside, called Colors from another friend who visited Surabaya as well)

We walked a lot in the desolate streets of Surabaya and found one McDonalds and ate hamburger to keep my body alive in the night. We found a club and checked there after eating. It was very dark inside and most of the people were local old guys. The workers welcomed us extensively and arranged one table in the middle of the place for us. But we said we don’t like Indonesian musics and we left there as well. Actually the reason was we were afraid of place, afraid of being ripped off.

After all, we saw another place called Station 10. There was entrance fee for 35 per person. We tried to bargain but the guy at the entrance never accepted any discount. I requested to check inside and paid if I like. He let me go and I looked inside.. It was okay, probably best option for us. Then we went in and tried to spend time with Indonesian musics J It was so different environment, people. Inside was huge, maybe more than 300 people. People were very strange for club. Within spending a few minutes, we got the point of the place. They were …. (I don’t want to explain details in the public, if you are curious you can ask me in e-mail). Anyway.. We just spent 2 – 3 hours there and tried to blend into the crowd. But the problem we were the only foreigners inside the club and it was easily understandable that we are foreigner. Here is the one photo from club:

We went back to hotel and slept. In the morning we woke up very late by comparing to previous ones. We ate our free breakfast and went around after breakfast.

We asked massage places to go nearby. I had a flight back to Singapore but I did want to go massage in Indonesia too. I had 3,5 hours until flight and we started to look around for massage. After all we found that street full of massage places.. We asked about prices and times. Almost all of them said at least 1 hour but if I stay an hour, I might miss my flight (and indeed we noticed the massage places were not doing real massage). Thus, we didn’t take any massage and I took a taxi to go Surabaya airport. I paid 120 for the taxi. I reached airport within 50 minutes and spent one hour there.

That’s all for Surabaya – Bromo – Ijen tours I have done.

Things Good to Know Before

First Note: All prices should be considered as 1.000 times of written values.

How to travel inside Surabaya, from Surabaya to Bromo & Ijen?

Travelling within Surabaya: There are many public busses going most of the places. Google Maps works there to find a proper public bus as well. You can take a taxi with good price too. But taxi driver may try to rip off you to take more money. For this reason, the best reliable taxi company is Blue Bird, which I learnt before my Jakarta trip. Try to find Blue Bird and don’t forget to open taximeter!

Surabaya – Bromo: You can find public bus at Surabaya airport to go Surabaya Bus Terminal costs 4. If you want to go Bromo, you can take public bus from Surabaya Bus Terminal to Probolinggo Bus station by paying about 25. You can stay at Probolinggo for a night and find a tour to Bromo or can take a mototube to go Bromo early night about 3 – 4 am. I paid 300 for mototube, tours will cost similar.  

Bromo – Ijen: Bromo to Ijen you can take public bus which goes close to Ijen, but not enoughly close. You may stay at closest point (I don’t know exactly) and take a mototube to travel thru Ijen. Alternatively you can find tour package from Probolinggo bus station and join them to go Ijen and come back for a day with good price(650 I paid including hotel staying).

How to get visa on arrival?

Just leave the airplane and follow others, you will see the visa officer.

How to communicate people there?

It might be a problem because very small percentage of people can speak English. But I think it will be enough for you to travel.

Do I need to get Indonesian currency (Indonesian Rupiah)?

Definitely yes. They always use their currency and some of the places you cannot pay by credit card. Furthermore, it’s better to have some IDR before been to Surabaya since they may give less money than real value when you exchange it.

Why to go that far away and dangerous places?

If you want to see volcano and Blue Fire which is unique in the world as I know, you should do that! Additionaly you should be crazy enough as well.

What about nightlife at Surabaya?

For foreigners best place to go Colors Bar as far as I know. But you can try to go Station 10 to see some different type of club and feel like locals. Bromo and Ijen is just a day trip locations and they are like village, not have night life indeed.

Are these places safe?

I don’t think they are safe. There was nothing happened to me fortunately but many things could happen. But I can say most of the people are helpful and hospitable as we stayed one guy’s family home without knowing them.

How much does it cost for whole journey?

4*2 (public bus from Surabaya Airport to Surabaya Bus Terminal, both way) + 25*2 (public bus from Surabaya Bus Terminal to Probolinggo, both way) + 300 (mototube to Bromo) + 75 (entrance fee of Bromo) + 650 (tour package of Ijen, including stay) + 150(Grand Sumatera Hotel) + 22 (for short distance public transportations) + 125 (taxi from Surabaya Center to Airport) = 1.380.000 IDR

You can think to spend 100 - 150 IDR for good food each day.

Where to stay in Surabaya & Bromo & Ijen?

Surabaya; You can stay Hotel Grand Sumatera. It has very nice and clean rooms and not expensive. I don’t know any other places to stay but I know there are not many places to stay for about 10 USD.

Bromo; There are couple of hostels walking distance to Bromo Volcano. You can stay there if you don’t want to wake up too early to get there from Probolinggo. Probably you will pay more than Probolinggo option. Alternatively you can stay Probolinggo and go to see Bromo from there.

Ijen; There are not many places to stay. I highly suggest to find a tour package or place to stay before going there. Otherwise you may have to stay out in very cold mountain.