The Money Shot

Possibly one of the most iconic and impressive landscapes in Indonesia- the “money shot” if you like, has to be that of Mount Bromo. Ideally taken at dawn the picture encompasses a ten kilometer wide caldera with a number of smaller craters, including Bromo itself rising from within it. If the shot is taken at first light on a clear morning, it is truly spectacular. Visitors to Egypt get the pyramids, those to Tanzania get Kilimanjaro or Nngorongoro Crater. I was determined that during our stay here in Indonesia, we would at least have a try at capturing this amazing view- oh, and see a thoroughly impressive volcano too of course!

Although our last trip left us pleasantly surprised by the Indonesian rail system, a trip of ten hours or more was probably a little longer for anything less than the Orient express so we made the easy decision to fly. The first coffee of the weekend was consumed therefore at the Starbucks in the domestic terminal at Soekarno- Hatta airport, as we waited to board our flight to Malang.

We were told there are basically two cities you can fly into in order to get to Mount Bromo- Surabaya or Malang. We chose the latter for its twin advantages of being smaller (so less traffic to handle) and being closer to Bromo. A couple of hours later, we emerged from our flight into the cool air of Malang airport- a compact building beaten for size possibly only by the airstrip in the Serengeti (you’re not going to get much smaller than a flat strip of grass and two jeeps after all). Having spent all of five minutes getting to the airport exit, we met up with our guide and began our tour.

Although we were all itching to get to Bromo, there was also little point arriving there early afternoon only to spend hours sitting in a somewhat basic hotel waiting for bedtime. It was also very obvious that the volcano experience went much further than just a crater. Volcanic highlands impact heavily on the plains below them so they were worth a visit too.  While the spectacular peaks were immediately visible off in the distance, the lush green fields of the volcanic slopes and plains were already around us. At lower levels this meant maize but also tea.

Workers drying tea at the Wonosari Plantation 

Less than two hours after landing, therefore,  we were walking around the Wonosari tea plantation- a large, fully integrated operation that combined both the rolling green slopes of tea with the factories that turned green leaves into fully labeled packs of tea.

Tea leaves being picked at the same plantation

Starting in the factory area, the guide showed us what remained a fairly low tech and manual process before taking us out into the fields. It should be remembered that low tech doesn’t necessarily mean inferior- as with many industries, when the cost of an employee is so low, a people- heavy solution often makes good business sense. Sadly, however, the profusion of people did not extend to the café, so we headed out of the plantation in search of lunch.

After a typically fast , spicy but delicious lunch in a roadside Padang restaurant, we headed on the 3 hour drive to Bromo and, before long, found ourselves winding our way up a mountain road. Very quickly, the whole landscape changed. Whereas previously, we were looking out over wide fields of maize and tea, we were now seeing tight patchworks of sloping fields where the main crop, oddly enough, was cabbages. With the cold temperature, the somewhat English crops and the steep winding roads, it all felt rather like the Lake District- well, assuming the Lake District was full of volcanoes I guess.

The slighly different landscape on the road up to Bromo

Just as dusk was falling, we arrived at our hotel. Now, hotels in Bromo don’t have much of a reputation for luxury- most of the guests tend to stick around a night and are out by 4am, so there’s not much need for niceties such as hot water. However, this particular establishment, the Bromo Permai had been billed by a well known guidebook as “the fanciest hotel in Bromo”, so we had some expectation. Well, the place was good enough I guess- a chalet with three single beds and a couple of bottles of water- basic but enough. To be honest, though in a hotel like that, getting up at 4am wasn’t too much of a wrench so, after a fitful night, we found ourselves in our jeep at the appointed hour- stupid o’clock.. No matter- we had an appointment with a volcano and with my masterpiece of a photo!

Two small boys outside their room in the Bromo Permai

Well, to be frank the whole sunrise thing was a waste of time. Nobody’s fault apart from perhaps Mother Nature. The jeep dropped us off about half a mile short of the crater and we climbed in pitch, pre dawn black with what visibility there was made worse by the heavy mist- basically by the time we got to the viewing point none of us could see more than two metres ahead of us! Never mind, it was 4.30 and we only had an hour till sunrise- so we waited. Sure enough an hour later, the sun rose, and dark fog was replaced by a slightly paler fog. My long awaited landscape shot looked more like a white sheet than the glorious array of colour I’d been hoping for. At 6am we gave up the ghost and headed back to the car, hoping the trip into the caldera would give us something more, well, visible!

Visitors at the ironically named "Viewing Point" on Bromo

As much as the viewing point had been a miss, the caldera was definitely a hit. We drove into something that reminded me of a very bare Ngorongoro, parked the car, and started the walk to Mount Bromo itself. The boys moaned every step of the way, but to their credit after half an hour, we found ourselves on the peak of the volcano looking into a very menacing and steaming crater- anyone falling in there wasn’t likely to come out with a demise just as likely to come from the lava as from the fall!

Mount Bromo from the bottom of the caldera

View right down into the crater

In sympathy to the boys, we allowed them to come down on horseback- the highlight of their holiday for sure and by 9am we were back in the hotel for breakfast. To be honest, the breakfast, consisting of rice, noodles and omelette was pretty average, but after trekking up volcanoes for five hours, the food didn’t touch the sides.

Family shot in front of the caldera after the fog had lifted

By late morning we were driving away from the ruggedness of Bromo, headed for the luxury of Malang. By the time we got to Malang, we were pretty much done with tourism and after a cursory look at a very small stupa and singosari, we headed to our hotel. Now in complete contrast to Bromo, the Tugu in Malang is a stunning hotel. Between the amazing service, the beautifully furnished rooms and the glorious food, this was paradise. Sitting on the veranda for afternoon tea felt like a step back in time and even the macet on the road felt slightly relaxed!

The night’s sleep here was a polar opposite to the rough and ready experience of the night before and we were all out at an embarrassingly early hour. Next morning saw us finally escape the hotel for a walk around the immediate area. We’d seen that there was a local pet market closeby and that’s where we headed. What an experience the Malang Bird Market was. Walking down the main road was interesting enough, as we took in all kinds of birds as well as cats, monkeys and the occasional mongoose. However, a few twists and turns and we found ourselves well off the beaten track where the really cool stuff was- all kinds of fish, reptiles and several large pythons. The kids were entranced and had to be torn away so we could take in the neighbouring flower market. They were right to complain- the flowers were pretty boring compared to the snakes!

View of the Bird Market from across the bridge

By lunchtime we found ourselves back at Malang airport waiting for the flight home and reflecting on a great weekend. Well, my quest for the iconic photo had fallen flat on its face, rendering a 4am start meaningless, but we’d still managed to see what the area was all about and that was the whole point of the trip. All in all there had been a real contrast- the rough and ready nature of Bromo against the quite, peaceful luxury of Malang. However, that is a contrast underpinning this region. The tranquil luxury of Malang comes mainly from the phenomenal wealth created in the fields surrounding it- the value of tea sitting in the Wonosari warehouse must have been several million dollars at least. However, the fertility of these fields comes directly from the unforgiving, ashen, barren volcanic peaks at Bromo, All in all the contrast is simply two sides of one interdependent coin.