S598 - Surabaya, Indonesia

Salam

After spending 3 full days in Bali, we continue our holiday trip to Surabaya. Journey from Bali to Surabaya took us almost 8 hours. For our Surabaya trip which we will be going to Mt Bromo to be exact, we book a tour package because we dont have any idea how to travel to Mt Bromo from Bali. The tour package cost us IDR 1,585,000 per person which include transport and one night stay at Mt Bromo.

Mount Bromo is an active volcano.

The tour agent pick us at Ubud on 8 am and drove us to nearby jetty in Bali which took us almost 3 hours from Ubud. Then, we took one-hour ferry ride to Ketapayang Jetty, Surabaya. And finally 4 hours car ride to Mt Bromo. What a long long journey kan? Took us almost 8 hours in total..

We stayed at Bromo Permai which situated on the peak of the mountain which I'm not really sure the name of the mountain, but I'm confident it is not Mt Bromo because we can have a view of Mt Bromo from our hotel. Our hotel located slightly higher than Mt Bromo. So cool. We arrived the hotel around 6pm and wind is really really cool. As cold as winter season. Im shivering on my way to the hotel room cause i didn't bring any thick clothes to keep me warm except my cardigan.

We had slices of pizza and hot chocolate for dinner at the hotel restaurant for dinner. We need to sleep early that night because we had to leave the hotel room by 400 am the next morning for sunrise at Mt Bromo.

So, around 400 am the next morning, the tour agent drove us to the peak of one mountain nearby Mt Bromo for sunrise view using a super cool jeep. Unfortunately, we arrived there a bit late, and the car park on the peak already occupied by other tourist, maybe because it is on weekend.

It's okay. We just stopped by the road on our way down heading to Mt Bromo. However, we can't even see the sunrise because the weather is not that good that morning.    

*while waiting for sunrise by the roadside*

We continue our journey to Mt Bromo. I'm really excited to see and experience the environment around Mt Bromo because it is totally different from typical Indonesia or Malaysia environment. I feel like I'm far far away from Indonesia or Malaysia. Hmmm, i have feeling of being in Tibet while walking up to Mt Bromo. I haven't being in Tibet before. Just the view of people wearing winter clothes, 4WD jeep, horses, cold wind sounds soo significant with Tibet. Haha. Suke hati je bust judgement sendiri kan?

There is no trees, no houses, there is nothing around Mt Bromo area. Except a temple on the foothills of Mt Bromo and this temple still remains since hundred years ago tho been swiped by Mt Bromo volcanic lava, the temple still stand strong till today. 

*the temple*

*standing at Mt Bromo peak*

*can you see the volcano mouth?*

*this not volcano, just an ordinary mountain beside Mt Bromo*

Journey to Mt Bromo will be our most memorable moments to be shared because not everyone chose to visit volcano to be a part of holiday trip.

Till then.

Thank you.

S597 - Bali, Indonesia

salam

after months planning for a holiday trip with friends, at last we decided to go to Bali, Indonesia during our Chinese New Year holiday! We stayed at Kuta and Ubud. 

Our flight to Denpasar (Bali) from Kuala Lumpur took us about three hours. During our two-days stayed in Kuta, we had hired a tour driver for a cost of IDR 900,000 including airport fares which is quite reasonable because the tour driver can suggest us good Muslim restaurant for lunch and dinner plus he can help us to plan our two-days itinerary in Bali. 

On the first day, we went to Tanah Lot. We can see beautiful scenary of the sea from the cliff.  

                                      

                                     

Besides being a tourism attraction, this is a place for Hindu to pray. Everyone to wish to enter the temple, need to wash their faces using the Holy Water, wear flowers given and put some rice on forehead. Tourism can simply walk across the sea to the temple because the water level is not that deep.

*On their way to the temple for prayers*

After that, we head to Dreamland Beach. To be honest, this beach is soooo perfect, except the weather is quite hot. So, we just ignore the heat and took lots of photo as the beach scenery is so beautiful which we can't get as such back in Malaysia.  

Then we went to Uluwatu Temple for Kecak Dance and sunset view. On the way for Kecak Dance, we passed by Uluwatu Temple. It situated on the edge of the cliff. The can have nice view of the blue sea from top of the cliff.

The Kecak Dance starts at 6.00 pm daily and this is a-must-see dance in Bali. This dance tells us an Indonesia legend story.

We had our dinner at Jimbaran beach that night. They served seafood; ikan baker, lobster, calamari, etc. And the feeling is just like having our ikan bakar at Kuala Perlis, Malaysia.

The next day, we went to Ladang Kopi. We can find Kopi Luwak here; which is a famous coffee in Bali. Maybe because im not a coffee-fan, thus I can't find any excitement drinking coffee here. This is how they process the coffee; from coffee beans.

Besides Luwak coffee, they served various type of coffee and tea here; Roselle, Vanilla coffee, Arabica coffee and many other type of coffee which I can re-call now. Hihi. They will give one small-cup for each flavours as a tester for each group.

We had our lunch at Kintamani. A buffet-lunch. We can actually see a beautiful volcanic view from this restaurant. Unfortunately, it is raining that day, so we can't see any of the view. 

After lunch, we proceed to Rice Terrace Field. In Indonesia, they had their paddy field in form of terrace. This is one thing that we they are different from us in Malaysia. 

After having a tiring time climbing the terrace field, we straight away continue to Ubud, Bali. We arrived Ubud around 6 pm. 

Since our hotel in Ubud situated in the middle of Ubud city centre, we just spent our one-full day walking around the city centre; searching for souvenirs, have a visit to Monkey Forest and spent our night at Starbucks.

The next day, we continue our journey to Surabaya which I will share later in my next post.

Till then, wsalam.