Malang-Bromo Complete Guide

Hello this is the picture to start the guide!

 

As second city in East Java, Malang has it own charm. It sits between amazing mountain, Arjuna Mountain on the west and Bromo on the east. It was a lovely city, and I had been here after graduated from university. I lived in the foot of Arjuna Mountain, the Petung Sewu Wildlife Education as animal helper. I was giving food and cleaning the cage of the monkeys.

So almost ten years passed, and I went there again with the team of Linda and Sister, with Liu Sarah and mother. Time flies 10 years, the city change rapidly. Before than, Batu is small city with a lot of fruit plantation. Now this small city became of the centre of East Java Tourism. There is six various park, paragliding and many more.... Here is my mini guide to Malang-Batu including Bromo and Surabaya

Total number spent: 4 days

Number of traveller:  6 people

Accommodation

Jambuluwuk Batu 

 It cost us 1,1 million IDR per night, it has three room and wonderful facility. It was amazing deal we love this place. Located at higher attitude of Batu, we can see wonderful scenery on the wooden villa. The villa has 5 star hotel facilities such as swimming pool. The surrounding of villa full with many flower and tree, it has cool climate and serene atmosphere. The villa is about 100 m square with two stories and three room. We have our own balcony, living room and even private kitchen. It was very comfortable and lovely experience we had. Try to come at low season here to get really great deal.

 

Waterplace Apartment

I have good impression with the building of the apartment. The place has its own classical European style, which is fine; with the neat surrounding I was expecting more. We stayed at one of the building here, and the room is so bad.  The sink was jam; the room is not clean, and leaked air conditioner. We were complaining and there wasn't any response. We kept our deposit there for three days it was very unreasonable. It cost us 800.000 IDR per night, for three rooms and disappointed services.

Culinary Journey

Sop Kambing Obat Sehat Depot 29 - Lawang-

On the way to Singosari, we ate lunch at Depot 29. It sold various East Javannese foods such as rawon (black soup with klewek), soto, with Tempe and Tofu. I ate the signature of dish that is Sop Kambing Obat Sehat (mutton herb and healthy soup). The soup was thick and heavily spiced. The spice, which is containing ginseng and kice, make the fragrance smell good.

Bakwan Subur -Malang-

Bakwan is a soup with meatball, siomay and also various fried meatball and also siomay. What make this place special is they use pork meat and pork soup, which more thick and strong flavor. It also has pork intestine, pork lungs and pork skin which is made the dish more enjoyable. With only 2.000 IDR per piece, it was totally bliss for me. It makes my mouth watery and sips the soup satisfyingly

Flamboyan Restaurant -Batu-

This small and modern look restaurant have surprising really good dish. The menu is mixed between Indonesian and Chinese food and we order both. We ordered steam fish, which is really good! It cooked with humble way with ginger and herb. Mix veggie with peanut sauce which is called karedok, was very good. The price also very affordable, we ordered fried rice for our journey to Bromo.

Kwetiaw Apeng -Surabaya-

Kwetiaw, which is thick rice noodle, is one of my favorite foods. Unfortunately, I rarely find a good one in Bandung. So this famous kwetiaw is a must try while I in Surabaya. They have two style of cooking, which with semi thick soup and fried. The semi thick soup is a good choice, it taste salty and sweet. With the seafood, it taste savorier. While the fried one had sweeter and dry one. It cost 40.000 IDR, which is quite expensive for a little cater house.

Activities

Explore Bromo!

Bromo is the main reason why I chose whole Malang trip. The scenery of the Bromo is very picturesque, combination between mystical and natural beauty. This wondrous nature needs big effort to reach there. There are many problems which made us had a hard journey. First, the hotel around Bromo is overpriced with limited facilities. Second, the way from Malang to Bromo via Probolinggo takes time, because we use a big elf car, we couldn't take the shortcut. And third, we were eager to see the majestic sunrise on the 4.00 IS in the morning!

So we took very early check out on the lovely villa at 00:00 AM in the morning. We were still very tired of the journey, and take a long way trip to go. We were arrived at around 3:00 AM in the morning, and we still had to take a rough road on the jeep! The road is zigzag on the very dark night.

Point of interest 1 : Sunrise @ Penanjakan

 

Finally we arrived at Penanjakan. The moon is still very round, it was full moon. And behind the hill was the sunrise, it was very romantic. The wind was very hard; I only use a jacket, which wasn't enough. It was damn cold up there, so I rent the thick jacket for 30.000 IDR. It better to rent rather to get sick though. So we ran to behind of the mountain, with the purple orange sky. The view was majestic, I saw the Semeru Mountain on the backdrop, and Bromo Mountain on the front of the sun and us slowly came out. Our effort was pay off!

Point of interest 2: Bromo Crater and Horse Riding

The next journey is Bromo Crater. To be in the crate, we had to go walk or ride a horse. Only three of us with Sarah and Dyon, walked trough the sand particle, steep road and the cold. It took us about 1 hour and half for round trip with photo session. In the middle there is a Hindunese temple to protect the volcano from an amok. The volcano was very active, and it was really fun up there. Going back, I was riding horse to get photographed. And it was my first time ever to ride on the horse. It was fun!

 

Point of interest 3: Savanna

It called Teletubbies hill by the local, the savvana and the hill was vast. It was very dried when we were there; it had not been raining for almost a year. Is it looks and feel like in teletubbies world? Not really, just another couple hugs to each other: p.

 

Point of interest 4: Sand Dunes

The scenery of sand dunes also called pasir berbisik (whispering sand) by Indonesian. It became famous because of a movie called the same name, played by two famous actresses Dian Sastro and Christine Hakim. The blowing black sand of volcano has it own sound, no wonder it called that name. Riding the jeep on the sand was very adventurous and calm.

Cost: Foreigner 210.000 Local 30.000 Jeep 500.000 (weekday)

    

Zoo @Jatim Park2

Jatim Park 2 is a combination of zoo and Children Park. The place is surprisingly huge! We came for about 4 hours and its not even looking closely to the animal. Just the brief moment to see them. What I really loved is the unique animal they have, from the white lion to the Orang Utan. The ambiance of the Zoo is also very nice; every group has their own theme. They also have an aquarium, savanna and reptile. 

 

Cost: 60.000 (with Citilink boarding pass on weekdays)

Museum Angkut - Transportation Museum-

For me, this place is not museum. It is a big backdrop for photography. It has remodeled place from Batavia, Paris, Las Vegas and Germany. It also has various automobiles, the antique style, and also another form of transportation like rickshaw. The artifact was okay, but the museum itself has not coherent information and the flow is not good. But when I took camera and took a shoot the place looks incredible but feel empty for me.

Cost: 60.000/ person (weekday)

 

Singosari Temple

Singosari is the name of old kingdom in Java around 1200AD. The story of Singoshari somehow magnetized me so much, especially the story of Ken Arok. How the man, stole the weapon from the mpu, stole the women from the governor and became a king. The place itself closed when we were there. It’s a shame not to experience of the temple from that age. From Singosari actually we can climb Sumberawan Temple, which has a spring.

Cost: Free, look from outside

 

Transportation

Plane Jakarta-Malang

We bought from Garuda Fair for the bargain. We have citilink price for Garuda. Cost: 600.000

Hire Long Elf Along the Way

The driver of Mr. Herman have really long elf. Too big for us, it is for 14-seated car and we weren't even half of it.

Cost :400 for the car and 200 for the driver, without petrol

Train Surabaya- Bandung

We use the excutive Turangga which is very cold inside! It is about 12 hours ride we went on 4.30 PM and arrived later on 5 in the moring. The food (nasi campur) from the train is also very good.

Cost: 400 IDR

Hope all of you can enjoy this experience also. Please tell me your opinion about the journey and the new concept of writing or you have question regarding the trip to Malang-Bromo!