Hitchhiking to Cemoro Lawang by Bromo

Travel Day 680 – Denpasar to Cemoro Lawang on Java, INDONESIA

In order to make my stay so close to the bus terminal in Denpasar worthwhile, I got up really early and caught the first bus of the day, at 6 am, towards Gilimanuk at the western end of Bali…

Hitchhiking to Cemoro Lawang by Bromo on Java, Indonesia

From Gilimanuk it was possible to leave Bali behind while catching a public ferry to Ketapang on Java. A public bemo brought me then to the Sri Tanjung bus terminal, where I had two kinds of busses to choose from. There was the public bus, doing the trip to Probolinggo in about 5 hours, and there was an express bus that was promised to do the same distance in 3 hours. Since I was a little pressed on time in order to catch any onward transportation to Cemoro Lawang, I opted for the more expensive express solution. But unfortunately the bus still took about 4 hours to reach Probolinggo, resulting in the fact that there was no shuttle bus for the Bromo area anymore…

Left with no choices, another traveller and I first waited a while and then started to challenge our luck while trying to hitchhike the distance to Cemoro Lawang. While this turned out to be a fun way to meet locals, unfortunately it proved completely ineffective in providing us with any form of transport. Finally, after two hours of failed hitchhiking attempts, we went into serious negotiations with some private bemo guys and managed to get a decent price for the ride to the Bromo jump off point called Cemoro Lawang, a tiny village with some basic accommodations…

Finally leaving Bali behind on the Way to Java, Indonesia

By the time we finally arrived, it was completely dark, misty and really, really freezing. So when going to bed, I had to do so while wearing my fleece jumper and two blankets in order to stop shivering. After 13 hours on the road today and two days of traveling from Gili Air, I was more than happy to finally have reached the first destination on Java. But I was not very happy about the fact that I had to be up again really early to start hiking up Gunung Penanjakan for some good sunrise views of the whole Bromo area. Hopefully the views would at least be worth all the efforts…