The Lessons

I’d never hiked the mountain before. When Nina, my housemate, asked if I want to go to Bromo with her, I suddenly said “Of course!”. I thought it’d be a great experience, since I had much free time before start my master degree.

We started our trip, with other housemates and Nina’s friend, at 00:00 am. It took about two and half hour by car. The road was quite challenging, but our guide had good driving skill. The weather was getting cold and I wore my jacket. When we arrived at post, our guide served us some breads and hot tea. It was a perfect combination in the cold late night.

After had our early breakfast, we headed to Bromo by jeep. I’d never in the jeep, so I was pretending if I got kidnapped (jeep is linked with kidnapper’s ride in Indonesia), but I enjoyed the ride. Once we arrived, there were already a lot of people who were ready to hike the mountain. Our guide told us to do morning pray first before go to Love Hill. Even though the water irritated my skin (the temperature was 6⁰ C), I should not leave my duty as a Muslim.

We climbed stairs to reach the hill. I was bit tired, but I kept going because I was really eager to see the sunrise near the mountain. We arrived and waited for few minutes before enjoy the scenery. There was a fence along the hill that kept visitors not fall into the mountain. I jumped over it carefully because it was risky and I took my best position to get pictures.

Here came the sun! I’d never expect if the sunrise was looking so beautiful. It was “shy” in the beginning, but its red-orange shine made me feel so calm. The shine swept the mountain top slowly until it touched my face. I was getting more impressed and I praised God for His creation.

After enjoyed the sunrise, we went to Whispering Sand. It was so-called because when the wind blew, the sand grains flew and sounded like a whisper. It was also a shooting location for Indonesia’s film, Pasir Berbisik. Then, we headed to Teletubbies Hill. It named after its similarity to Teletubbies series. Unfortunately, the grass was dry. We did not enjoy the scenery fully.

Finally, we arrived at the last place, Bromo crater. Our guide asked us to have a walk or rent the horse because the jeep could not bring us near to it. We decided to walk for few kilometers and followed others. At some moment, we lost the direction but we were bit hesitant to ask the locals. We just kept on walking and arrived at the cliff. The locals laughed at us and said “That is the wrong path. Why don’t ask for help?” I was embarrassed and we turned back to the right one. Then, we climbed another stair. I was so exhausted, but others kept asking me to climb and said “It will be useless if we do not reach the top. We already here.” I gathered my energy back. Once we reached the top, we were amazed by the crater. Its sound made me feel bit scare somehow.

The time was around 10:00 am. We went down and rented the horse, since we had no energy to walk again. I was struggling to ride the horse, but later on I was getting used to. Then, we got in the jeep and be ready to went home. All I can say if this experience taught me some life lessons – do not hesitant to ask for help and keep moving forward until reach the destination.