Going hungry on Mount Bromo

Mount Bromo, front left with Mount Semeru in the background

I can't decide whether to classify this post about my expedition to the Mount Bromo volcano under "hiking" or under "travel adventures". It was probably both.

I wanted to do some volcano hiking in Indonesia. I had to book a tour to go to Mount Bromo because there isn't any public transport and it seemed just easier to have everything taken care of by a tourist agency. From my experience up until now, I had no reason to doubt that all would be well.

After a long day of driving from Yogyakarta we finally arrived in Probolinggo, the town from where Bromo tours start. There was some confusion about who would go to which guesthouse and who would ride a jeep up the mountain. I had booked a hiking tour but was told to meet the jeep in the morning instead. I complained. What would be the point of going on a volcano if I had to ride in a jeep? I wanted to walk. It turned out that I was the only one who wanted to walk and they tried to convince me to take the jeep so they wouldn't have to bother arranging a guide for me. After some negotiating I got my guide, but they made me pay an additional fee for a single person.

We were dropped off at our guesthouse late in the evening, hungry due to not having eaten anything since lunch. We were informed that the guesthouse – which was located in the middle of nowhere halfway up the Bromo volcano – doesn't have a restaurant but if we wanted anything, we could buy what they offered in their glass display case. This was a sorry sight, there were three shelves in that display case that offered, in order from top to bottom:

1. About a dozen bottles of Coca Cola 
2. Packets of two different brands of instant noodles 
3. Three half liter bottles of Bintang beer at room temperature

Out of these wonderful choices available to me, I decided to go to bed hungry. I was so thankful that I had a large bottle of drinking water with me that I had bought earlier in the day. At least I didn't have to worry about drinking water for the morning hike.

Mount Bromo crater

I started hiking with my guide at 4:00 in the morning. It was crowded at the sunrise viewing point with numerous other tourists who were taken up there either in a jeep, on a motorcycle or on a horse. In addition to tourists, many local vendors set up stalls with drinks and snacks. I enjoyed a hot coffee while watching the sunrise. When it became light I could finally see the breathtaking volcanic landscape. It was just amazing with smoke rising from some of the volcanoes.

Volcanic landscape around Mount Bromo

When I returned to my guesthouse, I was so hungry with all the hiking and not having eaten since lunch yesterday, I was ready for a nice breakfast. It turned out that breakfast was two slices of untoasted white bread spread with a microscopically thin layer of strawberry jam. I was just as hungry after breakfast as I was before. I glanced towards the glass display case, contemplating whether I should supplement my breakfast with Coke, instant noodles or beer. I decided I wouldn't die if I waited until our minibus stopped for lunch to eat properly.

So the Indonesian travel industry still needs some tweaking. Perhaps someone should tell them that tourists have to be fed.