Java's "smoking gun" is Gunung Bromo or Mount Bromo, an active volcano whose entire crown has been blown off, revealing its crater that constantly puffs a white, ghostly smoke. Mount Bromo is neither Java's highest peak nor its most beautiful cone. It is actually just one of the many summits of Tengger massif. Nonetheless, it is the most celebrated in the region since it is loaded in adventure as it is rich in lava and folklore.
A car ride of three to four hours from Surabaya airport takes visitors to the villages of Ngadisar and Cemoro Lawang, the picturesque doorsteps to Gunung Bromo where brightly-tinted houses and flower beds are the welcoming sights. It is in these villages where visitors are billeted in farm houses, eat in cheap warungs (eateries), and buy colorful woolen Bromo hats in preparation for the mountain cold.
Guests of Mount Bromo usually wake up very early to take a two-hour walk, a scheduled jeep tour, or a pony ride to see the breathtaking sunrise from the summit between 5 to 5:30 a.m. Another popular "sunrise-watching" spot is Mount Penanjakan, a well-known jeep and bus route north of Bromo.
There are several ways to see Bromo's photogenic caldera. One is from the top of the 250 steep steps of a Hindu temple on the volcano's foot, and another by trailing past farms and fields to Viewpoint#2 from Cemoro Lawang. On the way to Bromo's summit, trekkers pass through Mount Batok, a dormant volcano cradling some vegetation like cemara trees.
The inside of the caldera, called Laut Pasir (Sea of Sand) is filled with fine volcanic sand, giving the caldera a ghostlike appeal that sets it apart from its surrounding green valleys. Legend has it that a 15th-century barren couple asked for children from the volcano's gods. The gods gave what the couple had asked for, with the condition that they would sacrifice the last child. Upon throwing the child into the crater, the child was believed to have ordered the people to stage an annual ceremony on the volcano. The child's supposed order is still being observed today.
