Picking up the Sunrise

by Pramita Diana Putri (Indonesia)

A leap into the unknown Indonesia

It was 11:15 p.m. My mom and I sat silently on the bed in our cottage, with shoes and jacket on. I fought my drowsiness, tried desperately to stay awake. My dad was answering a call from his phone before he said, “The van is here. Let’s go.” I stood up, trembling yet excited. We were going to Mount Bromo tonight for a midnight-sunrise tour. We went out from our warm cottage, locked the door and got into the white van from the tour agency. There were around six people had already been inside. We greeted them briefly and went to our seats. I took a seat near the window and plugged my earphones into my ear. Some songs would accompany me along this trip. The white van left out cottage in Oro-Oro Ombo towards the downtown area of Batu City. It brought us to Green Apple Hotel to pick up the last participants staying in this hotel. After ten minutes, a young couple came running to the van. They opened the door and greeted us all, “Good evening… we’re sorry to be late.” The young man said. They took their seats and the van began to move away, driving through the dark night of Batu. I picked some slow songs to listen to, taming my heart to save some strength for rougher journey ahead. Two hours passed, the white van made another short stop in front of an Alfamart to allow the participants to use restrooms and bought some refreshments before going on. Most people got down, including the couple. It took them fifteen minutes before they all got back into the van and we continued our trip. The van began climbing as it entered a forest area. We were enveloped in the dark, barely see anything aside from the van’s lamp. We finally arrived at the basecamp house. We were told to wait for a while, before got divided into some groups of five. My parents and I went to the same group with the young couple from the hotel, got on the same Jeep to the hill. The couple and my mother were on the backseat, while I sat with my father on the front. The couple introduced themselves, Anggrina and Andre, from Jogjakarta. They had just been married for couple months. Oops, I thought. Seemed we unintentionally showed up in their honeymoon. They were nice and friendly, their talk with my mother warmed our cold night to the hill. Mrs. Anggrina and my dad exchanged their contacts, in case we went split and needed to get together at times. The jeep stopped, we needed to continue by walking. I couldn’t endure the cold air anymore and decided to rent an extra jacket for IRD 20,000,-. We started to climb the hill, my mother walked with the couple while I walked a bit faster with my dad. I glanced on my watch, it was already 3:15 in the morning. We moved step by step to the paramount. White steam was formed from my breath as the air got colder. It was pitch dark when we reached the paramount, but the stars above twinkled beautifully from the sky, easing us. They looked so close as if I could pick them down. As the time passed, visitors began to fill the paramount. I heard languages, Javanese, English to Chinese were spoken by more than 50 people around me. All stood to the East, waiting for the Majestic sunrise of Bromo. We got frozen, yet satisfied. We left the hill at 6.30 a.m. to the sea of sand. We informed Mrs. Anggrina that we were already by the car. We spent the rest of the morning at the field, took pictures and had breakfast together. While the couple going to the Tengger Temple, I excused myself to stay in the car to get some sleep. The tour ended at 9.30, we were brought back to the basecamp before drove to the city. Before departing, we wished each other good luck, “Let us know if you’re going to Jogja next time. We’ll bring you around.” Mrs. Anggrina said with a smile.