Chinese New Year  eve 2015:  After four years of working during the holiday period, I finally decide to take time off.  We take an afternoon flight from Singapore to Surabaya, all geared up for the long journey ahead.

With me I have the Canon Powershot S110, Sony NEX 6 body, SELP18105G, SEL35F18, and Minolta Maxxum 50mm F1.7.  My new travel tripod also makes it into our new Crumpler Tondo Outpost bags.

A brief wait at Surabaya International Airport and we’re greeted by our tour guide.  Loaded all the gear in a quasi good condition Kia Travalio and on to the next leg of the journey.  Up the mountains to see the sunrise over Mount Bromo.

Three hours later we arrive at the Jeep pickup zone.  A lovely hotel in the mountain just before Bromo.  I take a moment to test out the tripod and long exposure settings and take a snap shot of the stars.

The Jeep (or more properly Toyota Land Cruiser) arrived around three AM.  We loaded up along with a group of Fins (or maybe Swede’s, nordic in any regard) and set off for the vantage point.  About midway there I started to feel ill.  I’ve never suffered from car sickness, frankly the day leading up to this point was bizarre so no point in thinking about it too much.  I held my own and we arrived and settled in for the sunrise.

This is where I discovered another annoying issue with Mirrorless cameras:  Long exposures are a nightmare to work with in dark scenarios.  You can’t see a thing in the viewfinder (as it’s electronic), so you can’t focus properly (also because the focus ring is electronic) so what I though would be beautiful nighttime shots of the mountain and the stars above just turned to blurry messes.

My failed long exposure shots, an example here. 

 

As the sun rose the photos improved.  I switched to the 18-105 G powerzoom lens at this point.  A truly stellar e-mount lens I must say.

Other visitors crowd together along the observation deck.

The mountains at sunrise.

The valley below covered in mist.

The observation area.

 

The mighty Toyota Land Cruiser, or a Jeep as it’s called locally.  Somehow I don’t think an actual “Jeep brand Jeep” would survive long in these conditions, but again I’m very bias.

 

Locals selling coffee and tea along the road side.

 

Myself at another vantage point further down the mountain.

 

After the sun rose enough, we headed back down into the valley to see the temples and just bask in the open plain magnificence of it all.

 

The valley is covered in volcanic sands (that’s what I’m calling them anyways).   It felt very much like another world (hence the title).

Jeeps and motorcycles cross the plains on the way to the Volcanoes.

Locals ride on the roof.  Why not?

We proceeded further in and visited the Pura Luhur Poten temple.   We took horses from the parking area to the caldera steps.

Riding on the plains.

 

Horses for hire near the temple.

 

Full disclosure:  We were far too tired to go all the way up.  We went about half way and turned back.

A girl poses along the hill side.  I’ll snag this shot too.

A Soto Bakso stand.  Eating soup standing up is much harder than you would imagine.

We headed back to the hotel, boarded the old Kia Travalio again and set off for lunch before the long ride back to Surabaya.

Our breakfast stop off.  A lovely little hotel about thirty minutes down the mountain.

Nearly four hours later we reach Surabaya train station.  Our next stop, Yogyakarta.