Perjalanan ke Timur Pulau Jawa - Malang.

I came back from the so called ‘Journey to the East’ last Sunday. And today is Friday. I’m too lazy to write about it on the next day after my arrival because of these acute rhinitis, sinusitis and slight fever that I’ve got from the short vacation. I think I’ve made the right decision going along with my 3 girlfriends for this journey (Fiza, Zahidah, and Yan). I enjoyed it on the first and second day, especially when we set foot in BROMO, Malang. It's a very cold place. The weather change is the main etiology of my acute rhinitis. Seriously it was the weather. On the 4th day, I started to feel a little bit lethargic. I keep thinking the bacterial toxin or viral toxin were using my glucose, and my ATP, that's why I felt weak. (again,psychology of a medical student..huhu)

First day

We set off for the railway station (Bandung) at 9 o’clock, to buy the 3.30pm tickets – the only time a train would go from Bandung to Malang. We were lucky to have four executive seats near to each other, considering we bought them at the last minute. We have much time left before departure, and we decided to go to Pasar Baru which was just behind the station. We ate Pak Che Met’s Ikan Bakar and Sotong Bakar, bought Pisang Keju for our friends in Malang, bought UNO cards to play in case we couldn’t sleep during the 17-hour-journey, and last but not least, bought Big BurgerSSS for our stomach.

In my previous post, I said the journey was 400km, but actually it was about 800km. This was my first time taking a train for a long journey. It wasn’t bad at all. I love it more than the airplane because I can turn the seat down until 85 degree..hehehe..


Second day


Okay,fast forward. We reached Malang at 8.10 in the morning. There is a supir (driver) waiting for us with an A4 paper written on it the word “ZAHIDAH”. Then, we went to the first two places in Kota Wisata Batu -Coban Rondo Waterfall and Agrowisata. We also went to some malls there, quite similar to malls in Bandung, so we ended up buying nothing. Some pictures on the first day:

Coban Rondo Waterfall

Can you see the rainbow?

Pink guava

Fiza and Yan

Then we met our friends who are studying there. They were our classmates during our 2-year-A-Level course back in KTT, Sepang. We stayed in their house for 2 days and 1 night. The house was located at Jalan Belakang Rumah Sakit Saiful Anwar (rings a bell?:p), the hospital where my friends work for their co-assistant year. We were quite unlucky because on that day, there was a big celebration of AREMA fans (Malang Football Club.. something like that) for their victory against Surabaya if I’m not mistaken. The road was totally jammed with the residents showing their supports to Malang Team. My friend managed to take some pictures of it, when we went out to have our dinner. We have to walk along the road to avoid the jam.

Third day

We took a short sleep before we have to get up at 12.30am to go to Bromo, to see the view of Sunrise. It takes about 2 hours to reach the place, and another 30 minutes to go to the viewpoint. One sweater was not enough for the temperature, so we rented another big sweater for the second layer.

Viewpoint :

At dawn

Bromo Mountain from the viewpoint

Bromo Mountain :

Sulfur

Malang is very popular with its Kerepek Buah. There are many types of Kerepek Buah we can find here. After going down from Bromo Mountain, my friends and I have a very limited time to buy these kerepek because we have to catch our train to Jogjakarta in 5 hours. We haven’t packed our things in our friends’ house. I only bought 4 types of kerepek ; Kerepek Epal, Kerepek Nenas, Kerepek Salak and Kerepek Nangka. I should have bought Kerepek Rambutan.

So that was our holiday in Malang. It is a very nice place to visit. To be honest, the environment is more comfortable and cleaner than in Bandung. The air is cleaner, no pollution. We kept wondering why the name Malang is not very well known by people outside Indonesia, like they know Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Medan and Jogjakarta. Coming next is the post for our visit to Jogjakarta, another popular visiting place in Indonesia. Remember Candi Borobudur, Jogjakarta? One of the questions in my Paper 2,Trial Examination for SPM (SBP) for History subject did ask about this Candi. I will update about it in a few days, InsyaAllah. (If the internet connection is OK).

p/s : Today is my mom's 49th birthday! and my sister's 18th birthday. And also my housemate, Fiza's birthday. Happy Birthday!!! :)