Joey Baeten from JoesFlow wrote a travelogue about his adventures climbing Mount Bromo and traveling through Lombok. Read this excerpt from his YouTube channel:
“My little brother and I started our Lombok trip in the south, the famous surfing spot Kuta. This very chilled area has some some nice beaches and it’s also a good place for exploring the several other stunning beaches on the south coast, such as Tanjung Aan, Seger Beach, Mawi and Selong Belanak. We loved driving around on a scooter in this beautiful region and enjoying the sun and ocean on these nice sandy beaches.
After relaxing at the beach we decided to travel more up north to Tetebatu. This beautiful green area just south of the Rinjani volcano is surrounded by hundreds of rice fields and is just stunning and very serene. The Indonesian locals who work on the rice fields were so friendly and we enjoyed connecting with them and exploring the region in general. There were pretty much no tourists in the Tetebatu area which added up to the whole experience.
Next we traveled further northeast to Sembalun village. My god, what a beautiful region! Sembalun is situated right from the Rinjani volcano and surrounded by lots of mountains. We hiked up Pergasingan hill which offers spectacular views around the whole area including the Rinjani. We would absolutely recommend going up Pergasingan hill if you like hiking but don’t feel like going all the way up Lombok’s Rinjani. It’s an intens but very doable hike and of course you have a much nicer view of the Rinjani from this place than when you are up on it itself. Flying my DJI Mavic drone around here was so much fun, stunning views of course. Sembalun surprised us in a very positive way!
Our next stop was Senaru, which is known from it’s beautiful waterfall area. The Tiu Kelep waterfall is absolutely breathtaking! In general the waterfall area is quite touristy. But my brother and I arrived at the Tiu Kelep waterfall at the end of the afternoon and after a couple of minutes we were there just by ourselves, which made the experience even better! Damn this waterfall is high and the water was so cold. But what a nice experience! On the east of Senaru we also found this amazingly shaped and huge rice field. I’ve never seen such an impressive rice field, just stunning!
After Senaru we traveled to Senggigi to relax a little bit on the beach and after two days we took the plane from Lombok to Java, Surabaya to be precise. From there we traveled by bus to the Bromo volcano. This volcano had been on my list for a while because I knew the area was impressive. But it definitely blew my mind. On the back of two motorcycles we got dropped at Cemoro Lawang. This is a small village on the edge of a dropdown to the volcano area. I think this is one of the most beautiful and interesting places I’ve seen so far. The village up the hill is so green but the region on the bottom of the dropdown looks like a different planet. Just amazing! It offers stunning views of the Bromo volcano and other mountains such as Batok and Kursi. We climbed up the Bromo which was absolutely spectacular. Flying the drone around here was just too good, I loved it.”
Watch Joey’s video below: