Photo Friday: My white horse at Mt Bromo

For 100,000 rupiah one way the horse was quite a luxury for the locals. 
It was my very first time on a horse and the experience was amazing, riding the horse (comes with the guide to lead the way) through the ash sand plains, to Bromo.

Photo taken by Seth Weisel.

Photo Friday: This photo won my first travel photo competition prize!

 ‘Brave Man and Smoking Volcano’ is one of the 10 winning photographs in the photo competition ‘Let’s Take Flight 2013’, organized by Insight guides together with APA Publications, Fujifilm and National Library Board Singapore.

 


In April it was one of the happiest moments in my life (really!) when one of my photos won a travel photo competition. I had just taken this photo in February, 2 months before and only having a year or so into analogue photography, I was taken by surprise when it was selected, one of the 10 out of 300 over entries.

To me this is an interesting journey about learning about photography. I asked many people about the photos they liked and many chose those that I would not have selected myself - photos they said had an atmosphere, a feeling of something magical, a sense of mystery. Personally I like them, I like the gradient of colors captured and I try to take 'clean' photos, making almost the whole area just in one or two colors, not too busy photos. But I also like to take postcard pretty photos that look like it could be an advertisement for a place, and also the quite kitsch photos that make people go 'awww'.

In this selection, a friend who is also an avid traveller and photographer, and another who has a facebook page of travel photographers' selections (nomadasia) helped me to make the choice. I wouldn't otherwise have submitted this photo, in fact.

Also, on some journeys I  had never thought to go - I have never heard of the place, Mount Bromo, until the month before the trip where my well-read friends told me about it, and were so big-hearted that they didn't mind me tagging along. Liking to explore slowly as well, they left me with enough time in one place to be able to take my time to capture interesting shots. One of my facebook friends recently went to Mount Bromo and he said he went there based on the photos I took of the place, he had never heard of the place prior to seeing them on facebook! To me, that is really an accomplishment in my travel journey, to inspire others to make their own travel adventures!

Originally, I had intended to take photos just as a hobby, to sidetrack me from dwelling too deep in the intensity of my dark moods, and also, they serve as an accompaniment to my writings - I felt that travel writings are boring without photos. So it is strange to me still that my photos are well-received.  It has been just a year when I started with my Hong Kong trip. In Singapore, I photographed all the old buildings and alley cats, scenes of my daily life. I hope to share these memories with a loved one someday. =)

Mount Bromo

This is day 1 of the trip where I went along with 2 travelers to Mount Bromo, Ijen Crater and Sukamade Beach. I also stayed with a Couchsurfing host for one night in Surabaya city.

I remember as a young child I was once plucked off the ground and positioned onto a super large, big-footed, Australian farmhorse. I was terrified and begged to be put down. The horse's head seemed massive, able to swallow a small little girl. So with some trepidation I went to the horse-riding activity where we could rent a horse for 100,000 rupiah one-way and ride in style through the gray volcanic ash ground to the top of the volcano known as Mount Tengger next to Mount Bromo.

I saw a white horse....aaaaaaaahhh... and my guide asked if I wanted a white one (instead of a brown one), perhaps intuitively he could sense that suddenly it became my lifelong wish to ride on a white horse. Perhaps the photos I saw of wild Camargue horses, white or silvery gray, lowering their slender heads provocatively and looking shyly through long fluttering eyelashes; looking like mythical creatures from Elvenland, perhaps these images had something to do with my sudden desire.

And the horses available on the ash plains were semi-petite, they were natives of Lombok; and later, as I was told, mixed with the Australasian breed to produce the horses common in Java. Minutes into the ride, I was no longer clutching the reins nervously, I just let my body trot happily along with the horse, it is akin to sitting on a roller coaster and telling your body: I am a sack of potatoes. I am a sack of potatoes. I am my own knight in shining armor on a white horse.


Snapshots:

Sunrise scene, we had to be there at 4:30am to wait for the sunrise. Behind Mount Bromo is Mount Semeru, also an active volcano, the highest volcano on Java.

It was nice to walk around the surrounding, mostly made up of a farming village where you can spot picture perfect scenes like this. 

How the locals traveled - about 10 people crammed into the back of a 4WD.

So we each took a horse and made our way through the ash plains. The other option was walking, or on trail motorbike.

 

 The ash sands gave the place a dusty, end of the world feel. We were advised to wear surgical masks to protect our orifices, as in Ijen, but I wasn't really affected by the ash.
 
 A simple way to ascend the peak was to walk 245 steps to reach the rim crater. Or you could walk beside the steps, I saw some hikers doing that. The place was filled with local tourists being a weekend and a national holiday.

I grew less shy of asking total strangers to take my photo and getting quizzical looks holding my toy-looking camera. Here, he did a good job.


 
 It was super steep and one wrong step could send you tumbling, tumbling over. He was the only one who wandered that far, and actually he did that because he spotted a lone shoe.

On the far right side of the range the tourists tapered off and so did the handrail. If you are sure-footed, you can walk all the way to the top on the right, but I am a handrail holding traveler, so this was as far as I got.
 

 Local tourists who whipped out their cameraphones and asked politely and shyly for a photo with me. This is me doing the same to them!

 A Hindu temple behind, its purpose to worship the Bromo Volcano God.

 Back from the journey and into the 4WD back to the resort for a much needed brekkie!

 

 I want to hug that horse. Mount Bromo in the background.

Notes:
We stayed for a night in a really clean and comfortable resort Bromo Permai 1. I cannot emphasize enough how amazingly pristine I found it. It also came with a hot water shower and sleep inducing sheets.

I wished I had more time to wander around the Cemara Lawang village, complete with tall skinny pines, fields of lettuce, and men selling hand knitted beanies.

In the early morning a 4WD took us to the Pernanjakan Peak where we had to ascend in near total darkness to a platform to view the sunrise from the eastern range of Mount Tenger. If you are more sporty/antisocial, the route leads upwards to a steeper climb where you can literally sit atop the crowd.

The hardworking women of the village set up makeshift stalls with an amazing wide selection of hot drinks. They had to wake possibly at 2 am and lug all the items up to the area. I especially loved drinking the hot Milo with water heated on a kettle on burning charcoals, and eating the fried banana, watching the local tourists, having my own quiet moments in the midst of the movement.



NB:
Special thanks to Meilinda P who put me up for the first night in Surabaya.


 Photos are taken with an analog camera Superheadz (also known as Vivitar Ultra wide & slim). Film used:35mm Lomography Color 400. Processed by Shalom Colorlab.

Next destination: Mount Bromo, in 3 days.

  Mount Bromo HD Timelapse from Justin Ng Photo on Vimeo.


A destination I've never planned on going, because until up till a month ago, I have never even heard of this place.

So I'm heading to an active volcano near Surabaya, Indonesia, known as Mount Bromo, as well as the Ijen Crater and a beach on a trip that already sounds too much for me. I'm not really a mountain person, so I really worry if my fitness level will make it. I really wish that I have a muscular lover who can carry me halfway through the journey.

Went to Pulau Ubin for a 7km walk over the weekend for some 'training' and saw a hornbill. A local hornbill. A Singaporean hornbill! Wow. I have never seen a hornbill before! Was tickled when my hiking companion, Dad, thought it was a wooden hornbill statue, hung by our NParks authority and started to say 'Wah, a wooden hornbiiii...' when it suddenly flew, caught a fat worm, pounded it onto the tree trunk till it died, and chomped on the wriggling thing, oblivious to us humans.

I've watched this amazing video and became much more excited about my trip. It's nice to have facebook friends whom you barely know who can change your perception by a video link on your status.

Here's the site link: http://vimeo.com/44543156