Dear explorers,

Malang is the name of the town as well as the region which is situated in the hearth of east Java land, this region like Banyuwangi  offers a variety of nature from volcanoes to plenty of waterfalls as well as hot-springs, most of them are not known by any foreign traveler  (I might have been the first brave guy getting there :-D).

Briefly, I summarize for you three key outdoor attractions which worth trip to this region:

1. Night-Morning hiking trip to Bromo National park
2. Waterfalls: Coban Putri , Coban Rais , Coban Talun and Coban Rondo
3. Cangar (Hot-springs).

I personally made the decision to start the challenge with the touristy night-morning hiking to Bromo volcano, here you have two choices to get there:

1. Rent a proper off-road motor-cycle
2. Book a basic package tour through your accommodation provider

I went for the second option since I just arrived in Malang exhausted after a not-sleeping night spent on the train I found no time to look straightaway for a motorbike. What I could recommend is that if you want to ride a motorbike to Bromo, get a motorbike with off-road tires and be with a travel companion; secondly, ride very carefully especially at night-time since you will get to ride through a steep and hilly narrow road, moreover you will be passing through a Savanna,  the scenery will look like a desert at your eyes, once you arrive at the top viewpoint it will be very tricky to park your motorbike because of thousands of visitor will be getting there!

Even Bromo is very popular, it is worthy to go for it and practice your photo-shooting skills!  Look at the pictures and a video below:

Bottom view of the Bromo crater

After the night-morning challenge at Bromo national park, I was back in Malang and I just hang around some noodles restaurant and cafeterias to chill-out and get ready for the next adventures.

The following day as a first thing I decided to rent a motorbike from a rental point which was recommended by a local CS guy Makki, here below you have the google-link:            https://g.co/kgs/iCHqQV

The name of the lady owner is Ibu Larasati  and her whatsapp contact is +62 822-4040-1929 , she was kind as well as funny, since I ran a bit late with the time she came to my accommodation to deliver the motorbike, she greeted me with a warm hand-shake and then asked me for a picture with her (as usual in Indonesia) to cunningly promote her local business whose the link is mentioned below:

(for more details just check out https://wuzz-rental-motor-malang.business.site/ )

The motorbike itself was a brand-new Yamaha Aerox 150cc which was comfortable and powerful powerful to deal with the hills.

When I was all set, I started off the waterfalls mission which I listed before, in my opinion the most challenging one was Coban Rais because the path was really wild with rocks and flowing water streams in-between, so because all of that, a good practice would be to hike through the path with bare feet as most of Indonesian people do otherwise if you are picky with the waterproof shoes then you will get water inside and the result for your feet will be a way worse! So if you are not picky like me, just go by bare feet 🙂

The second thing was that in here I was just the only European alien, all the others were either locals or few guys from Singapore, when I reached the bottom of the waterfalls to record the scenery, some members of a numerous family approached me for few group-photos, YES, still here the alien is a news for them!

Finally, I dedicated the last half-day to Coban Talun and the Cangar hot-springs, none of those places were touristically touched, apparently only Bromo attracts the burden of foreigners and locals from Jakarta who come there for the weekend only for that purpose. I am not going to drill down into many details on those attractions, just you need to experience it personally, however here below you can check out few pictures taken by my Sony alpha 6000 camera:

Ranger at work

Coban Telun

Cangar hot-springs

In conclusion, spending in Malang three and half days is the minimum you could stay, it would be worthy to spend there even five days because I hadn’t much time to check for some spots in the town of Malang suggested by Ibu Larasati such as Kampung Warna which is a kind of street artist.

A special thank to Ibu, Makki and Iik who assisted me as local advisers and I wish I will travel there back soon in the future!

Feel free to comment and/or just ask for informations!

Giuseppe