Most visitors race through East Java en route for the beaches of Bali, pausing briefly at Mount Bromo. It’s definitely worth staying a little longer, although exploring from Surabaya has been made harder by the ‘Lapindo mudflow’, with millions of litres of hot, acrid mud spewing from a fault in the Earth’s crust. It started in May 2006 and shows no sign of stopping. The motorway south of Surabaya has been destroyed, and people are starting to use Malang airport as a hub to reach places to the south and east of Surabaya. Take advantage of the experience to see the mudflow - an astonishing sight of flat, grey, glooping mud stretching into the distance. By doing so, you put a little money into the hands of people who've lost their homes, jobs and sometimes their health to the mud.
Even Surabaya, the hot and noisy capital of East Java, is worth a visit: a friend of mine is working with the city administration to keep the older parts of the city tidy and preserve some of the historic buildings. There are some fine Neo-classical, Art Deco, Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau buildings – the Post Office and the House of Sampoerna are particularly remarkable. Surabaya Zoo has a good collection of Indonesian fauna, particularly birds. Look for the beautiful white Bali starling (Leucopsar rothschildi), one of the world’s rarest birds, which breeds easily in captivity but is almost extinct in the wild.
Malang is pleasantly cooler than Surabaya, again with some fine colonial-era buildings, and some good shopping. Nearby are the massive guardian statues of Candi Singosari.
Malang also offers an alternative entry point to the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. It's a two-hour drive to Ngadas, a tiny traditional hill village, and then a half-day walk from there to Mt Bromo or to Ranu Pani. Ranu Pani is the base for treks up Mt Semeru, Java’s highest peak (3676m). There is excellent trekking all around the hills and valleys here – but stick to the paths or take a guide, because it’s easy to lose your way. I lived up in the Bromo area for six months a few years ago when I was doing some research, and never got tired of the hiking, the views and the proud, reticent hill-people.
Between Surabaya and Malang, Kaliandra (near Prigen and Tretes) is an excellent base for exploring the mountains and cultural sites of East Java. Kaliandra is a beautiful, 21-hectare complex at 800m above sea-level, where you could simply spend days. There’s loads of things to do, with everything from swimming and a high-ropes course to learning the gamelan to massages. There are walking tours to local villages and fantastic accommodation, and best of all, you can feel really good about it all because your tourist dollars (or euros, or yen) are helping to employ local people – and the profits go into Kaliandra’s social and environmental programmes.
A day-trip away is Candi Penataran, East Java’s biggest temple complex, with some good temple reliefs. Near Kaliandra is the Cisarua Safari Park, worth a visit to see animals from Indonesia and elsewhere (including elephants and tigers) roaming in relative freedom. Take the mountain road via Kediri towards Blitar for fantastic scenery and stop in Blitar for a typical, unpretentious Javanese town.
Rightly one of Indonesia’s great draws, Mt Bromo is best at dawn in the dry season, when it becomes a place where dreams catch fire. The volcano lies marooned with its extinct neighbour Batok in a sea of ash and lava, the Sand Sea, within the caldera of the huge, ancient Tengger volcano. It is an eerie place, especially at night as you cross the Sand Sea to the 250 steep steps leading to the crater lip. As the sun rises over the lava fields, illuminating massive Mt Semeru in the distance, silence falls and the power and beauty of nature strike home. To avoid the crowds but still see spectacular views, visit the crater just after sunrise when everyone else has left.