• Banquet Size - 25 tables
• Budget - $150 per head
• Type - Wedding Lunch
• Date - 18/11/18 (hopefully our geomancer agrees with it!)

There were a couple of hotels that we shortlisted but we decided to check out my favorite - Intercontinental Hotel as the first stop!

This was my first choice because of its clean look & although it exceeds the budget a wee bit, I felt that the price was pretty worth it. We attended the wedding showcase but sadly the perks given were not too attractive and the date we were tentatively looking at was booked already. Plus, we found out that the minimum tables here are now 30+ for a weekend lunch so that'll be out for us (for now)



They really have a lovely space for those keen though. They have a really pretty stairway (top which you have can use to take your wedding photos on the actual day. There's even a small area (bottom) beside the main banquet hall which you can use for your ROM!

Here are the different themes available:

I especially love their wedding cards' designs PLUS it will match your chosen theme!

Sadly, we think we do not have fate with this one here. After that, we headed over to Joyden Hall at Bugis + to check our their event space.

Caught a good deal from Singapore Airlines - Flight was $193.90 per person!

Wahid was our driver throughout the trip and he really provided us with really great service throughout! So we drove for about 4 hours in order to reach Batu Village, where we went up to Mount Banyak for Paragliding (Paralayang in their language)

The paragliding took a total of about 20 minutes (so you can take your time to enjoy the view) and was an additional cost on top of our package. 

Damage: IDR 400,000 / SGD 40 per person.

Yes, that tiny spec is me! And the view was pretty incredible!

It started raining heavily after our paragliding, so we decided to hide out at their local food stall. Food and drinks here is really cheap! IDR 10,000 is about SGD 1!

Pop Mie with Eggs!

Happy S with his Kopi

Anyway, after settling our lunch, we drove another 4 hours to reach the Bromo area. As we had to wake up at 3am for the hike, we decided to nap sleep earlier around 10pm that night. And yes, if you want to catch the sunrise at Mount Bromo, you have to wake that early.😅

Day 2 - Mount Bromo

So we had a jeep come to pick us up around 3.30am and the driver brought us to Penanjakan Peak to catch the sunrise overlooking Mount Bromo. Sadly, it was drizzling that day and the whole place was really cloudy (and foggy)

Actually, we had no idea which is Mount Bromo, but we're guessing this is it 😂

A photo of us with Mount Bromo (?) at the back!

A glimpse of the sunrise, covered with clouds and fog.

We then took the jeep over to Mount Bromo to climb walk up to the crater. The hike up took less than 45 minutes and the locals there even provide pony rides up for people whom are lazier or simply just want some photo op (haha) at IDR 50,000 (SGD 5).

For us, we decided to use our own two "cars" (legs in hokkien) to walk up as the ponies looked really tiny and we wanted to thoroughly explore the place and enjoy the hike & view. The Bromo crater was really pretty BUT I almost died of fright walking up the narrow path along the crater as it was crazy narrow and the drop down didn't look pretty 🙈

A quick stop right before Mount Bromo so that we could take pictures again  (we tipped the jeep driver pretty well because of this HAHA)

"Taxi" services with the ponies as shown on the left

Pretty pony resting along the mountain

S with the Teletubbies Mountain!

Just keep walking~

Got a wee bit tired from climbing up the long flight of stairs before reaching... The pretty crater at Mount Bromo!

The super narrow path

I didn't dare to climb all the way up in fear that I would slip and fall off the steep slopes

S on his GoPro Mavic

Another mountain checked off the list!

After the trip to Bromo, we had another 6 hours drive to reach Ijen. We took another nap till 12am and headed towards Mount Ijen! When we checked out of our timing, the owner (Albert) was evem kind enough to pack us breakfast at that timing to eat on the go!

Day 3 - Mount Ijen

The climb up to Mount Ijen was more manageable as compared to the other mountains, just be prepared to climb really steep slopes upwards! There is a mini "mama shop" halfway up and I would highly recommend for anyone to rent a gas mask at IDR 50,000 as the sulphur fumes can be overbearing at some parts of the climb.

We were also supposed to go down to enjoy the blue flame sulphur but an accident took place here 2 weeks back and they now prohibit visitors from going down (for May at least). Thus, the only thing we could do was to spot 2 pathetic blue flames from afar LOL.

Yes, the legendary blue flames, spotted from darn far away :(

Next, our guide brought us to another spot to view the sunrise. This time round, we were blessed with great skies and we managed to enjoy the pretty stars above while waiting for the sunrise! It started getting slightly cloudy when the sun was rising though, so we didn’t manage to see a nice sunrise (again).

Galaxy spotted!!!😍😍

Two Caucasians against the sunrise

We were then brought to view the pretty Ijen Lake which was coloured green from the chemical reaction from the sulphur. I must say that our mountain guide was extremely good for this hike – he took really great photos of us and always brought us to good spots so we could capture really pretty pictures with not many people around!

Our guide knows the best angles to take pictures!

Here's one with him! 👍

Spot the hint of sunrise behind!

Anyway, the hike back down was way easier as it was a perpetual down slopes and there was light so we got to enjoy the pretty view as well!

S with his GoPro Hero

Sulphur that they mine at Mount Ijen

YAS END OF HIKE!

And that was pretty much of hiking expedition to Surabaya! We then explored the town a bit for the night and we went to this mall called City of Tomorrow (Cito). We had dinner at A&W (can’t resist) and also massage (they call it reflexology there) at Rp 60,000 for 1 hour! Stunned at the cheap rates before that would mean that they’re earning like S$1 for every 10 minutes. We did some shopping at the supermarket there and headed back to our hotel - Premier Inn Surabaya Juanda (self-booked) to rest early for the flight home the next day!🛫

Heard they're bringing this back to Singapore!!!

Free breakfast at our hotel!

Thanks for reading (or skipping) to the end haha!

Costs: 

Flight (2 pax)

Tour Package (2 pax)

Entrance Fee (per pax)

Miscellaneous

GOOD DEALS AHEAD!!!

Suarabaya Package Promotion!

Kindly take note that it's slightly different from our itinerary as he will bring you to a waterfall instead of paragliding. If you'd like to go paragliding, just let him know and he will let you know the price difference accordingly!

Please feel free to contact me via Instagram (as I rarely check on the blog post's comments these days) if you'd like his contact details!