Refreshing Air Terjun Coban Pelangi Waterfall
Wonder if we can swim at the waterfall…
Maybe?
Mount Bromo Sunrise Tour | Part 5 tl;dr
- $15,000 IDR (~$1 USD) Entrance Fee
- Nice 500 Step Hike to the Waterfall
- There’s a Village You Could Visit
Every story comes to an end. Win or lose, you have to come back from living the dream. In our case, we came back to tell you the story of Mount Bromo.
adventure | verb
An undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks ~ Merriam Webster
After everything is said and done, after success or failure, we have to come back from the adventure and so do you.
Where Is It
About 20 miles east of Malang, and about an 1 hour of hard driving later, you will find a trail that is nearly as slow going as the 14 mile road from Mount Bromo. At Mount Bromo you’ll find fiery internal energy at work, instead you’ll find nothing but lush growth and waterfall refreshment.
You’re not done yet! After parking and hopping out, you still have to “walk” all the way down to the waterfall itself. Honestly, it’s not that far, but I’d be lying if I said:
- My bag didn’t get heavier with every step
- The air didn’t feel like it was getting more humid with every passing second
- And that I was confident in where we were going
Somewhere at the end, you’ll find a wooden bridge to cross and rock steps to climb up. If it’s been over an hour of walking and you never see these then you somehow were not meant to get to the waterfall and should return post haste.
What to Do
Not much to this stopover. You pay the small entrance fee and blindly walk down the winding path hoping it leads you to where you want to go. It will, just stay on the main path. There are a few forks that lead down to smaller paths or to the “village”.
- Hike around
- Don’t get bit from insects
- Possibly get wet
- Get lost
- Take pictures (?)
If I had more time, I would have considered dangerously going down to the waterside at the base of the waterfall; mind you, NOT actually getting into the water at the base of the waterfall. Judging from the speed and height and volume of water coming down I wholeheartedly believe it would be potentially lethal.
And just like that, you’re done with the waterfall, and like Mount Bromo, have to make your way back the way back… to your car.
I Don’t Know
There you have it, the Air Terjun Coban Pelangi Waterfall experience. We made it all the way down to the waterfall and back, surviving the descent and ascent to tell the story. And I’m not sure if I liked it…
I get that we have to come back up, otherwise I’d have to be really comfortable living in the jungle. Full disclosure is that I’m a cityboy and am fairly like modern everything.
In this particular case I know that any more modernization of this trail would ruin the experience, BUT the only thing that I ask that would have made it all that more enjoyable (perhaps from growing up in an era of knowing all the information I need at any given time) would be a map evenly spaced out or some signs indicating that you’re going the right way. It would have put my worried my mind to ease…
