Malang

Malang needs 2 days: a pre-dawn departure to the Penanjakan viewpoint, to watch the sun rise over Mount Bromo and its volcanic ash "sea of sand," on one, and the Dutch colonial center and the colorful Kampung Warna-Warni tourist village, on the other. April-October brings the dry season, with better visibility for the Bromo sunrise. It's inexpensive. It's the usual base for visiting Bromo, one of the few active volcanoes in the world that can be circled on foot or horseback right up to the edge of its smoking crater, within a lunar landscape of volcanic sand that contrasts with the green tea plantations around it.