LOCATION:
If you are landing at Surabaya Juanda Airport, Pasuruan is considered the largest city that you can find before entering the national park of Bromo-Tengger-Semeru. It is located some 50 km southeast of Surabaya via Sidoarjo. Generally you can enjoy the sights of village living in Pasuruan when you are coming down from Tosari via Puspo, Pasrepan and Wonorejo.

DESCRIPTION:
My journey to Tosari passed through some exquisite laid-back Eastern Javanese villages in Kabupaten Pasuruan such as Purwodadi and Nongkojajar. Almost similar scenery could be enjoyed on the return trip from Tosari through Puspo, Pasrepan and Wonorejo.

Pasuruan main centre is actually located a few kilometres inland from Madura Straits. It was a rather busy seaport town back in the old days, during the Dutch administration. Naturally, the growth of other nearby seaport towns such Surabaya has taken some shine from this regency.

To me, Pasuruan does not particularly have much tourism objects (objek wisata) to talk about, but I somewhat enjoyed the view of rice fields that stretched far in the horizon, towering sugar cane farms, simple home design, and the way of life in general.

Here you can see people going about their daily undertakings. Somehow or rather, I felt that they show little worry about small little things in life, like what shirts to wear today or which cuisine to splurge at lunch. You can see people riding on bicycles with two full loads of fresh produce (I suppose), probably heading to the main town centre some miles away. Some of them seemed to be quite old that, where most of us from, having these elderly working their spine off is unthinkable.

I glanced upon the other way. The miles and miles of greenery that touched the horizon. Soon enough, the greenery will turn into a golden field of harvestable rice. The cycle will continue, the cycle of life, that is.

MY VERDICT:
Beautiful, laid back, exotic.