At 1 a.m. we leave with the van to the entrance point of the Park, the PHKA post in Pos Paltuding. It is cold and while waiting for our guide we have breakfast at a local post.
Our guide's name is Nini. We start, it is a path of about 3 kilometers to the observation post (about an hour), from here to the top of the crater is about half an hour.
Fumaroles
It is night, and once at the top we descend to the shore of Lake Kawah, another 30 minutes, where we begin to see workers carrying baskets with pieces of sulfur. The way down is quite steep and rocky and we only have the light from the fronts.
Dawns in Ijen
Sulfur
The miners work tirelessly day and night to extract the sulfur. We approach the fumaroles to see what they call "blue lava" which is the gas that is ignited in contact with the outside. The smell is overwhelming. The miners take out the solid sulfur and fill the baskets, they also collect liquid sulfur and pour it into small molds that when it solidifies sell it as a souvenir.
Ijen
Dawn, we're speechless, it's amazing. The contrast between the yellow colour of the sulphur and the turquoise lake, the white rocks, is as if you were on another planet.
Ijen
Thanks to our guide we approach a stall where we are told by two miners who live all year round, we exchange cigarettes with them and they give us a sulphur turtle as a present. They say that by drinking milk they don't get sick of the lungs. Anyway, if it helps them to think that... These people's lives are very hard. Our guide is also a miner but he is lucky enough to be able to go home from the mine.
Sulfur carrier
Ijen
The return is also spectacular, the crater, the jungle... Absolutely essential.
Ijen surroundings
Ijen surroundings
We arrive at the door of the park and say goodbye to Nini and give her a good tip. We take the van and on the way to Ketapang to catch the ferry we stop to see the coffee plantations.
In Ketapang we take the ferry, in less than an hour we arrive at the island of Bali. It is a slow boat but the journey is short.
Ketapang
We get off the boat and the madness begins, we ask a taxi driver to get to Ubud and he asks us for 650.000 IDR, it seems very expensive and they tell us that the public bus is full. In the end we take another bus for 35,000 IDR per pax that takes us to Denpasar, the capital of Bali. The traffic is a bit chaotic but we start to see the differences with Java.
When we arrive to Denpasar we take a taxi to Ubud. We see a pair of lodgings and we remain in the Sania's. It has a swimming pool and a wonderful patio.
The day has been very long though it has been worthwhile.
Accommodation: Sania's House 500.000 IDR double room with bathroom and breakfast.
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