IJEN Crater Took My Breath Away

Saying goodbye is never easy, even with people we just met the day before. Bu Supri made us some early breakfast before we left at 4.30 AM. She arranged two motorcycle drivers to get us to the crater, it started the awkward moment when it comes to money. We didn't ask how much we should pay them since Bu Supri said they are her relatives (typical Indonesia manners, we don't talk bout money in order to be polite). At the end of the trip they tried to charge us a huge amount of money, we were a lil bit disappointed, but managed to bargain. We ended up paying a reasonable price tho, but still the disappointment are still there.

It's another freezing ride, long bumpy and tiring when the sun was still hiding, but right after it greeted us good morning, the world is never be such a nice place, fresh morning breeze with jaw dropping misty mountains view, the bumpy road cuts across dense forest, and a hidden waterfall completed our ride. We made several stops and got to Paltuding after 3 hours riding. We started to hike at 8 AM, and reached the summit the next two hours.

The early hike was boring, but when getting closer to the summit the view got better and lots of sulfur miners. Those sulfur miners were not the one I meant with better view, since it's pretty sad thing to see people carrying two big baskets of sulfur on their shoulder that weight from 70 kg to 100 Kg, climb up 200 meters to the crater rim and another kilometer down the mountain, twice a day. Knowing they got relatively low payment for doing such tough job, and exposed to noxious fumes, will irritate you. Knowing that there's nothing you can do to help it but only taking their pictures, will irritate you even more.

Like all pictures of Ijen you saw on travel magazines or your friend's Facebook albums, right after you take the last turn of those 3 km hike, it's like the crater playing peek-a-boo with you, the turquoise caldera will really drop your jaw and blow your mind the first second you see it. It pays off definitely!! We arrived there around 10 AM and not much tourists again, cos most of them hiked way earlier than us. Thick fumes covered the whole crater and we had to struggle to breath there, using wet cloth to cover our nose and mouth,but still it's hard to open your eyes. Just in seconds the whole crater was covered in fumes, but the next minutes the fumes were gone and the turquoise crater emerged again. That's the very moment you'll gasp with awe. It's officially and literally took my breath away.

Hitched to Sukosari - on the way to Ijen Crater

Our first night after landed at Surabaya was nice, Shanty's long time cyber friend -Jun picked us up at the airport, took us to grab some lips smacking pecel and dropped us at our host's place. We joined Surabaya Couchsurfing gathering that night at a very nice apartment that made Shanty urged to do number two there, she believes that by doing that, she'll have those kind of apartment too one day :D

We left Surabaya the next morning to catch bus to Ijen Crater. We've been told that first we need to take bus to Probolinggo (3 hours from Surabaya), then continue with another bus to Bondowoso (another 3 hours). Since we started at 9AM, apparently that's not early enough to catch minivan/Elf to Sempol (3 hours more before taking 1 hour Ojek/motorcycle taxi to Paltuding/hiking starting point), the last Elf is at 12PM and we arrived at Bondowoso at 3PM. We were in big dilemma, if we stay overnight at Bondowoso, means we're 4 hours more to get to Paltuding and we might be arrived there too late the next day. Early hike is mostly recommended!!

A nice old man gave us ride from Bondowoso bus terminal to a junction named Gardu Atak, we could have just take ojek ride directly to Paltuding at that time, but cos we're too stingy, we tried to hitchhike, and luckily a lady stopped and gave us ride to Sukosari, a village an hour from Bondowoso, we thought well that's not bad, we can try to catch another ride again to get closer to Paltuding, so we hopped on. After some talks, the lady ended up offering us to stay at her place since it's getting dark soon and it's not safe to travel those bumpy road at nighttime. How come you resist nice offering like that, right? It's one of the most touching feeling I ever felt once we arrived at her house. An old lady (the oldest you could ever imagine; humped back with whole gray hair and no teeth) haste toward us, to greet and shook our hands with big grin on her wrinkled face. I suddenly knew how it feels to be a president or celebrity, even they might never get this kind of greeting anyway. The warmest welcome I've ever got in my life :')

She happens to be our host, Bu Supri's maid, she only speaks Maduranese, and has super power, she could do the dishes in total darkness, I was about to help, before realized I could barely see anything, then I gave up :(

Patrick and Bu Supri's granddaughter
Bu Supri seems to be a respectable lady in those village, she has three huge houses next to each other, the first one is used to be her daughter in law's physician clinic (those clinic bed scared Shanty a lil bit and made her wondered how if we wake up the next morning with no kidney, or maybe even already dead mutilated, guess she watched too many thrillers). The rooms are in the first house, but we need to get to the second house for bathroom, and third house for kitchen. With three houses, they don't even have proper dining room, so we ate outside, but that's just even better cos the weather was just so fine, chill but not too cold, just perfect :) I'd always remember the chilli we had those night as one of the best I've ever got, it's literally only chillies grinded with salt. Or is it just because the tasty chicken we had, or...may be the nice windy afternoon, may be those warm hearted humans I'm eating with, may be...