Ascent to Ijen Volcano. Java Island.
Continuation of Nikita's story about his trip to Indonesia.
"Ijen is a very popular tourist destination, that very volcano with blue lava, unique in its kind. Ijen is located on Java, which was my destination. I arrived on Java by ferry from Bali. The ferry took me to the city of Banyuwangi, from which it is closest to start the ascent to the volcano. Along the way, I met a Frenchman who also planned to visit Ijen, and we decided to team up.
In Banyuwangi, it turned out to be very difficult to find a moped. We found only one rental place, and by evening there were no mopeds left. But we were lucky - literally before our eyes, one of them was returned, and we immediately took it.
To see that very "blue lava" you need to be in the crater around 3 AM. For some reason, a myth is spread everywhere that the road to Ijen is very bad and can only be reached by an SUV. I suspect this is the work of local tour agents who rip off tourists and use this to justify the need to buy a tour from them.
We reached the road leading to the volcano. It's quite difficult to get lost, there are signs. The entrance to the road that leads directly to the start of the trek costs around 5000 rupiah. At first, we were driving completely alone and, I admit, were slightly nervous that we weren't meeting anyone at all. But then the fun began - since we were riding together on one moped, at some moments it lacked power. This, as I understood, is the whole "difficulty" of the road. In places, there are indeed steep ascents, where, by the way, even those same jeeps struggled to climb. But more on that later.
It all started when we stopped in the middle of an ascent, and I, bewildered, looked at Nathan, like: why did you stop in the middle of the climb? In response, he showed me that the throttle was twisted to the maximum. We laughed, and I got off and ran up the hill. I regretted it later. I had to run up several more hills. On some of them, we even had to push the moped uphill. All this happened before the eyes of tourists in jeeps, who appeared out of nowhere and were driving there in tons. It turned out we had managed to slip through before rush hour, but while we were struggling with our moped, they managed to catch up and overtake us. It all looked like an endless huge convoy. We, however, pushed the moped and laughed at the absurdity of the situation, but kept going. I can imagine how much those in the jeeps were laughing...
Upon reaching the parking lot, we were quite angry but also invigorated. The entrance ticket costs an exorbitant 100,000, but sneaking past, it seemed to me, was impossible. Because of all this, we went up with such speed that we overtook at least 100 people and were the first to descend into the crater. My trek took about 35-40 minutes, including the descent into the crater, but I was running in places. At a normal pace, it will take an hour to an hour and a half, depending on physical fitness.
You can descend into the Ijen crater absolutely calmly. Be prepared for a sharp and not very pleasant smell of sulfur. Oh, yes, I remembered another scam - various masks, facial gauze, and so on. For them, they might ask you for 20,000 to 100,000. This, of course, is at everyone's personal discretion, but, as it seemed to me, it's absolutely unnecessary. The smell there is not that disgusting, you can tolerate it. Yes, perhaps the air there is not very healthy, but it's not poisonous either. Nathan and I descended into the crater, and besides us and one worker, there was no one else there. And that was the best time.
I managed to take many photos and talk a little with a worker in a mix of English and Bahasa. Literally half an hour later, a crowd of tourists with all these "guides" rushed in. All in all, I had a good impression of Ijen, but you definitely need to get there before the crowd. I can't help but mention one more thing that might be disappointing. Indonesians really, really love to promote their attractions and often deliberately exaggerate. On the internet, you can see beautiful photos of blue flowing lava. In reality, this eruption happened more than 10 years ago, and the photos were taken then.
Now there are only a few places where you can see the blue flame of burning sulfur. But, again, I repeat, in my opinion, the place is worth visiting. As soon as it starts to get light, the color of the blue flame disappears, it's practically invisible. I also advise climbing to the edge of the crater and walking along the lake. In good weather, the views should be amazing."
We reached the road leading to the volcano. It's quite difficult to get lost, there are signs. The entrance to the road that leads directly to the start of the trek costs around 5000 rupiah. At first, we were driving completely alone and, I admit, were slightly nervous that we weren't meeting anyone at all. But then the fun began - since we were riding together on one moped, at some moments it lacked power. This, as I understood, is the whole "difficulty" of the road. In places, there are indeed steep ascents, where, by the way, even those same jeeps struggled to climb. But more on that later.
It all started when we stopped in the middle of an ascent, and I, bewildered, looked at Nathan, like: why did you stop in the middle of the climb? In response, he showed me that the throttle was twisted to the maximum. We laughed, and I got off and ran up the hill. I regretted it later. I had to run up several more hills. On some of them, we even had to push the moped uphill. All this happened before the eyes of tourists in jeeps, who appeared out of nowhere and were driving there in tons. It turned out we had managed to slip through before rush hour, but while we were struggling with our moped, they managed to catch up and overtake us. It all looked like an endless huge convoy. We, however, pushed the moped and laughed at the absurdity of the situation, but kept going. I can imagine how much those in the jeeps were laughing...
Upon reaching the parking lot, we were quite angry but also invigorated. The entrance ticket costs an exorbitant 100,000, but sneaking past, it seemed to me, was impossible. Because of all this, we went up with such speed that we overtook at least 100 people and were the first to descend into the crater. My trek took about 35-40 minutes, including the descent into the crater, but I was running in places. At a normal pace, it will take an hour to an hour and a half, depending on physical fitness.
You can descend into the Ijen crater absolutely calmly. Be prepared for a sharp and not very pleasant smell of sulfur. Oh, yes, I remembered another scam - various masks, facial gauze, and so on. For them, they might ask you for 20,000 to 100,000. This, of course, is at everyone's personal discretion, but, as it seemed to me, it's absolutely unnecessary. The smell there is not that disgusting, you can tolerate it. Yes, perhaps the air there is not very healthy, but it's not poisonous either. Nathan and I descended into the crater, and besides us and one worker, there was no one else there. And that was the best time.
I managed to take many photos and talk a little with a worker in a mix of English and Bahasa. Literally half an hour later, a crowd of tourists with all these "guides" rushed in. All in all, I had a good impression of Ijen, but you definitely need to get there before the crowd. I can't help but mention one more thing that might be disappointing. Indonesians really, really love to promote their attractions and often deliberately exaggerate. On the internet, you can see beautiful photos of blue flowing lava. In reality, this eruption happened more than 10 years ago, and the photos were taken then.
Now there are only a few places where you can see the blue flame of burning sulfur. But, again, I repeat, in my opinion, the place is worth visiting. As soon as it starts to get light, the color of the blue flame disappears, it's practically invisible. I also advise climbing to the edge of the crater and walking along the lake. In good weather, the views should be amazing."
