2009/05/08&09 - Ijen

  Ijen, Java, Indonesia
Friday, May 15, 2009

The next several hours were spent in transit.  We went back to Probolinggo, and then took a bus with the same company to Ijen.  The road for most of the journey was dire; the road was littered with pot holes for the parts that had tarmac, and those that didn't were even worse!  The hotel was very nice considering what  have stayed in so far in Indonesia, and came with something amazing that I'd not seen for days called "hot water", that ran from the shower! 
 
We arrived before sunset, so went for a walk to a very powerful waterfall and after that went to an outdoor bath that had hot water from a natural hot spring.  It was very hot, but bearable.  The next morning, we got up at 4:30am for yet another sunrise tour.  The breakfast was chocolate sprinkle sandwiches with a boiled egg.  Bread and egg has been common for free breakfasts in Asia, but chocolate sprinkles?
 
The minibus ride to Ijen was another bumpy ride, and we set off on a three kilometre walk up to the rim of the mountain.  Ijen is a volcanic crater that has filled part of the way up with water, and is a rich source of sulphur, with mines inside the crater, and many workers carry the cut sulphur down the mountain on their backs, up to eighty kilos, several times a day!  We walked down the crater to the water, "led" by a worker wanting to be our guide, despite us telling him we didn't want or need him, so didn't feel sorry for him when he begged for money he knew he wouldn't get at the end.  The water was quite warm but pleasant, but the air near the sulphur mines was not so nice, and can't be good for the long term health of the workers.
 
During the day, I practiced my Italian with a couple from Bergamo, which was a welcome experience for me as they were the first Italians I had met on my whole trip.  Northern Europeans have been very common, with Swedish, German, Dutch and French in plentiful supply, but southern Europeans have been sparse.