Sore in Surabaya IV: Incredible Ijen

At midnight, Pak Sulaiman drove us out to Paltuding, which is the nearest stop to the Ijen crater. For 2 hours he navigated pitch dark roads, while we dozed in and out of sleep at the backseat. Unlike Bromo, there isn't much decent infrastructure in the vicinity of Ijen, hence tourists have to stay at Bondowoso.  Everyone would wait at the many waroengs near the carpark, sipping thick local coffee. Met up with our local guide who gave us a couple of 3M respirator masks, and headlamps for our impending trek into the sulphur fumes of Ijen. The hike up was 4KM over a tarred road. Our guide knew every bend of the road, and would update us about how easy or difficult the upcoming stretch was. Such intimate knowledge was picked up from his decades of mining sulphur in Ijen. His shoulders are scarred from carrying 70kg baskets of sulphur in and out of the crater daily. If your legs fail you, you cam pay to use modified carts (the locals call it 'medicine for the knees') that takes 2 persons to operate. One will push, and one will pull. Although KH and I had sore legs, we pushed on. 

The main reason we started at midnight was to catch Ijen's famous 'Blue Fire', which are actually ghostly blue flames from the sulphur gas. Once it gets bright, it would not be possible to see. Two hours later, we well on our way down the crater like a couple of mountain goats. The trail is rocky and treacherous, and the air smells of rotten eggs. Tourists flock down while miners trek up with their baskets of 'Devil's Gold'. The trek down is taxing especially when one's knees are already weak. We spied the trio from the Bromo, and the guy practically had to sit down every now, although he had a couple of Nordic walking sticks. 

At the bottom of the crater, we crowded around the edge of an acid lake. Sometimes, fumes of thick sulphur would blow into the crowd throwing us into coughing fits. The miners seem unfazed by dangerous environment. Pipes bring out hot smoke from the volcano, and when the hot sulphur gas comes in contact with the cool air, it liquifies and eventually solidifies into sulphur blocks. Miners stand in the acid lake, chipping off blocks with long metal bars. Our guide took our phones and hopped over to where the miners were to take photos of the blue flames that were seen riding up the pipes. My phone didn't perform well in that low light environment coupled with the thick fumes. 

Once the sun rose, we could finally take a good look at the crater which was very barren and rocky. Headed back up to rim of the crater to give our lungs some respite from the acidic air. At the top, the view was a combination of breathtaking mountain ranges, blue-green acid lake, mysterious sulphur fumes, and gnarled trees. The trees were perfect for photos, and provided excellent cover for us to pee! Beat having to do it in all the fumes. Made our way down the volcano. Really quite taxing on the knees. At some point, we actually walked backwards to reduce the strain. 

Ijen was the last adventurous activity on our tour itinerary, so it was time to head back to Surabaya. The night before Pak Sulaiman fell ill, so he got his uncle to take the wheel. Lunch was at Ayam Bakar Bawangan at Tamansari. Nice meal of local grilled chicken with sambal. While eating, I realized that my silver ring had oxidised overnight from all that sulphur. Even our clothes stunk of it. After all that ordeal in the mountains, we finally could relax. KH booked us for a night at Hotel Majapahit, Surabaya's Majestic Hotel, but much better in my opinion. It had retained most of its heritage and colonial charm.      

The first thing that KH did was nap! An hour later, we headed out to Jalan Tunjungan to take a look at the Java Coffee Culture festival that was going on. Grabbed a coffee there from one of the kiosks and took a quick look around. In the evening, we headed to Gereja Katolik Kelahiran Santa Perawan Maria for evening mass. As promised, KH attended mass with me whenever we travel together. The original church was built in 1900 by Dutch priests, but was later rebuilt after being damaged during unrest from the revolution. Noticed that the Stations of the Cross in the church are in Dutch.    

Asked the Grab to drop us at Plaza Tunjungan 3 for dinner. Simple dinner of soto ayam and gado-gado at the food court. Nothing interesting in the mall really. Just grabbed an ice coffee at Kopi Kenangan and headed back to the hotel.