Trekking in East Java: Kawah Ijen

Crater rim of Kawah Ijen

Dates of Travel: 

03-04 April 2015

Itinerary: 

02 April - Surabaya to Mt. Bromo

03 April - Climb Mt. Bromo & travel to Kawah Ijen

04 April - Climb Kawah Ijen & travel to Bali

05 April - Bali

06 April - Bali

07 April - Bali to Singapore

Rough estimate for the entire trip:

Not inclusive of food and shopping

--------------------------------------

I would also like to give a shout-out to my friend, Kenneth, for taking and providing me with wonderful shots during our trip! All those photos you see that are done professional and waaaaay above average shots were beautifully taken by him. Please do go to his Instagram or website and check out his photos!

--------------------------------------

Taking advantage of the Good Friday/Easter Sunday long weekend, my friends and I headed to East Java for a mini hiking expedition. Considering that among us, two of the guys in our group has been to Mount Everest base camp, Mt. Rinjani, African mountains, etc. This is nothing but child's play to them. Of course you need some level of fitness or you'll be left huffing and puffing behind.

I booked the tour from Singapore and for Rp1,080,625 (Approx. S$112) per person, the entire tour includes the transfer from Surabaya Airport - Mt. Bromo - Kawah Ijen - Ferry across Java Strait - Villa in Bali. It also includes a guide to bring us up and down both volcanoes, jeep for Mt. Bromo and water for each day.

I booked with the agency, Wisata Alam Tours and had to pay a deposit of 20% to secure the tour. That is understandable, however the tour agency insisted that I had to pay the 4.5% handling fee charged by Paypal. Although it was not a lot, the agency inflated the exchange rate to quite a ridiculous amount. After clarifying, the agency relented and gave me a proper and acceptable exchange rate.

Things that were NOT included were: entrance tickets for both volcanoes, lunch & dinner during the trip, horse riding at Mt. Bromo & accommodation.

As for lodging, I booked all accommodations on my own as the price quoted by the agency was rather ridiculous. We stayed at Cafe Lava Hostel at Mt. Bromo & Arabica Homestay at Kawah Ijen.

If you're interested to hike up Mt. Bromo or Kawah Ijen, you can contact my guide, Miko, directly. He will be able to arrange something similar but at a lower cost. He is also a fabulous guide with a wealth of knowledge and even helped me massage my leg when I missed a footing and twisted my ankle.
Tel: +62 81336162411
Email: javatourholidays@gmail.com
Website: http://javatourholidays.blogspot.com

--------------------------------------

Arabica Homestay

Arabica Homestay

Tel: +62 85259595955

Website: http://agroijen.com/reservasi_jampit/index.php

Email: agro@agro-ptpn12.com

Room Type: Robusta Room
Room Rate: Rp 175,000

We arrived at Ijen base camp around 4-5pm. I believe most of the hotels/homestays are on private property thus, you would need to register at the several guard posts before heading to the hostel.

At the first guardhouse taking photos!

Arabica Homestay is situated on beautiful grounds with lots of gardens and open space. There's even a basketball court at the back yard. The surrounding areas are Arabica coffee bean plantations, so you will get to try some of the coffee at the canteen area. Because Arabica Homestay is situated on the top of the cliff, you'd get a nice view of Kawah Ijen and the surrounding mountains and volcanoes. If you look down, you'd see houses of similar shapes, sizes and colours in a village like area. Those are actually built by the government for the workers and their families who tend to the plantations. There were plenty of photo-worthy backdrops for us to actually have a mini photo shoot, but sun was setting and we just didn't have enough time.

Kawah Ijen Village

The experience with Arabica Homestay, however, was not as pleasant or beautiful as the surrounding gardens though. After settling in and showering (thankfully the water heater worked this time), we went to the canteen for dinner as the nearest food stalls were about 1km away. Initially, there were a plethora of people (and stray cats) and no table for my group of seven. We went back to our room and discussed our finances while killing time. About 30 mins later, some of us went back to the canteen and managed to secure a table. The lady inquired if we wanted dinner and we said "Yes". She informed us that there was no Ala Carte menu and only buffet dinner which will cost us Rp60,000 each. Buffet dinner consisted of steamed rice, maggi goreng, fried eggs, fried chicken, vegetable soup and strawberry juice.

Of course, there was nothing in the buffet trays. There was a group of 10 who wiped out everything before we could even get up from our table. Miko, being the kind guide he is, told the lady at reception to refill the buffet trays as we're all hungry and waiting to have more food. She promised him that she will prepare a separate tray for us and deliver it to our table.

It was a joke, I tell you.

We waited for about 20-30 mins more before the guys decided to walk out to the food stalls about 1km away in search for food. 15 mins later, the food was brought out, but not to our table, but replenished at the buffet trays. By then, there was another group of hungry Indians who were waiting too. Imagine 15 hungry people and the food wasn't even enough! The guys and I communicated via walkie-talkies while the other two girls & K grabbed food for all of us. It was a sight I will never forget! It was so hilarious to see three people, determined on piling the food high on plates, in the hopes it will feed enough for seven hungry monkeys. It was a good thing the food came out though... The food stalls were all closed as it was already 7.30pm, almost 8pm!

Once the guys returned, we feasted like we haven't eaten in 10 days. Total silence at the table, save for the mewing of the 20-odd stray cats, hoping to get some of our discarded scraps of food.

That wasn't the end of the ordeal though.

As we were leaving to retire back to our rooms, we decided to pay for the remainder of the room charges so check out at 1.30am would be a breeze. I paid 50% when I was still in Singapore, with the assistance of my Indonesian friend. They obviously had no record of that. Luckily, I had downloaded all my emails prior to my trip and managed to pull out the confirmation of the transfer. If you have not downloaded your emails yet, fret not! You can try to connect to their intermittent Wifi and try again.

After about 5 mins of scrolling up and down my email, the lady at reception finally agreed that I have indeed paid 50% deposit before my arrival. She wrote a receipt of Rp700,000 for four rooms and after subtracting Rp300,000 deposit, I had a balance of Rp400,000! Now, this was when I got rather agitated.

As per the very "sweet" lady at reception, they've increased their price for Robosta Rooms from Rp150,000 to Rp175,000. Now, this isn't a lot per say if you divide it out among all seven of us, but I found it absolutely ridiculous that they didn't adhere to the rates quoted to me nor even bother to inform me of the increased rates prior to my arrival. The lady even said that she tried calling me that morning to inform me of the price increase but I didn't pick up. Do you smell that smelly smell?

She then proceeded to show me a brochure that "states" the price increase. P eventually scanned through and questioned her back, where was the increase as it still states Rp150,000 per room. After she scanned through two, three copies of brochures and cheekily telling us that it was not updated, she finally found one which stated Rp175,000. Do you smell that smelly smell?

G just told us to stop arguing with her and just pay the extra Rp100,000. There was nothing we could do and in a place like that, they will never relent. We were after all in a foreign land and far from home.

The next morning, Miko said that he got the hostel to prepare breakfast for us since we were checking out at 1.30am. The packed breakfast consisted of two slices of bread, small packet of butter, small packet of funky chocolate rice sprinkles and a hard boiled egg. Well, the packer wasn't very consistent as out of the seven of us, we only had 3 eggs and 5 packets of butter. G was the unluckiest as he didn't get both the egg and butter.

Just a note of advice: Try to pay all your hostel fees in cash on the day of check in if possible. When I booked Arabica Homestay, the confirmation page on the website states that I have to pay 50% deposit to secure my booking. In my email correspondence however, they never asked for it until I mentioned it to them in my emails. To prevent any hassle of rejected transfers, etc and mis-communication on their end, just request to have everything paid in cash on the day of check in.

The rooms, although larger than Cafe Lava, it was less homely and less cozy. The floors were dusty & there were flies and mosquitoes flying around. Cafe Lava may be a cheaper hostel, but they maintained it well! The only plus point for Arabica was that it was ensuite with an attached bathroom.

Kawah Ijen

Elevation: 2,799 m
Last eruption: 1999
Temperature: Base till midpoint about 18-15 Degree Celsius; Peak is about 10-12 Degree Celsius. It will get warmer once the sun rises up.
What to bring: Headlamp, walking stick, proper shoes (I had hiking shoes, but my friends did OK with running shoes, though it was slippery for them), lots of water, jackets (I layered heatec for both top and bottom, dry-fit shirt, sweater and windbreaker), gloves (not necessary, but I was glad I had it as it served as a protection for my hands when I was grappling the rocks), a scarf/mask for the sulphur fumes.

Looking fresh before our hike!

Kawah Ijen was definitely tougher than Mt. Bromo. The entire hike was about 3km, a relatively easy distance on level ground, but you have to gain about 530m in altitute also! The first KM was an OK slope where we took a break once only. The third KM was relatively level and an easy hike up.

About halfway through and enjoying the full moon!

So, you can imagine how steep the second KM must have been! We took a water break every 200-300m and I was huffing and puffing all the way up! The sulphur smell was rather strong at some parts of the second KM and ash dust were flying all around me. Imagine what my sensitive (sinus-loving) nose and lungs must have felt! My chest was burning and I was panting like crazy! It also shows how unfit I am.

Mine workers weighing their haul for the day!

There's also a weighing house 3/4 of the way up where all of us had coffee and Pop Mie (Rp10,000!). It's basically a wooden hut run by an elderly gentleman serving coffee, tea, cup noodles, biscuits and some candy. During the day, sulphur mine workers will come to this hut to have their baskets weighed. Their load usually weights approximately 60kg!

Blurred version of blue flames

Proper photo of the blue flames found on Google

Once at the peak, Miko guided us to a spot along the crater rim to view the blue flames! That was what we woke up at 1.30am for! However, we took one too many breaks and too long a time at the weighing house eating Pop Mie, so we were not able to head down to view the blue flames up close before the sun rises!

many people trying to get a glimpse of blue flames

Once the sun had risen, you can just see the number of people camping at the fence trying to get a view of the blue flames! Because we were not sitting/standing on level ground, I was glad I had my gloves with me as I was able to get down on all fours and get a good grip on the rocks.

rest of the people at the crater peak trying to catch the sun rise

Onward we climbed after sunrise hoping to get a better view of the crater and the sulphuric lake!

Climbing up to the peak

What ever torture I put my lungs and muscles through the 3km hike up to the crater rim was worth it. As the sun rose, the fog and sulphur smoke cleared and revealed the emerald lake. Miko says the lake is so acidic and hot (it sometimes bubbles) that nothing can live inside.

Sitting just at the crater edge!

Beautiful lake & sky!

We spent as long as our hike taking photos and taking in the view!

We just had to do a mandatory yoga pose

We made it!

Of course, on our way down, we just had to have more Pop Mie!!

we love Pop Mie!

Heading down the volcano was just as challenging. Although it was easy on my lungs, it wasn't so for my knees and ankle. It was so steep, it was hard on my joints. Also, you have to watch where you're going or else being the klutz like me, you'll tend to miss your step in a port hole and twist your ankle! Thankfully, Miko was there to massage it and I could walk after resting for 10-15 mins. Luckily it wasn't too serious, though there was a bruise and a slight swell on the side.

---------------------------------

Check out my other post on Mount Bromo!
Or what we did & where stayed in Bali!