Banyuwangi 2022 3/4 : Wonderful Ijen Crater and Baluran National Park

September 13, 2022

Banyuwangi 2022 3/4 : Wonderful Ijen Crater and Baluran National Park

"Trying to look at the bright side when you're feeling down. Even it's hard but there must be a light eventually."

lovely stroll around Sunrise Point, Ijen Crater

Day 3 - Sunday, August 14, 2022

We woke up around 10.30 PM and get ready to Ijen, I heard it would be so cold so I had 3 - 4 layers inside my jacket, there were 3 heattechs, 1 turtleneck shirt, 1 warm scarf and 1 warm gloves. I brought backpack, 2 bottles 600ml mineral water, chocolate and wafer, some medicines. I tried not to bring many stuffs inside my backpack. The driver pick us up on time at 00.00. From there we will go to another two hotels to pick up another 4 persons. Two from Jakarta and another two from Austria. From there to Paltuding (meeting point) will take around an hour.

Ijen Crater (Kawah Ijen)

Arrived at Paltuding and we have to wait at some Warung (stall), we will start to go up at 2AM. It's so cold at night, we still sleepy and we have to wait there. We had hot tea (Rp 5k) while waiting for the briefing, there are also toilet there. Before we go up, we had a briefing, they told us to back on this meeting point at 7.30 AM. Since my right feet got swollen, we ordered for the trolley taxi (ojek trolley - return trip) for Rp 800k/person, If you just want to rent to go up (Rp 600k) and go down (Rp 300k). Usually there are only 2 persons that will carry you but my trolley will need extra so 3 persons. It's a hard work and I felt guilty that they need to pull off the trolley up for me. They will give us a flashlight and gas mask.

It's 2 AM and start to go up, I saw so many foreigners there. I took around 2 - 3 hours to go up but if by trolley, it took around 1.5 - 2 hours. The track to go up was so insane, the elevation was like 30 degrees, too steep and it keeps going up, there was flat tracks but it's just so rare. Don't carry things too much on your bag. So glad I bought chocolate since I guess the one that needed wasn't me but people that pulled me up, so grateful for them. I asked a guy that work as trolley taxi, he said he works for 4 years already, there are 120 trolleys with 150 workers. The idea for this trolley came from French people. It's so dark and no light but since everyone bring their flashlight so it helps. It's so crowded on that night.

My trolley keep stopping for few times to get some rest before heading up again. There are two stops since Paltuding and there are toilets if you need (Rp 5k/person). It took around 2 hours until the top, we arrived around 4 AM. To see the blue fire you need to go down but the track was really difficult around 700 m down and to go to sunrise point you need to go up again but without trolley, approximately around 1km walk.

Waiting for 2 AM to start hiking to Ijen Crater

see the light? it's actually people who tried to reach the top

We prefer to go to Sunrise Point, it took me some time and put some effort to reach the sunrise point since my right ankle was quite hurt and couldn't walk for so long. We arrived around 4.30 AM so we just sat there and wait until the sunrise showed up. Anyway if you prefer to go down so see the blue fire, make sure you wear gas mask. The route was too difficult for me so I didn't go down and I didn't really wear my gas mask but normal mask instead. Ijen is known for its blue fire, acidic crater lake, and labour-intensive sulfur mining with elevation 2,769 m (source : Wikipedia). I can't imagine how the miner do the mining down there and need to bring those up. Before trolley exist, they need to bring down by themselves so they only can bring around 80kgs for one time. But since there is trolley, they could bring about up to 3 times more than usual.

Since too much cloudy we couldn't see sunrise so clearly and the smoke from sulfur at Ijen Crater also pretty thick that we couldn't see clearly but the view up there was splendid and spectacular. Everything around us was just so beautiful. We wandered around since it's just too beautiful to be missed. We spent quite some time up there and the guide told us to be back at Paltuding at 7.30 AM. We took some pictures there before going down again.

campfire that didn't last long but enough to keep us warm for a while

waiting for the sunrise but too cloudy

too smoggy on the crater

so lucky for those people who could see the crater clearly, that turquoise color would looks amazing!

look around and it's just so beautiful

lovely indeed

what a nice tree that you can find at Sunrise Point

such a beauty!

the smoke keeps coming

Apparently to go down and back to Paltuding, there would be only one person that will help us in trolley because it's just easier for them and they just depend on trolley break. The view is so wonderful and I felt glad that my wish list did come true.

To reach back to Paltuding took around 30 - 45 minutes, back to Paltuding and waiting for another. We had Pop Mie (Cup Noodle Rp 15k) at that Warung.

bye Ijen Crater!

look at that trolley on the right side

let's go down

it was dark when we go up, apparently the view looks like this

at the trolley, thank you for keeping me safe up and down :)

we made it! haha

Since we didn't hike that much we felt not too tired, going back to our hotel and have some rest there before checking out since we will stay at another different hotel. Apparently there was some changes on our itinerary since the travel agent said from Ijen Crater we can back to hotel to have breakfast, lunch before going to Baluran.

Back to Hotel, take shower and sleep for while, we had lunch again at Bale Saji restaurant and we had different menu. We had Nasi Lemak, Fish & Chips, Lumpia Udang, Honeydew Sago and another drink (Rp 145k).

so tired and hungry

Taman Nasional Baluran

The driver pick us up around 1 PM then heading to another hotel and pick up another two persons, the same one from Jakarta. There were only 4 persons to Baluran. It took around 1 - 1.5 hours to reach TN Baluran. From the gate, it will took around 15 km to Savana Bekol, they said it's Java's Africa. Since I went to Sumba so this place look similar. Along the way you can find some monkeys and deers.There were some spots to take picture there. Since it's still crowded so we decided to go to Bama Beach first and taking pictures before going home.

Arrived at Bama Beach and not spending time a lot there. It's too crowded and the beach was also not that nice, somehow when you've been to the wonderful beach then your expectation becomes different. From Bama beach we went back to some spots that we want to take some pictures. I think we only spend around an hour at Baluran, then we went back to city.

First stop at Bekol Savana

Bama Beach

not my favorite

Baluran National Park

For tonight, we stayed at Dialoog Hotel, a new hotel that most people will go to this hotel so we thought why don't we stay at this hotel during our last trip, just to relax and enjoy our time at Banyuwangi. We thought the day trip to Ijen - Baluran will finish during lunch time but since there were some changes so we had late check in. Unfortunately we couldn't stay longer.

Before we check in, we just looked around first, sitting by the pool, enjoying the view and had dinner on their cafe. We had chicken and egg sandwich, bebek songkem, onion rings, orange juice and another drink (Rp 387k), the taste was okay, worth the price and we were just too hungry. From there we checked in and went to our room, we stayed at Ocean View Room (Rp 1.7mio/night/room). I did swim at night, it's so relaxing, no one swim but me, it felt like private pool. It's just soothing my mind, swimming and looking at those stars, beautiful stars. I guess I was too tired on that day that I slept earlier on that night.