Trip to Banyuwangi - Ijen Crater

The next day, we woke up real early. The frigging cold bath didn’t even matters; we got into our hiking gears and excited to go!

Mas Agus picked us up. Mbak Syifa handed us under his responsibility because she believes that Mas Agus is the king of the mountains. Oh yes, he is! He climbed up numerous of mountains nationwide, and I bet he could hike up Ijen in blindfolded.

We climbed up 2368m in 2 and a half hour. yeah!! 

On your mark… get set… GO!

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Go! go! cayok!

The sulfur carrier. This is half way through the creater, at the balai penimbangan.

This is at the balai penimbangan sulfur. These men can carry up to 100kg of sulfur on their back down the mountain. They get Rp1000 for every kilogram. It is so sad... especially when I saw an old man sitting at the side of the hiking track, taking out his water tumbler and mixed it with a sachet of Enerjoss powder (energy drink something like RedBull). It is tearing me to know how much effort they have to take to earn that very little money for living, and even worse, they have to jeopardize their health and take the energy drink which is the major factor for most kidney failure cases :'(

Ya Allah berkatilah hidup mereka,

murahkanlah rezeki mereka,

permudahkanlah urusan mereka.

Continue walking...

The fluffy clouds

Subhanallah, the breath taking view on the way to the top

Girl power!

Ada sikit2 macam Teletubbies Land?

Spot me!!

Subhanallah...

Reaching the top

This is it!!! Kawah Ijen

Yay, we've made it girls!!!

Ada signal! boleh check in foursquare

Men carrying blocks of sulfur from below the crater, up to the top, and down the 2368m mountain.

pinggir kawah Ijen

Wish Zuffy were here...

On the way down, lapar... POpMie time!

At the other side of the mountain, this is the man made sulfuric water fall. Was built hundreds of years ago by the Dutch.

Kite naik 4WD tu..

Trip to Banyuwangi - Baluran National Park

Last weekend was too awesome that I almost forgot to take my breath back.

A friend told me,

“If you have a dream, write it down!”

It suddenly came to flash back the time when me and my housemates were spending our lazy Sunday morning watching the TV about 2 years ago. What we saw on TV really caught our attention. It was a travelling tv program, showing interesting places in Indonesia. The host went to a very unique place, which looks like a safari in Africa, with the high trees in a desert like ground, and wild animals running free. It was Baluran National Park. I remembered Ima took our phone book and jot it down right away. So, Baluran National Park, Banyuwangi – is somewhere we MUST go!

Then, it was the Ijen Creater a.k.a Kawah Ijen. I saw that about a year ago from the internet. It was mesmerizing in the picture and I couldn’t get my mind out of it. I really wanted to go, but I was too doubtful about my friends to go hiking the mountain with me. I told Frente anyway, and there was Mbak Syifa too. What a coincident, Mbak Syifa’s hometown is in Banyuwangi, where both Baluran and Ijen are. OMG!!!!!!

So apparently, Mbak Syifa had been planning to bring me there, to fulfill my wishes. It has been months. When Mbak Syifa offered me and my friends to come along with her to Banyuwangi, without sparing a single second, I agreed to go! Then I convinced my friends to come along.

There was quite a long story beneath it all, until we made it to Banyuwangi. Mbak Syifa, Amak (her son), me, Frente, Sit, Ima and Zana took the 8 hours journey by road. We preferred to sleep along the way, her driver is crazier than F1 racer. We arrived her house and settled down our asses (dah duduk lama sangat dalam kereta kot), and get ready for our Safari adventure the next day!

Now, let the pictures tell the story…

Journey begins

The road to the desert

This is it! Can you believe it!

Yay, we've made it girls!!

Merah putih teruslah kau berkibar

Read my shirt

Bekol. Subhanallah

The road to the beach

kita panjat pokok!

Banyuwangi

If we could swim to the other side, we are already in Bali

Our dinner

Thanks to Tante (mbak Syifa’s mom) for the hospitality, your capulaga coffee is the best!! To mas Agus who accompany us and to Mbak Syifa for making this all memorable.