Day 148: Probolinggo

We began our trek up around 12:30 am. The walk was a grueling one and a half hours of sweat under a dim head lamp. Once we got to the rim of crater, we looked for the way down. I spotted a miner who was walking passed up. "Blue Fire?" as I pointed to the volcano, "Yes, Blue Fire!!" he replied. As we followed him, some local joined us, shining the flashlight at our feet as we walked down the path. We came across a sign that said that we were not allowed to go down; Eline suggested we stay here. 

No way, I didn't come here to see the Blue Fire from a distance, "I'm going down." She followed and we made our way down the 20 minute path to the crater. 

(The headlamps of the miners heading down the mountain)

So why did we get here so early? What is this Blue Fire I keep talking about? And why did I want to come to this volcano, which not many tourist visit, so badly?

Well, this is Blue Fire. It is visible only from around 1-4am. It is created from the hot liquid sulphur as it drips out onto the surface of the crater. I only knew of this volcano from a documentary that BBC did, Human Planet, that followed the grueling day to day life of these sulphur miners. 

The Blue Fire was not mentioned in any guide book and I only found out about it through reading various people's blogs who had been here and missed out on it. I have yet to find another volcano that replicates this Blue Fire and we were two of four people who made it down to see the flames, while the other handful of tourists waited at the top. It was truly an amazing sight to see the natural blue flames.

(Miners heading down the mountain)

We both had scarves to cover our faces because the sulphur smoke was very potent. As I was setting up for a photo, I noticed a big cloud moving my way. I closed my eyes, covered my mouth, and hunkered down below a big rock. After a while of holding my breath, I took a deep breath. Straight sulphur smoke. I opened my eyes and could barely see the ground at my feet and realized the smoke was not going to clear up. With one hand holding my camera and the other covering my mouth, I began to sprint back towards the way we came. As I stumbled to find my way through the yellow smoke that singed my lungs, I began to panic. With each stride I took, my breaths shortened, however, my scarf and hand were preventing the necessary air to get to my lungs; this only added to my panicked state. My mind conjured up images of my dying in this thick smoke. I pictured the headlines, Dumb Tourist Found Dead at the Crater of Kawah Ijen; The Blue Fire Took His Breath Away! I found a ditch where there was no smoke and dove in. I then told myself that these miners breathe this stuff in all day everyday, while it may hurt now and is probably not healthy, I'm not going to die. I could hear Eline's voice shouting my name from a distance up the volcano. "I'm okay, where are you?" while I was away from the smoke, I still could barely see outside of the ditch. The smoke eventually cleared up a bit and we both met up and escaped this death pit. Was it worth it? Yes.

We join a handful of tourists who waited at the top of the crater for the sun to rise. Within about an hour, the light blue sulphur crater became visible; what an unbelievable sight! The hassle, dealing with scamming locals, endless public bus routes, hitching rides just to get here and then almost dying made this view oh so sweet. Words nor pictures can capture all beauty that was before my eyes.

After watching the sun rise, I attempted to walk back down to get up close to the sulphur lake. I was able to pass by many miners. I don't know how these guys do it, they haul up loads of sulphur close to 200 lbs, some of them wearing flip flops, and smoking cigarettes. I read that the miners want money to take their picture now, but I also read that they smoke cigarettes all the time, so I bought a pack of cigarettes and handed them out instead of rupees. They were all really happy for a smoke break. Instead of taking the normal path down, I wanted to walk around where the smoke was coming up the mountain, however, every time I deviated from the path, all the miners would start shouting at me. Are they really trying to lecture me on safety? As the day goes by, the sulphur smoke becomes more engulfing as the wind picks up. Watching the thick yellow smoke swallow the path, I decided against making the rest of the walk down. Your welcome Mom.

Once I got back to the top, Eline and I walked to the highest point of the rim of the crater to see the Ijen plateau in the background. Each step was more amazing than the one before it. The walk up was riddled with dead foliage from all the smoke I assume. However, right off the rim of the crater was a mountain boasting bright green trees and bushes, it was an odd yet beautiful sight; there was a thin line between death and life. The sun was rising over the edge of this mountain, and the sun mixed with the yellow smoke, making it look like the sky was on fire.

The view from the top of the ridge was hard to beat; the yellow smoke billowing from the side of this turquoise blue lake with volcanoes filling up the background and the Ijen Plateau wrapping around it all, making it look like a giant soup bowl.

We eventually hiked back down the volcano. It was funny to see all the tourists just now getting here, or getting there after sunrise; they have no clue what they missed out on. The best part was most of them had nothing but a t-shirt on or just a napkin to cover their face... Get ready for the pain! The walk down was not what I was expecting. Since we came up in the pitched dark, we had no clue what was around us. There was so much green! I was thinking everything was going to be dead. And the background... Volcanoes and hills to fill the Ijen Plateau; It was hard to believe that I was actually awake.

Once we got back to Pos Paltuding, we packed up everything, and ate some breakfast while we waited for the security guards. It was great to see all the Jeeps outside the camp, all those who fell victim to the driver's word of inaccessibility without him. The guards arrived right on time and were excited to learn how great our experience was. When we arrived back at the guard post, we saw all the kids heading to school. They were all so excited to see us, waving, shouting "hello!" and asking for me to take their picture. One of the kids was talking on a large smart phone. Even in a poor remote area like this, kids have smart phones; my how times have changed!

(I asked the girls to "do something goofy")

We made our way to the small bus station to wait for a minibus to take us back to Bondowoso. 

Some locals drove up in their mopeds and offered us a ride, telling us that the bus wouldn't be there until 3pm, it is now 12pm. One, we didn't want to pay an exorbitant amount to ride down when we could ride for a fraction of the cost in a minibus. Two, there is no way I'm getting on the back of a moped with all my bags for a two hour ride. I attempted to wave down vehicles to see if we could hitch a ride. One guy in a black truck pulled over. "To Bondowoso please?" he nodded yes; "how much," "no pay," he replied. We kept asking him how much, he told us no worries. Wow, in a country of scammers, this guy is giving us a free ride; it was almost too good to be true. We threw our gear in the back and hopped in for the free ride.

About halfway through the ride, he pulled over for some food and wanted us to join him. He refused to let us pay. He was beyond a nice person. He handed me his business card, he is the District Sales Manager for Coca-Cola Indonesia; I guess thats why he had on Coke jeans and shirt. He asked us where we were going from Bondowoso and called around to make sure we knew the right price and didn't get scammed. "So, do you like Pepsi?" I asked, "Haha... No... Competition!... haha," he replied. He dropped us off at the bus station and I slipped what was left of the pack of cigarettes into his front shirt pocket and thanked him. True Indonesian hospitality, amazing. Unfortunately, his business card does not have an email, I would have loved to keep in touch with him.

We then loaded all of stuff into the bus to Probolinggo. We have read that this bus ride is a sketchy ride because the bus is prone to screwing over tourists. We told the guys to drop us off at the Probolinggo bus station. 

Once we entered Probolinggo, we made sure that he stopped at the bus station. All of a sudden, the bus stopped in the middle of the road and the guy got out and threw all our stuff on the curb. "What? Where is terminal?" "Oh, sorry, we very close," he replied. What the hell? Now I see why people wrote cautionary tails of this bus route! Where we got dropped off, an old lady came out of the building to great us. We asked her, "Terminal?" and pointed in either direction. She began to spout out a load of directions in Indonesian. Eline looked at me with a raised brow, and we both busted out laughing. The old lady then began to laugh, realizing we understood nothing of what she just said, patted Eline on the arm and point us in the right direction.

After walking for about 10 minutes with no bus station in sight, a minibus drove by. I waved it down and they gave us a ride to the bus station, about 20 minutes away; no where near the very close that the bus driver promised us. From the bus station, we wanted to catch a bus up to Cemoro Lawang, a village close to the famous Bromo volcano, which is active! Since we were so late, we were unable to get a ride to the village, but managed to catch a minibus to a good hotel, somewhat, close by.

When we got to the hotel, the lady at the front desk spoke English. What a relief! She told us that she could help us arrange a car to take us up to Bromo early to see the sunrise tomorrow and then a car to take us to Yogyakarta that afternoon. The price was a little below what we had read is the norm, so, for the sake of time, we decided to do it. Also, since Bromo is very famous, loads of tourists go there everyday, so it doesn't have the same appeal to do it on our own as it did at Ijen. We booked a room, threw all our stuff down, ate dinner, and feel asleep to get ready for another early wake up call.