The story of our fantastic time on the Ijen Miner Tour.

We received a 10% discount for this tour on the basis that we would link to it in our blog, but the discount was not conditional on the nature of the content, so what is written are our honest opinions.

As backpackers we do everything on the cheap, so while many people take guided tours and private transport, we hop on a bus and walk our own itineraries based other travel blogs. Often this is a great way to travel, but as we arrived in Java Ness commented that she liked the idea of trying an organised tour.

When we’ve told people that we’re going to Indonesia, they’ve generally said without skipping a beat that we have to go to 3 places… Bali, Mount Bromo, and the Ijen Crater. I’d heard of the first two of these, but not of Ijen. I looked into it in other travel blogs, and learned that Kawah Ijen is a volcanic crater known for its beautiful lake and its night time sulphur mining. The trip to Ijen itself seemed cool, and do-able ourselves, but one blog mentioned a tour which had provided a much richer experience.

We contacted the Ijen Miner Tour and arranged a 2 day / 1 night package, then made our way to the coastal town of Banyuwangi.

Banyuwangi is a fairly small town, whose main significance to travellers is that it is the Easternmost point in Java and so is the connecting ferry port to Bali, and the staging post for Ijen. We weren’t expecting a lot when our taxi dropped us at the Gandrung City Hostel, one of the cheapest places in town. It was quite a surprise when we met the proprietor Nino, a remarkable man.

The young owner of this hostel is the son of a farming family, he uses the produce of the organic farm to run a restaurant of sorts. He is a passionate cook, so cooks inventive food to order / after enthusiastic conversation about preferences, and has turned a nearby rooftop into a restaurant. He is using bricks made from the silt in the irrigation ditch of the farm, burned over the unused shells of the rice plant, to build a 7 storey extension to his small hotel, and develop it into a nice hotel / restaurant complex. The room was basic but the food was fantastic, and cheap.

We were picked up at 10am by our guide Hasyim, and driver Jhon. Their welcome was instantly warm and sincere, and soon we were heading out of the town.

Our first stop was an area of rice fields. We have met many tourists who are excited to see rice fields, with their deep green colours and remarkable terraces, but after 5 months in Asia it is very routine for us now. It was nonetheless interesting to be taken into the field and shown how the irrigation system works and how the rice is planted and harvested.

Hasyim then took us on a detour to the village of Glagah, where a festival was being held for the military. We were ushered to the front and sat in front of a stage, where we watched girls from the village perform a beautiful ‘cengkir gading’ dance. The village leader then spoke to the audience, and after asking us in English where we were from, evidently began talking about us to everyone. We had no idea what was being said, but felt very privileged.

After Hasyim treated us to a great local coffee, we got back in the car to head off. On the way out of the village we passed a woman selling mangos from her house, Hasyim asked if we liked mangos (obviously yes!). Jhon stopped the car and we feasted on mango fresh from the tree before departing with a bag of mangos that Hasyim had bought for us.

The next stop was a valley amongst the rugged jungle terrain. We walked for 10 minutes down a stream to a beautiful waterfall, swimming in this jungle paradise on our own. We then walked back up the stream to a small area with another waterfall and pool, which had been developed as a recreational area for local people. People from nearby villages lounged beside the pool, or dipped in it whilst still fully clothed in their conservative robes. On Hasyim’s advice, we had changed into swimming kit for this trip, and asked whether my boardshorts and Ness’ swimming costume were culturally appropriate… Hasyim said it was totally ok, but we attracted a lot of attention and all of the young people (and a few of their grandparents) queued up to have their photos taken with us.

It was quite common in Indonesia for locals to ask for a photo with us, it is not a tourist-heavy area like many of the other countries we had visited, and we were always treated like celebrities. There were a few downsides, and we understood that some other backpackers found this very unpleasant, but we always enjoyed the welcoming spirit with which the locals approached us, and enjoyed their smiles as we posed with them. It also entertained us to see them taking photos of us on the newest Samsung galaxy smartphones, while our phones are so outdated that we can’t buy screen protectors for them any more. Needless to say the local boys were quite fascinated with Ness, a beautiful, pure white, curvy blonde who stood much taller than most of them…  An image they normally only saw in western media.

Hasyim then took us for a wonderful lunch at  a nearby Warung (the Indonesian word for a local restaurant). I think this was the point that he realised that we were different from most people he takes on this costly tour, being on a backpacker budget our eyes bulged at the prices which had clearly been inflated for our Western clothes (common around Asia). After this, Hasyim was very understanding and very kindly helped us avoid further expenses. (The lunch was only £6, but that was a lot for us)

The last scheduled activity for the day was a tour of a coffee plantation and rubber plantation. The highlight of this was Ness expressing that she didn’t realize that coffee and rubber came from trees.

Ness has asked me to amend this to explain that she realised that coffee was grown, just not specifically on trees. On the other hand she thought ‘car tyres were just dug out of the ground’

Hasyim then took us back to his village of Kebun Dadap… We were to spend the night in a spare room at his family home. The room had kindly been done up to Western standards to make it more comfortable for us.

Hasyim had an obsession with feeding us, I think especially after our distress at the expensive lunch, and so took us straight across the road where he sent his brother-in-law up a coconut tree to pull down some young coconuts. The young man promptly hacked the top off and we drank the water before carving out the soft white flesh. Sadly, we’d developed a stomach bug between the morning and this moment, so at the time of writing we still feel ill whenever we look at young coconuts. I tried going up the tree myself to see what it was like…. My toes couldn’t handle more than 3 or 4 steps up the abrasive notches in the trunk!

We had the joy to meet Hasyim’s lovely wife Layliyah, who is 7 months pregnant with their first child. We were modestly told that she didn’t really speak English yet and was still learning, but later heard her translating our conversation into the local language for her family, so I suspect she understood more English than she was confident to admit.

We had a chance to explore the home, and the farm behind the home. We met a couple of goats who had been born that day, and I can now list ‘helping baby goats feed from their mother’ as a skill on my CV.

Layliyah cooked us a wonderful and expansive dinner, and again Hasyim tried to feed us far more than we could ever consume. It was a marvel to watch this young woman, in a very basic kitchen, cook such an amazing meal.

Hasyim explained that only a few days ago, they had experienced the tradition where a couple on reaching 7 months of pregnancy, are showered in water for good luck. We were also told that another member of their family was having this tonight, and that we were welcome to join the festivities.

While Hasyim went to pray, we joined the women of the family who were gathered together. We don’t know whether this was routine or just for the occasion, but think it was probably their normal evening. All of the women from the wider family were gathered together for the evening, just chatting, laughing a lot and enjoying each other’s company… It was wonderful to experience. We couldn’t understand most of what was going on, but they soon developed a fascination with Ness. Women in Asia crave the pale skin and pronounced noses common in the West, and which Ness has. For a considerable time they all lined up to compare their skin to Ness’, and touch her nose. She found it a bit odd, but we both enjoyed the jovial and welcoming spirit in which it occurred. Like many of our experiences across Asia, it highlighted the isolation in which we live much of our lives at home… Big social gatherings of friends and family are treated as special occasions rather than daily norms – there are advantages to this lifestyle but we are also poorer for it as well.

It was time for the occasion, and the family gathered outside. The (un)lucky couple were seated in chairs, beside huge troughs of water. A white sheet was placed over their head and a family elder used a small wooden cup to pour water over their heads. After this quite respectful moment, the feel changed and the real nature of this became clear – a lot of fun for everyone. It became a prank cross waterboarding as everyone started pouring huge quantities of water over them, including emptying the whole troughs across them. Only part way through when we saw the couple shivering in the 30 degree heat did we look in the buckets and see that it was ice water. A lot of fun was had (we did not do any pouring ourselves), and at the end the couple stood up to be greeted by their grinning family.

We then ran quickly to bed, knowing that we would only have about 3 hours of sleep before the big day to come.

In the brutal heat and with the roar of the jungle wildlife outside, neither of us got much sleep before the relief of our alarms set for half past midnight. We threw some clothes on, met Hasyim in the living room, then went out to meet Jhon at the car outside.

We slept for the 30 minute drive to the bottom of the path to Kawah Ijen, then had a coffee to wake us up at a small stand by the gates. The early start means that you can get up the the crater, see the sights in the dark then watch sunrise and be back before it gets too hot. We slogged up the wide track, gently ascending between two large volcanoes, towards the Ijen crater in the middle. The moon illuminated the rippling volcanoes around us and the sea of cloud spread below us across Java to Bali in the distance.

75 minutes later we were looking over the crater rim into a simmering couldron. Still the middle of the night, all we could see was the glow from below and a dot to dot of headlamp beams weaving down into the abyss, but we could smell the pungent sulphuric smoke rising up to us. We began our descent down the rocky path into the centre of the crater. Hasyim was obsessive about his rule of ‘safety is the first priority’, so was very careful as we scrambled down easy rock steps, we smiled and accepted his offer support rather than telling him that we were climbers.

As we neared the bottom, we could start to see the yellow smoke billowing out, while a blue glow radiated from below. The sulphur fumes became intolerable and we donned the gas masks we had been given.

Arriving at the bottom, it was still too dark to see the lake only metres from us, but we could see the mining in progress. The volcanic activity here brings sulphur to the surface as gas, which cools to a molten liquid flowing from outlets, then settling into pools and solidifying. These plates of sulphur were then mined by local workers, who pried the plates apart and carried chunks down from the volcano. This sounds ok until you truly realise the working conditions.

Even with masks, we were overpowered by the smoke, and our eyes burned as it blew into our faces… Tolerable for an hour but not day in day out, especially not as many of the miners didn’t have masks due to the cost. They are self employed, paid per kilogram they take to the depot back on the road, so after breaking off chunks they would carry loads of 50-90kg up the rocky route to the crater rim, then down to the road in a wheelbarrow. I tried picking up one of their shoulder bags and even though I pride myself on fitness, there is no way I could have carried that up to the rim. All of this is done for the equivalent of only a few dollars a day…. Truly brutal and unrewarding work.

The iconic sight here, for which most visitors come, is to see the ‘blue flame’. When the hot sulphur gas meets oxygen, it combusts and burns in a blue flame. A Google search for this will show some spectacular photos, such as those taken by National Geographic photographers on a lengthy assignment. The reality was far more underwhelming. The flame burned from cracks in the pipes that carried the molten sulphur down into the pools for mining, and I saw the miners lighting the gas to create the flame. The miners make some money from tourists, so it is in their interests to keep the flame going, but it was far less spectacular than is made out, and far less remarkable that the crater as a whole.

Looking up from the crater, a dark rock wall surrounded us as a stunning starry night gazed down on us. The yellow smoke billowing across the stars, illuminated by passing headlamps, made for an incredible sight.

As the sun rose we could see more of the mining, and the lake came into view. This is purportedly the most acidic lake in the world, with a pH of Zero. It’s thick turquoise colour contrasted stunningly with the grey rock and yellow smoke as the sky turned orange above… A sea of colour in a stark and harsh environment.

We walked back up to the rim where we could see the incredible landscape around us, and soon made our way back to the road where Jhon was awaiting us.

Back at Hasyim’s home we made use of the bucket shower, refreshing in the already rising heat. We enjoyed a lovely breakfast and coffee, then relaxed at the front of their home while locals came by to see us and practice their English.

Throughout our stay, Hasyim had insisted ‘you are not my clients, not my friends, but my family’, and he truly made us feel that way. We told him that we had to leave to catch a ferry that day, and he was visibly upset by our departure. He and Jhon took us back to town and then to the ferry termnal some way out of town. Rather than just dropping us off, they took us in and got us local prices for the ferry, before hugging us goodbye as we raced to catch the boat.

Seeing Kawah Ijen was a great experience, but pales in relation to the wider experience we had with the Ijen Miner Tour, so wonderfully hosted by Hasyim.

If you are a fellow traveller then we can offer some advice…

There are a variety of ways to do visit Ijen.

1 – It could easily be done independently for minimal cost. Scooters and gas masks can be inexpensively hired or borrowed from your hotel in Banyuwangi, leaving just the entrance fee of Rp 100k in weekdays or Rp150k on weekends. This will be a good experience and probably worth doing, though in our opinion it doesn’t compare to Bromo.

2 – Do a simple organised tour, arranged for Rp 300k from your hotel, you’ll be collected at around midnight from your hotel by car, taken to Ijen, shown around, and back by 9am. This is a fine way to see Ijen, but again doesn’t compare to Bromo.

3 – Ijen Miner Tour. The quoted price before any discount was Rp 2,250,000 for 2 people, making it far more expensive, but it was an incomparably richer experience, a truly authentic insight into the life of East Java people, and an experience which we will treasure forever. If you do this then I would strongly encourage you to request Hasyim as a guide, he was truly wonderful.

To contact Ijen Miner Tour for a very easy quote followed by quick email replies for questions, please go to their website here.