Seven hours to the East of the city of Surabaya, near the edge of Java, sits a site not many Westerners go to see…comparatively.  Which is why I was pretty excited about it.

Seeing the Ijen Crater was one of the most memorable experiences during my time in Indonesia, thus far.  It combined a unique set of travel/adventure aspects all rolled into one awesome excursion.

It felt like I wasn’t even in Indonesia anymore.  Instead of the noisy, hot, bright nights at sea level that I was used to, I was now bundled with three layers of clothing, high in the quiet mountains just after midnight, in the pitch black.  At the base of the crater I drank hot coffee to get warm, dabbed my runny nose and purchased a knit hat for my journey.  It felt very different from the home I’ve had for the past year and a quarter.

My layers began to peel off as the 3 km (pretty steep) trek continued.  They were replaced by scarves over my face, and respirators for a brief minute, as the sulfur fumes began to choke everyone near the summit.

With small flashlights or cell phones to light the way, the crowd made the ascent in the dark, reached the top in the ark and found an area to settle into, in the dark.  After about 2 hours of climbing, it felt good to just sit and wait, although it did get pretty cold as soon as we stopped moving.

It didn’t take long before the sun began to rise and brighten the sky.  We were so high and it was so foggy that we realized very quickly that the thick fog was surrounding us, so we waited for the better part of an hour before we could really make out our surroundings.  But when the fog eventually burned off…what a sight it was.

The crater was a lot bigger than I envisioned, the lake was a beautiful turquoise and the sulfur being dug up and carried away by the miners was a bright yellow.

We saw the miners in action, carrying around 80 kg on their backs all the way down the treacherous mountain pass we had just climbed up.  I wonder how many are injured each year from falling down the mountain….

After taking some pictures and enjoying our surroundings…now that we could see them…it was time to make the return trip, which was NOT easier by the way.  Then it was time to make the 4-5 hour journey West to the base of another amazing volcano.