Mt. Bromo and Kawah Ijen

Hey Guys,

     So this blog covers a 3 day, 2 night tour of Mt. Bromo and Kawah Ijen, two volcano systems in eastern Java. The first day we mostly bussed to Probollingo, about 10 hours.We felt pretty posh because we had a whole minivan to ourselves, and we could stretch out. After a quick stop in Probollingo and a rather interesting meal of Nasi Ayam on the street, we were taken up the mountain to Cemoro Lawang. We made it to our hostel and pretty much went straight to bed as we were getting picked up the next morning at 3:30 am. It was actually cold up there, a strange feeling to us in SE Asia. By cold, I mean +10C, but still. It was definitely the most ghetto room we had stayed in (up to this point!) but we would literally be here less than 7 hours so not a big deal! 

      More on the whole reason we are here: Basically there was one SUPER VOLCANO, the Tengger Volcano, that erupted and left an enormous crater rim 10 km wide. Inside of this rim is Mt. Bromo (2392m), Mt. Semeru (3676m), Mt. Batok (2440m), along with a sea of sand. Mt. Bromo is the one that is actively smoking in all the pictures, Batok is the really picturesque symmetrical one with all the ridges. 

Batok in the fore-ground, Bromo smoking behind. Semeru can come too. 

Tengger ponies you can ride up Mt. Bromo if you're feeling lazy. Or rich. 

A temple at the foot of Mt. Bromo

We gotta climb that

View from the top

Little shrine at the top, better light some incense

Looking down into the belly of the beast

Standing on a crater rim within a crater rim. Inception volcano

Everybody toured around in these Jeeps. Ours was red. 

Nice spot for breakfast after we were done, eh? 

An added bonus was seeing people's gardens and houses way up here on the crater rim. They are pretty isolated up here but they seemed to be amazing gardeners. What a paradise! 

At this point we were pretty sleepy, so we dozed as we drove down the mountain back into town. Our spoiled lifestyle was over at this point as we joined up with a whole group of people before heading to the next volcano. Next up is Kawah Ijen. On it's own, it would be an amazing place to check out, but what made the experience so unforgettable was seeing the people that work INSIDE the volcano everyday. Their day consists of starting at 4 am and hauling multiple 75 kg loads of sulphur out of the volcano. Did I mention they clamber down a narrow, twisting track of uneven rocks to get down into the bottom of the crater, load up and then climb the half hour back out again. And most of them do it in flip-flops! The sulphur smoke is stifling at the bottom, most of the workers wrap a t-shirt over their faces, but what the heck does that do against sulphur?!? At one point we were standing down there and the wind changed so all I could see was white vapor and it burn the crap out of my eyes. And all I had to do down there was breathe and occasionally see where I was. These guys were trying to navigate a treacherous path with a heavy load of sulphur on their shoulders. 

Jared and I each wore the SARS masks we had purchased earlier in the trip. At the time we had half purchased them as a joke but down here they were a life saver! We soaked them in water before putting them on and descending down into the cauldron of sulphurous gases. 

One of the guides showing how the liquid sulphur quickly hardens to solid. Down in this 'volcano mine' are a set of 4-5 pipes lodged into a flowing trickle of liquid sulphur. The sulphur comes out of the pipes and hardens to solid where miners chip it out and load it into their baskets. (See below). They then make the trek up and out of the deep and back down the mountain again. Round trip from the place the sulphur is harvested to where they drop it off would be 4 hours, depending on their fitness and load size. Not saying anyone here was 'out of shape,' but some people were working despite disabilities and injuries. No worker's comp here, folks.  

The blue flame that is given off when the sulphur liquid/gas is ignited. 

We made it! SpongeBob in action

Where the sulphur is unloaded by the workers at the bottom of the mountain and re-loaded onto trucks 

     The whole experience basically made me realize I can NEVER complain about the physical aspect of my job ever now that I have seen this. I was pretty surprised to see how medieval the conditions were. Anyone appreciating their job a little more after reading this? 

Until next time!