I'm like a monkey stand right now
so we reached java and in the distance if i zoom in you can see Marapi volcano
this is Banyuwangi, a small city of 2 million people
so we are at the base of Mount Ijen right now and it's 1:30 a.m. And we're gonna try
to hike up the volcano before sunrise. Hopefully with some visibility we're
gonna get to see some blue flames. Alright
We're using a "taxi"for my mom because she's very unfit
there in the distance we see some blue flames
*muffled v oice* behind me right now is
I think I can do that
behind me is the volcanic crater
and on the other side you see there's a lot of yellow stuff which is the sulfur that
the miners here come down to get
so think I'm pretty much at the highest point of this mountain right now and this is the very first
place that I've been to in a long time that really reminds me of Iceland. That
should give you an idea of how beautiful it is. If you look behind me there's that
blue lake in the Volcanic crater which looks a lot like the Blue Lagoon
in Iceland. That one's actually highly acidic and it's probably not what you
want to go swimming in
unsurprisingly the hike back down looks a lot prettier than it did on the
way up now that we have a little bit of daylight to work with
after a lot of walking we finally made it down.Now we're gonna have some breakfast and head out
to Bromo
thank you for watching this video. If you're just looking for pro tips on
visiting Ijen volcano I would recommend skipping this video by two minutes and
we can get to that. So this was our first day in Java which happens to be my
favorite island that I've ever been to. so we drove from the southern end of
Bali to go to this port on the north western edge of the island and from
there we took a 30-minute ferry to get to Java and over there we met Cahyo
who was our guide for the next 3 days and we headed into the city called Banyuwangi
We had to go to bed really early wake up at 1:00 a.m. to take a jeep ride
to ijen base camp and from there we hiked for the next couple of hours to
get to the top of the volcano. Well I did the hiking my mom was just on a
wheelbarrow but more on that later. So Ijen crater has I believe the
largest suluric acid lake in the world which you can see from the top without
even going down but if you go down then you can see the infamous blue flames
that are caused by the sulfuric acid burning naturally in the bottom of the
crater and this is the only place on earth where you can see something like
that and it was really cool to see. You can't really see it in daylight which is
why you have to wake up at 1 am and make this hike in the middle of the
night. I would strongly recommend coming and visiting Ijen if you have one or
two days in Eastern Java or even in Bali because I don't think you can see
anything like that anywhere else in the world. One really underrated aspect of
this trip to ijen was getting to see the sulphur miners work there while we were
visiting. So these are people that carry over 50 pounds of sulphur on their back
and make this not-easy-at-all hike up and down the volcano and into the crater
and up again. it looked really cool at the same time it also looked
incredibly difficult. Made me really appreciate my job more and the fact that
I don't have to do something like that on a regular basis to make a living
Moving on tips for visiting Ijen volcano
tip number one: if you have any existing breathing conditions or if you have
really sensitive eyes this might not be the trip for you. There are a lot of
gases at the bottom of the crater and if you have an existing medical condition
like asthma this is definitely not ideal for you. You could however go to the top
and wait there which is what my mom did. If you have sensitive eyes
unless you're carrying around your goggles from your chem lab, I wouldn't
recommend going down into the crater either. For those of you who are not in
the best of shape like my mom, who is pushing 60 but is more out of shape
than your average ninety-year-old woman, there are people with wheelbarrow "taxis"
that will give you a ride to the top of the volcano
tip number three and this is
important for a lot of places in Indonesia including Bali. If you're going
there, try to go there in the dry season which is between the months of May and
October because this hike would be a lot harder if you have to do it when the
ground was muddy or if it was raining. Bring your own headlamps. You're
absolutely going to need it. If you don't have it you're probably gonna have to
buy it for extra at the bottom of the volcano. Also bring warm clothes because in
most of Indonesia you don't really need a jacket, it's tropical weather all year
round. Bromo and Ijen are the exceptions. You will definitely need a jacket. Bring
water with you but don't bring a heavy backpack because you'll be carrying that
up the volcano, down the crater then up the crater which is pretty steep. Tip
number seven: remember that going into the crater is a lot more dangerous or a
lot more extreme than just doing the hike up the volcano. The hike up the
volcano is not too bad. it can be a little steep at times but it's not the
worst. If you're not a fan of trying to plan everything out, figure out how
you're gonna get there in the middle of the night, figuring out how you're gonna
go to the top, go down and go back up again, it might be worth it for you to
get a guide We got a guide who took us to Ijen and
then on to Bromo. It's this guy named Cahyo who was amazing. He has his own company
called Java Amazing which I'd recommend you look up. It was very good service for
a very simple price and this is not sponsored by the way, this is just my
personal opinion on this. If you don't want a guide you can totally do this without
one. I saw a lot of other people, young and old, who were doing this without
a guide but that just adds a little bit of extra uncertainty to everything
that's it for this week Thank you for watching don't forget to
Like, subscribe if you want to watch more videos and comment if you have any
questions. I'll see you guys next week with another video from Java