Don’t look for Ijen in the travel guides. Nowadays on Java you have to go further (290 kilometers south of Surabaya) to find the truly intriguing phenomena. As well as being an awesome geographic wonder, this high country region is also one of Indonesia’s premier agro-tourism destinations.
Made up of six volcanic peaks from 1200 to 3050 meters high, the whole eastern end of Java is dominated by the high and seldom-visited Ijen Plateau. Though dormant now, in 1817 Ijen erupted disastrously, wiping out three villages. It last blew its top in 1952. This one-of-a-kind plateau offers savanna landscapes, rugged panoramas, cool weather, tree-sentinelled country roads, grand hiking and a outerworldly bright yellow-green crater lake.
The Ijen Crater
July-August are the best months to make the climb. Try to reach the top before 11 a.m. when the crater starts to cloud over. Serious climbers leave the Arabica Homestay in Jampit II at 4 a.m. for the 20 minute ride up to Paltuding so they can reach the crater in time for sunrise. You need to either join a tour or hire a jeep (Rp150,000, five people, six hours).
At Paltuding, the entrance fee is Rp1500 for Indonesians and as much as Rp15,000 for foreigners. From the parking lot, a well-maintained trail twists up to the rim, passing gnarly burnt trees, everlasting edelweiss and Herculean barefoot bearers of sulfur.
It’s a stiff 1.5 hour climb with some steep sections, but quite manageable if you’re in average shape. After an hour, you reach a sulfur collecting station and a kantin where they sell sodas (Rp1500 for Indonesians, as much as Rp10,000 for foreigners). There’s the usual graffiti, but not the obscene trash that desecrates the landscape of many of Indonesia’s noblest volcanos such as Bali’s Catur and northern Sumatra’s Sibayak.
Just 30 minutes from the top, the trail mercifully flattens out all the way to the crater lip as you’re assaulted by evil-smelling sulfur. The crater is filled with a unique and haunting green lake - the largest (20 hectare) vetra-acid lake in the world. On the rim ghostly figures trudge silently past, slabs of bright yellow sulfur sticking out of their woven baskets. It feels like you’re waiting for the boatman to cross the River Styx, not really knowing what’s coming next or how close the abyss.
From the edge, you need to descend another 30 minutes down a dilapidated stairway to the lake’s surface for the best vantage point and to get the best photos.
The placid surface is streaked with globules of sulfur and eerie, pale yellow-green clouds. This strange wind-blown fog, particularly thick near the edge of the lake, suddenly appears above the water as if to welcome the crater’s guests. Local folklore claims the fog, which disappears and reappears, seems to sense the arrival of each visitor. This same all-enveloping fog will almost certainly reappear when you take your leave.
Sulfur Mining
A continuous upwelling of sulfur from fumaroles at the level of the lake is the basis of a thriving enterprise. Pure hot red sulfur, oozing out of hissing fissures, turns bright yellow as it dries. It’s then broken up into big chunks with hammers and loaded into baskets carried by human beasts of burden down the trail to the collection point near Paltuding.
The sulfur gatherers carry their loads in two baskets balanced on a pikulan pole made of bambu ampel, the strongest and most pliable bamboo available. Loads weigh up to 50-70 kilos. The bearers receive Rp350 per kilo from the cooperative. Take-home is pay is Rp40,000 to 50,000 per day. Nine to 12 tons of sulfur are delivered each day. A natural source of sulfuric acid, the sulfur is used by oil refineries and in the production of detergents and fertilizers. These sturdy carriers also work as guides and can be hired for Rp20,000-Rp30,000 for half a day.
Getting there from Bondowoso
Jampit II can be reached by car (even sedans) or by hitching a ride on small open-bed passenger trucks from Bondowoso which wind up through majestic pine and causarina forests full of sonorous bird and insect sounds. Send the car up ahead and get out and walk. After 20 kilometers, the endless rolling coffee plantations begin, interspersed with cabbage patches.
At the guardpost, register and pay Rp500 per person and Rp50,000 for foreigners (no, just kidding!). Jampit II is a company town, owned and controlled by a coffee cooperative which provides housing, schools and land for growing gardens. People, mostly Madurese, are friendly.
Sempol village, just one kilometer from Jampit II, has one long main street of shops where you can replenish supplies, though it’s best to buy beforehand in Bondowoso. Bring good shoes, warm clothes, water. The rainy season is November through March, the dry April-October.
From Sempol, one kilometer from the Arabica Homestay, take an asphalt road 12 kilometers through a landscape of giant volcanic boulders and more coffee plantations, eventually giving way to cemara forests, green-colored rapids and waterfalls, arriving at Paltuding (1850 meters). From the parking lot and ranger’s office, it’s an hour and a half hike up to the crater (2360 meters).
It’s possible to take a car with a high wheel-base from Paltuding down to Banyuwangi in about an hour by first driving to Licin (14 kilometers), then on to Banyuwangi (another 22 kilometers). Though just a two-kilometer section of this road is rocky and pitted, only a 4-W-D vehicle can make it up from Banyuwangi via Licin to Paltuding.
Where to Stay
The Arabica Homestay (tel. 086-812-107-424) in Jampit II is run by the locally-owned PTP Nusantara XII coffee processing plant, a compact model estate that jumps live out of the 19th century colonial-era postcard. It feels like you’re a guest in the home of the Dutch plantation manager. Rates are Rp140,000 VIP, Rp105,000 Standard; free room for drivers. The idyllic gardens and sedate buildings reminds one of the West Java’s tea plantations in the Puncak, but neater and not nearly as crowded with visitors. From the guesthouse, the cones of G. Ijen, swathed in clouds and jagged like a crocodile’s back, loom over the landscape. July and August are the harvesting months and the best time to take the coffee processing tour offered by the guesthouse (Rp50,000 per person).
At Paltuding, the whole two-room Penginapan Kawah Ijen can be rented for Rp250,000 (or Rp125,000 per room). On the grounds of the Blawan coffee processing plant at the end of a spectacular forest road, there’s another basic penginapan (tel. 086-812-107-942) that rents rooms for Rp70,000 (two beds) and Rp90,000 (three beds).
E-mail : pakbill2003@yahoo.com
Copyright@2004 PakBill
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