Surabaya - Bromo - Ijen - Surabaya

Picked up by guide Putra, took 3 hours to get to accommodation in the mountains. Bed at 11 and had to be up at 2am. We went to Bromo at sunrise at seruni point, the crater was closed due to fires ( found out from immigration officer when I got into the country which was a shock), met Matthias and Lauren on mountain and then went to madakaripura waterfall instead of crater with them after breakfast and sleep. The waterfall was 200 metres high and was amazing. So grateful to see it. On the way to probolinggo train station we went for lunch went for lunch then headed for train to banyuwangi. I made some friends on the train with locals and they even shared their melon with me. Got into hotel at about 9pm and straight to sleep

Even earlier today, wakeup time was 1230am which was nuts. Out Ijen guide haqim was the most upbeat fun person ever and I can’t believe how much energy he had at this time in the morning. He also said he liked being called fuck qim and qim jong un lol. Matthias Lauren and I were in a group with some more people, two of which were these girls from Germany who we stayed with for the majority. The hike up was HOT and we did not need the layers at all, definitely didn’t need to buy an Ijen beanie but that will be useful on Rinjani. When we got to the top, we headed down into the crater to see the blue fire which was insane. We had to whip out our gas masks here because the sulphur dioxide was so strong it made it hard to breath. I fully immersed myself in the fire to see it and it was crazy, despite hurting my eyes a little. After that, as a group of 5 (because others took too long) we rushed up the crater to the summit to see sunrise, Haqim literally sprinted along the crater rim to see sunrise - a dedicated man. Got some amazing pictures of it all. I then tried to lift the sulphur that the miners have to bring out of the mine up the crater and it was insane, I can’t believe they have to do that 5 times a day and only get paid 1,000 rupiah per kilo. The way down was beyond skippy and I almost stacked it multiple times, Haqim kept making fun of me saying that I was going to get ruined on Rinjani because of my shoes having no grip so we will see about that haha. After getting dropped off, I had breakfast, had an hour nap then got picked up for an 8 hour drive to Surabaya. I was obviously starving so had to stop at an indomart where I got a selection of snacks including some questionable cold chicken so let’s see if that kills me. Finally got to Surabaya and checked into a basic My Studio Hotel in Surabaya, but Honestly a bed was all I needed, even if the sheets were a bit dirty :/ up in the morning to catch the flight to Lombok!Read more