Janel Nguyen

Awesome time in Java as well where I did lots of trekking.

It was quite the journey to get over here, though. From Labuan Bajo, I flew to Bali and then had to take a 4 hour car ride to North Bali. I then got a 30-minute drive to the ferry. Then, a 45-minute ferry ride where my homestay picked me up.

Ijen crater - From Banyuwangi, I got picked up at midnight to get a health check. We then drove to meet our guide and the rest of our group. We started the trek at 2:30am. We had a steep incline for an hour and a bit of a rocky decline to get to the blue flames. You have to make it there before a certain time, or else the flames go out. Once you get to the blue flames, you'll want to quickly take photos/videos and get out of there because the sulphur gas is no joke. My mask didn't really work, and I felt like I was suffocating and my eyes were burning. But when I walked away and breathed slowly, it was fine. Then we continued to trek to the top around the crater to watch the sunrise. The blue lake in the crater is so beautiful. I was worried about the rain because it was pouring for a few hours at the beginning, but it cleared up, thankfully, and a pancho did the trick.

When I got back to my homestay, the host made me a huge traditional Indonesian breakfast, which consisted of rice, basko (soup with chicken balls), fritters, fried tofu and fruit. Then I continued my journey to mount bromo, a 5 hour drive away.

Mount bromo - it was so much cooler this area. I was so cold lol. Also woke up early for this trek, at 3am. We had a big offroading jeep bring us as close as possible to the sunrise point where we watch the sun and clouds around mount bromo. The best sunrise I've ever seen 😍 after that we drove to mount bromo itself and explored the crater of the volcano. The lava was active inside of it. Super cool!Läs mer