Indonesia: Ijen

Monday 3rd July
A lie in today at 8am! Kids were up earlier of course! Breakfast was from a warung (restaurant/ shack) next door to our homestay. Palm sugar dark rice with grated coconut. And one with plain rice and nuts/ sweet grated coconut on top.

Our homestay owner does this as a side hustle. So he works in customer service for an electricity company. He said he can hit his targets for the week in two days, so the rest of the time he can look after his homestay guests!

He took us for a walk around the village, rice paddies and farms which was stunning. Such hard work for the farmers here. Most of the community do farming.

He was talking about how their tribe have their own language and an elected tribal leader who is the go to between them and the government. They follow tribal customs rather than government ones. He said some interesting things about how if someone steals or does bad things in the village, they bring them together with their family, the leader and villagers to talk about what they can do to help that person. They feel like they let them down. Lovely approach. Our homestay guy had a fight with a friend once so he experienced it first hand!

It also means that elderly, or those who are on hard times, will always be supported. Villagers will provide them with a home, three meals a day, and so on.

We also visited a lovely Batik cottage industry where C & I bought large pieces of fab material. C has signed up for a fashion textile making course in the Autumn term so she’ll use hers to make a skirt or something.

The kids playing in the village.

Of course there was the usual burning of rubbish on the edge of the village

Home school then local (scrambles) duck eggs for dinner. Such a random texture because unpasteurised. But we live to tell the tale!

Tuesday 4th July
Another 3am start to go up Mount Ijen, another famous volcano you can climb to the top of. Our homestay host, Agus, arranged our trip and guide. An hour’s jeep to get there then about an hour or so steep climb up. A wide path, but still fairly hardcore with kids that are tired and dont want to go up!! We managed to distract H with football chat with our guide, Udin, because they both support Liverpool. And bribery of lollies and biscuits.

At the top it flattens out a bit. Then there’s a final 1km to the viewpoint. Where all the foreign tourists go. Buuuut when we got there the sulphur smoke was really strong so it was tough getting the kids up. H was too small for the gas mask and it was too stuffy for C. And T and I hadn’t put ours on for some reason. I think I thought it would be a shorter climb. So I pulled C up by the hand!

Totally worth it. Once we got through the smog, it was a clear sky so you could see the blue lake in the crater of the volcano, and all of the mountains around. Stunning. As beautiful as Bromo. Possibly more because we had to hike up, which always makes it feel like you’ve earnt it!

We stuck around for a while, forced a few photos from the kids (!). And watched the sun gradually go onto the lake. Which is made of sulphuric acid and is 150m deep. On top of it is a series of whirlwinds of the sulphur smoke that comes off it. And right next to the lake is where the sulphur smoke comes out. And that’s where the miners work to get the sulphur rock out. It is used in cosmetics and in processing sugar.

The walk back down was better because the smoke was blowing the other way.

Came down, had naps at home. Well, T and I did, the kids said they weren’t tired. Home school then playing with the kids on the street again. H fell over and hurt his wrist. He often falls over and gets sad but this was much more.

Dinner was funny. In a local warung where we communicated through google translate. They had some meatballs (not sure what meat!) in soup. And that’s it. Pouring with rain on the way home so absolutely drenched!

The night was terrible, he kept waking up screaming in pain. It was so awful to watch. Then I would give him calpol and he’d snooze. We were freaking out that it was broken. But the next morning it was a little better and our home stay owner took us to his doctor friend at the local hospital. He said it was just a sprain so gave us painkillers and a bandage. Phew! Another day, another hospital with Henry. He has def been more in his lifetime than all of us put together!

Wednesday 5th July
Hospital at 7am. Once we established it was fine, we continued our plans to go to the local swimming hole. It was a natural pool that they’d made into a formal swim area. H could only paddle but C had a swim in a inner tube ring we hired. He was okay with it, he got to eat treat snacks and play Dot Knot on Ts phone!

It was cool chatting to Agus, telling us about life in his village. Udin had mentioned that Agus knew about some voodoo that used to go on. I asked him but he wouldn’t reveal too much. But basically, Javanese tribes are known for their black magic. And the shamen in the tribes would kill people without touching them. In the old days!

Agus has been so amazing these last few days, showing us round, going above and beyond. Really special memories for all of us. He said when he wanted to set up his homestay he had to ask the village leader. Who said yes but he has to show foreigners their way of life and show them the village etc.

Travel afternoon, some random lunch at a roadside diner. Cost £5 for all 5 of us. It really is super cheap here. Our homestay was the 2nd cheapest place at £12 a night. For two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room. No hot water so we’ve been a while without (greasy hair anyone?!). Simple but comfortable.

Ferry to Bali island, a car to Permuteran which will be our home for 4 njghts. We were originally going to stay for a short time, but decided to skip all of the touristy bits of Bali. So we aren’t going to the usual suspects of Ubud, Denpasar etc. We’ve worked out we really enjoy smaller village feel places rather than bigger touristy spots so that’s what we are doing!

T and I have also decided that we are going to do another (full) gap year when H goes to Uni. So we will def come and spend at least 2 months here in Indonesia. Its such a huge country and we’ve just scratched the surface. Definitely a trip to Flores next time (we are flying in and out this time) and Sumatra and Lombok.