Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

A Different Kind of Honeymoon

volcano trekking on the island of Java

Javanese sulfur miners alongside the Ijen crater lake.
Javanese sulfur miners alongside the Ijen crater lake.

After spending a week running around the island of Borneo, including stops in traditional villages of Sabah, Malaysia, and the primary rainforests of Brunei, we arrived in the capital of Indonesia at 3 a.m. Waking, we found Jakarta to be a large (18 million people), dirty and hot (102 degrees) city.

We quickly decided to get "back into nature" – if that was possible on Indonesia's most populous island – by doing a tour of Java's volcanoes. We set off on an overnight train to central Java, where we took an exceedingly slow bemo (like an old VW without doors) ride up to an abandoned building, where we transfered to a jeep for the final ascent up to a small village to await our sunrise hike overlooking Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park.

Sponsored
Sponsored
volcano hunting in Java

After two hours of sleep, we awoke at 3 a.m. to find another jeep to drive higher up the mountain to a waiting horse that dropped us at a trail which led 30 minutes straight up to the most amazing sunrise. Perched precariously on a cliff, with a view over the Javanese "sea of sand" and multiple active, smoking volcanoes, we decided the 18 hours of travel was worth it.

But that wasn't the end of the journey. After crossing and hiking into one of the craters, we were at an impasse: without a hotel room, we had nowhere to go and it was only 10 a.m. So we decided to continue on to what was described as a "more active and dangerous" volcano.

We took the jeep down to the bemo, and on to another public bus that took us to the east coast of Java, arriving at 2 a.m. Luckily, the ascent of Ijen volcanic crater began at 3 a.m.

We immediately found another jeep and drove the two hours to the trail up to the crater. Along the way we passed the sulfur miners of Indonesia – amazing men who walk four hours up and down the mountain with 90 kg of sulfur on their backs for roughly 70 cents a trip.

view of Ijen from above

After an exhausting hike and inhaling sulfuric fumes that burn the lungs, we decided they're probably underpaid. When the smoke cleared in Ijen crater, we had a breathtaking view of the world's largest sulfur crater lake.

We then hiked the two hours down, took the jeep back to town and decided it was time to get a hotel and relax; it was, after all, our long-awaited relaxing honeymoon.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Time’s up for Doubletime Recording Studio

Owner Jeff Forrest is trading El Cajon for Portugal
Next Article

Reader writer fends off attacks on Encinitas cliff story

Says each letter writer takes on only part of the article
Javanese sulfur miners alongside the Ijen crater lake.
Javanese sulfur miners alongside the Ijen crater lake.

After spending a week running around the island of Borneo, including stops in traditional villages of Sabah, Malaysia, and the primary rainforests of Brunei, we arrived in the capital of Indonesia at 3 a.m. Waking, we found Jakarta to be a large (18 million people), dirty and hot (102 degrees) city.

We quickly decided to get "back into nature" – if that was possible on Indonesia's most populous island – by doing a tour of Java's volcanoes. We set off on an overnight train to central Java, where we took an exceedingly slow bemo (like an old VW without doors) ride up to an abandoned building, where we transfered to a jeep for the final ascent up to a small village to await our sunrise hike overlooking Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park.

Sponsored
Sponsored
volcano hunting in Java

After two hours of sleep, we awoke at 3 a.m. to find another jeep to drive higher up the mountain to a waiting horse that dropped us at a trail which led 30 minutes straight up to the most amazing sunrise. Perched precariously on a cliff, with a view over the Javanese "sea of sand" and multiple active, smoking volcanoes, we decided the 18 hours of travel was worth it.

But that wasn't the end of the journey. After crossing and hiking into one of the craters, we were at an impasse: without a hotel room, we had nowhere to go and it was only 10 a.m. So we decided to continue on to what was described as a "more active and dangerous" volcano.

We took the jeep down to the bemo, and on to another public bus that took us to the east coast of Java, arriving at 2 a.m. Luckily, the ascent of Ijen volcanic crater began at 3 a.m.

We immediately found another jeep and drove the two hours to the trail up to the crater. Along the way we passed the sulfur miners of Indonesia – amazing men who walk four hours up and down the mountain with 90 kg of sulfur on their backs for roughly 70 cents a trip.

view of Ijen from above

After an exhausting hike and inhaling sulfuric fumes that burn the lungs, we decided they're probably underpaid. When the smoke cleared in Ijen crater, we had a breathtaking view of the world's largest sulfur crater lake.

We then hiked the two hours down, took the jeep back to town and decided it was time to get a hotel and relax; it was, after all, our long-awaited relaxing honeymoon.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The greatest symphonist of them all

Havergal Brian wrote over 30 of them
Next Article

How to make a hit Christmas song

Feeling is key, but money helps too
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader