Hey, everyone! The past week has been… volcanic. Since leaving Gili Air and Bali, I’ve been in the island of Java, the most volcanically active island in Indonesia. Oddly enough, that’s also the most populated island in Indonesia. The past several days have been entertaining and absurd – with two major dreams of mine coming true. I have been lucky enough to realize quite a few dreams since I’ve been in Indonesia.

A few housekeeping things:

1) I have started a podcast on Spotify called Rose Thorn Bouquet. Please check it out!
2) If you’re interested in my art, have a look at my merchandise on RedBubble!
3) I have recently finished the first draft of my latest novel, The Death of Duncan Lee. I’ve sent it out to some friends to get feedback and I’m really excited to have it done(ish) finally. If you haven’t read it already, the link to my first book, Eclipse Me can be found here.

Ijen Blue Flames

I saw photos of the Ijen blue flames years ago and so it was one of two items on my Must-Do list while in Indonesia. One of those was seeing Komodo dragons in Komodo National Park (check!) and the other was the Ijen blue flames.

I originally intended to relax for two nights before going on a tour to Ijen but in the interest of time, I decided to just book the trip to start that evening. In Java, there are a few tour options. I could have chosen to do just Ijen, or mixed it with Bromo, or made it a three day affair and also gone to Tumpak Sewu waterfall. I didn’t know anything about Bromo and wasn’t that interested in seeing a waterfall but something told me to just bite the bullet and so I did.

I arrived in Banyuwangi in the early afternoon after a ~6hr travel day from Padangbai, Bali. Maybe 10 hours later, I was embarking on an exhausting 3 day adventure.

After a humiliating dinner (which I’ll talk about in the Miscellaneous section), and a birthday chat with my dad, I tried for a short nap before the 12am call time.

I hopped in the van and we drove about 40min to another spot, where we stayed about an hour, waiting to pick up others. Sleepily, everyone entered the van and we drove another hour to get to the Ijen trail start. We stopped for coffee and snacks, where I put on some warm clothes (good thing I didn’t ditch my jumper yet!). I was tickled to see that a Kiwi guy I had been talking to in Lombok was on the same tour as me. Once we started the hike, he and I talked about Aotearoa New Zealand, kiwi birds, wildlife, and Indonesia for majority of the hike. The world is small.

Before we began our hiking adventure, we were equipped with head torches and gas masks. I had my own heard torch but, in hindsight, I should have grabbed one of theirs. I didn’t need to use mine majority of the hike because the trail was so crowded with people, I was able to see the path lit up. However, later in the evening, when we were descending into the crater, I turned mine on… and it died lol. I was still able to rely on the light from others’ torches, but would have been more pleasant to have my own.

So basically the hike went as such: uphill, uphill, uphill, uphill. That portion was fine because Max and I were chatting the whole time. But then once we got to the crater rim, we had to hike down, down, down, down. At this point it was maybe 3.30am and it was a race against time. The blue flames are only visible until sunrise. I was feeling anxious because it was a complete clusterfuck in terms of the queue down to the crater. Only a narrow, winding path with people of all fitness levels trying to hike down a dangerous trail in the middle of the night. EEK! Would we make it in time? Safely?!

We did.

Once our group had descended, our tour guide cautioned us that when we go by the flames… “don’t panic.” I didn’t know what he meant at the time, but I learned shortly thereafter.

The reason for the blue flame color is a reaction from the volcano’s sulphuric gasses as they reach the surface/oxygen. I am not a volcanologist, so feel free to look it up more if you’re really interested in the reason. All I knew was… BLUE FLAMES! And here I was, seeing them. Check!

There was a slight breeze and so the gas plumes were billowing across the flames, occasionally obscuring the crowd’s view. While it was very cool to finally be seeing the blue flames, I was also disappointed. There were too many people. The section of the flames was smaller than I thought. And because of the smoke, it was hard to observe it properly or even get a good picture with my nice camera. In the end, I shouldn’t have even bothered bringing my camera haha. Extra weight on the hike for no reason.

And then the “don’t panic” moment came in. The wind blew the smoke directly at the crowd and instantly, it struck me. I choked for a second, then coughed. My eyes watered and my nose started running with a thick mucus to protect me. I definitely shaved five years off my life in that moment. I immediately turned my back to the clouds of smoke but it was still scary.

What’s worse, though, is that there are people mining sulphur at the crater every day. They are not using proper protective equipment. And the sulphur they’re mining is only 1,000 rupiah a kilo. Let’s say they could carry… I don’t know, 50 kilos. That’s 50,000 rupiah, which is the price I would pay for a dinner at a local restaurant – like $3 USD. The miners also are carrying their baskets of sulphur up the challenging trail, having to weave through the mess of tourists.

This stuff really soured the experience for me. It was just… sad. And dangerous. This really shouldn’t be a tourist attraction. Or rather, people shouldn’t be able to get as close to it as they were. Our guides had us crouch down pretty near to the flames. I even saw one girl tapping her fingers on the ground right next to the flames. Crazy!

After the initial choking, I quickly left the flames area. I couldn’t find my guide or my group. This was a common trend throughout the hike and was something I found very annoying. Why weren’t we setting meeting places? Sometimes our group wasn’t sure if our guide was in front of or behind us. And down in the crater, that is infinitely more important to be able to find your guide. My guide found me later and asked if I wanted a photo with the flames. No, I didn’t. But then… actually, yeah. “For my mom,” I always tell people haha. I braved it once more and – okay, I’m happy with the picture lol.

The sun started to rise and the scenery around us revealed itself. It was alien and barren.

Such an unusual landscape.

Shortly after sunrise, we began our ascent. Much easier to go up than to go down. Less people, too!

While I was thrilled to have realized my dream of seeing the blue flames, I was also happy to be getting the hell out of there. My clothes reeked of sulphur.

On the way back down, our guide spotted some Javanese langur monkeys – they have the WEIRDEST haircuts! It was my first time seeing them so in the end I was glad I brought my camera.

Oh, and I haven’t mentioned… one option along the hike going up to the top of the crater is to be wheeled around by locals. “Beep, beep,” the locals would say as they carted one person after the next up the hill. What a workout. Max and I had mixed feelings about this. Max said, “if you can’t hike up, you don’t deserve to see it.”

How awful to have to hike uphill for an hour while pushing a human in what is essentially a wheelbarrow. Lord have mercy. And at the same time… it’s a living. Where there are tourists, there is a way to make money.

Finally, we arrived at basecamp. It was now maybe 6am at this point. There was another girl on the tour whom I had overheard Max talking to, who had said she was from Argentina. She and I started talking and I asked if I could practice my Spanish with her. Her name was Flo (although, I didn’t learn this until many hours later) and we quickly became buddies. While the others were finishing their tour that day and getting dropped off at Banyuwangi, she and I were on the same tour for the next 3 days. We talked in Spanglish – me in Spanish mostly, and she in English. She sprinkled in the occasional Spanish for me, though, which is appreciated because I need to get more familiar with hearing the language spoken to me.

The rest of the day was chaos. We dropped many of the others off at Banyuwangi harbor but we still had to continue for another 6 hours to get to Surabaya and then Malang. Unfortunately, early on, we hit incredibly heavy traffic. What should have been a 6 hour driving day turned into an all day affair. I don’t think we arrived to our accommodation until 9pm. Luckily, we didn’t have to be awake until 8am the following day.

P.S. the poor driver shared with me that he does that commute constantly for his job. “When do you sleep?” I asked him. He sort of shrugged, implying there isn’t much sleep involved.

Tumpak Sewu Waterfall

After a very restful sleep, I headed down to the lobby to begin Day Two’s adventure. Flo and I were the only OGs on our tour this time. The rest were from China, although only a few of them were traveling together.

We drove two hours to get to the waterfall. I wasn’t sure what to expect. If you’ve been following along for a while, you’ll know that I typically don’t look at pictures of attractions I want to visit. I like to be surprised. Because this waterfall was such a major tourist attraction, I figured it had to be pretty good.

Our first stop was at the panoramic viewpoint, where we could see the waterfall from above. Okay, sweet. We took some pictures. Flo and I talked about the waterfall, how cool and lush the area was. Our guide ended up snapping an incognito photo of the two of us. Cute! He also thought we were a couple, which we played up later in the day.

From the viewpoint, we hiked down to the floor of the canyon. I didn’t realize we would actually be going there, surrounded by the towering cliffs and the waterfall itself.

How beautiful it was! Birds flew through the area. At times, mist kicked up and made the area foggy and blurry. Because I wear glasses, my vision was clouded by the moisture that clung to my lenses. I wiped the water and continued on. Our group hiked to a better vantage point and took photos.

Flo and I got a photo with our guide – Flo held her hand up as if we had recently been engaged. “He thinks we’re on our honeymoon,” she joked.

Our group admired the waterfall for some time.

While I love mountains, what I really love is being immersed and surrounded. It is humbling and makes me feel small, enshrouded by the nature around me. I really enjoyed our time at the waterfall!

As we were driving back, I was surprised to see a lone sunflower on the side of the road. To me, seeing an out of place sunflower means that I am on the right path. I had to message Tijana, my Serbian friend from Gili Air, immediately. We had just been talking about this a few days prior. I explained the situation to Flo. “What flower is that?” She asked. I pulled up a picture. “Girasol,” she told me. “It means to turn to the sun.” Of course, another reason why they are meaningful. The faces of sunflowers actually track the sun throughout the day. A lesson in life. Follow the light!

We arrived back at our accommodation in the afternoon. The next day was another early rise. We had to be up at midnight again. I grabbed a bite to eat, tried for a nap, and before long, I was waking up for the last day of the tour.

Mount Bromo National Park

I didn’t know that Mount Bromo was another volcanic region. Honestly, I thought it was just a mountain climb. I was in for quite a treat!

I headed down to the lobby and our group was ushered into… not a van, this time, but a BUS! Sweet relief! Being in vans the past couple days was wreaking havoc on my back. Tight quarters and uncomfortable. The bus felt like such a luxury. But then, my relief was dashed because one of the organizers came on the bus and explained that since I was going to be coming back to the hotel and not to the airport like the others, I was to be moved to a Jeep. Huh?

It all happened so quickly and I thought I would be meeting up with my group later, so I ushered a quick, “bye!” and jumped into the Jeep.

Talk about a downgrade! I was squished into the back of a Jeep along with three others (and two in the front). Two were from Spain, three were from France. A few minutes into the drive, I realized that the French girl sitting directly in front of me was actually the girl I traveled from Southern Leyte to Cebu with a few months back. I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t recognize her at first because it was so dark in the back of the Jeep and I was still waking up. We caught up on our travels since the Philippines.

We drove about two hours to our first destination of the day. The ride was bumpy and occasionally, I hit my head on the ceiling of the Jeep. LORD. How I wish I’d been able to stay on that bus!

There was a section of the drive where we were driving through thick fog. I couldn’t see anything through the front windshield, so I have no idea how the driver was doing it. To the sides, I could see some wooden posts coming out of the ground. I suppose the driver has done it so many times, he knows the path with his eyes closed. It was a little scary, though!

I also was feeling bummed out that I wasn’t able to have a proper farewell with Flo. She and I had some really great conversations during our time together and it felt lame that we didn’t get to say goodbye. Luckily, we had connected on social media.

Eventually, we made it to the spot. Our guide told us he would wait in the car (probably sleeping) and that we could hang out at the warung for another hour before beginning our hike to the top. Our group was allowed inside the warung, where we were able to escape the cool night air. The six of us talked throughout. Eventually, we began our hike. It was much easier than both Ijen and the waterfall, which I was grateful for. Save the easiest for last, please! I felt bad for the people on tour from our first day, who had two midnight wake-ups in a row.

Our group secured a good spot for sunrise and as light began to enter the sky, we were able to see the volcanoes in the distance. One of them, Mount Bromo, was emitting a constant plume of smoke. The other, Mount Cemeru, was also puffing out smoke every few minutes. What a treat!

The sun kissed the day and the features of the volcanoes became more apparent. What a lovely view. In hindsight, I had seen a picture of it at some point in the past but wow, were we lucky to be seeing it. With some clouds, the view easily could have been ruined. This goes for much of the views lately.

Our guide asked us to head back to the Jeep after sunrise so we could get to our next spot. We did so. Along the walk down, I spotted one of the most beautiful horses I’ve ever seen. PINK HAIR!

We were driven through the same area as earlier in the morning – the flat plateau of fog. Only, now the fog had cleared up a little. The guide parked the car and said, “that way, about one kilometer.” Um… WHAT is that way? But we did as he instructed. It felt like a scene out of Mad Max – fog forming a screen over the area. The sun climbed higher, with silhouetted men on horses riding through the area.

Eventually, we exited the fog and realized where we were going. To the rim of Mount Bromo. WHAT?

The hike wasn’t overly strenuous, but it was a short, somewhat intense incline. Now that the sun was bringing the heat, it felt like a workout.

Once we’d reached the top, we were able to peer down into the caldera of Mount Bromo, which continued to spit plumes of smoke high into the sky. How incredible.

We could hear the volcano down below, making its eery noises. We enjoyed the volcano for several minutes and eventually began to descend. Along the way, I ended up seeing some of the Chinese people from my original group. “Oh, hey!” I said, smiling. I wondered if I would see Flo. And then, sure enough, there she was, ascending while I was descending. We embraced and talked about how abrupt our parting was. I told her I’m glad that we met, how I’m sorry for my poor Spanish but that I’m grateful she let me practice. She told me that if I’m ever in Argentina, I’m welcome to visit her and I told her same goes for me. Buen viaje, mi amiga!

What a pleasure to be able to bump into her again and have a proper farewell!

After the crater rim, we began our drive back to Malang. We all tried to sleep, but I don’t think any of us were really able except for Miriam (my friend from the Philippines), who was so exhausted she couldn’t keep her head up. I felt a little bad for her because she has been very on-the-go lately and it was showing. She needs to rest her body/mind for a while. Definitely an important lesson when long term traveling. We can only push ourselves so hard until we really need time to decompress and do… nothing. It seemed like she wasn’t able to enjoy the tour as much as she would have liked had she been rested. She didn’t even go to the crater rim at Bromo. Luckily, I’d been doing plenty of resting prior to Komodo.

While others were heading to the airport, I decided to stay another night at the same hotel before continuing on to Yogyakarta. I knew I needed to rest, and desperately! So, that’s what I did.

Mount Merapi

The next morning, I took a 6hr train from Malang to Yogyakarta, one of my last few destinations in Indonesia. The ride was easy – I also got Executive Class tickets… traveling in style. The train passed plenty of rice fields and also a neighborhood of colorful houses, which reminded me of Gamcheon Village in Busan, South Korea.

Another reason the ride was easy was because I basically played Zelda the entire ride. Before I knew it, we were in Yogyakarta. I took a Gojek to my accommodation, got dinner, and that was about it.

I have met a few people who have been to Yogyakarta. I knew it as the “cultural hub of Indonesia,” featuring two of the largest Hindu and Buddhist temples in the world. So, I may go see those in the next few days. But what I DIDN’T know, whatsoever, is that Yogyakarta is also near Mount Merapi, Indonesia’s most active volcano.

I checked the weather and decided that my second night in Yogyakarta was the best option for taking a tour to the volcano. A lot of the other nights seemed very overcast and rainy. I messaged a tour guide on WhatsApp and he said he had availability. But then, checking TripAdvisor, I kept seeing a guide named Ignatius mentioned everywhere. Ignatius grew up in a village near the volcano and had been doing tours for 20+ years. Everyone was recommending him. Eagerly, I messaged him, hoping he would have availability that night. Sure enough, he did! I cancelled on the other tour.

At 10pm, Ignatius and his driver picked me up. Then, we picked up a group of French guys… who ended up being very annoying. One of them was just talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, TALKING the entire night. There was hardly any break at all. It took everything I had not to say, “can you shut the fuck up, please?” So aggravating.

We drove about two hours to the viewpoint of Mount Merapi, 3km away from the volcano, where a campfire was lit and our chairs were placed. The first few minutes, I stared at the volcano, hoping to see some molten lava. And then… a spark. I turned to one of the guys and said, “that spark there is the very time I’ve ever seen molten lava.” “Me, too.”

Seeing molten lava has been a bucket list item for me since well before Komodo dragons and the Ijen blue flames. So to see it for the first time was very exciting for me. I just hoped I would see some more, because all we got was a spark.

Maybe a minute after the spark, clouds obscured the volcano. Damn it. I knew it was partly cloudy, but if this was the case the entire night, that would suck!

The clouds hung around for maybe half an hour before we could see the volcano again. Another patch of clouds were rolling in. Would it spit out some lava before then? Nope.

I wondered if all we would get was that first hint of lava.

The next time the clouds cleared, a while later, things looked up. Ignatius explained to us that there are two craters atop the volcano – that they often take turns spilling out lava. Sometimes they both go at the same time.

There it was. Lava, spilling down the side of the volcano. Lava spilled over the caldera, sometimes a trickle, sometimes a cascade. When we were lucky, there would be a proper flow that would fork and separate into terraced lava flows, seemingly making its way down the entire volcano. WOW.

When the French guy would shut his mouth, we could even hear the lava cascading down the slopes – sounding almost like a mini-avalanche.

I couldn’t believe the speed and the distance at which the lava could travel. It rolled hundreds of feet down the volcano at a pretty rapid rate.

Some of the displays that volcano put on for us were really incredible. I was impressed and delighted that I was able to see molten lava for the first time in my life. I knew I was pushing my luck – that I’ve had really good experiences with weather and volcanoes lately (Ijen, Bromo), so to see the molten lava multiple times that evening felt like such a blessing – even with thick cloud rolling in at times. Especially considering, twelve hours earlier, I had no idea these lava tours were even an option in Indonesia. I thought I would have to go to Mount Etna or Guatemala to see molten lava. Of course, I’d love to see it safely from a somewhat close distance. I think that will be in Hawaii one day.

It was a cold evening. While we had a fire going, the French boys were surrounding it and I wanted to be far away from them so I didn’t have to hear the guy talking quite as loudly. I had a sleeping bag wrapped around me but was still shivering.

Before the night was over, we had two big lava flows that were more notable than all the others (one is above, the other photo is below). Ignatius had us lining up for photos. Note that this is a long exposure, so the photos he took show multiple lava flows at once but really this was over a 10sec capture. Still incredible to think that this much lava can pour down the volcano in just 10sec!

As dawn began, we were ready to leave. Two hours later, I returned to my hostel and slept until 2pm.

But… LAVA! Java Lava!!!

What a delight.

That was yesterday morning. I have a few more days in Yogyakarta. I will likely go to one, if not both, of the temples I mentioned earlier before heading to Jakarta on the 1st of August.

Indonesia continues to surprise me.

Miscellaneous

I have to share one of the most humiliating dinner experiences I’ve ever had. In Banyuwangi, before starting my three day tour, I went out for dinner at a nearby Western restaurant. Honestly, I have been so sick of rice/noodles lately, so I have been trying to mix it up when I can. So I got to the restaurant and was given a piece of paper to write down my order. I decided on a chicken kebab and an iced tea. When the hostess came by to collect my order, she apologized and said that they can’t do chicken, only beef. I didn’t feel like a beef kebab, so I said nevermind, that, actually, I would just have a salad. She wrote something down but I noticed she didn’t cross out the kebab. Hmm. As she walked away, I wondered if I should double check, but then decided against it. There was definitely a language barrier because ten minutes later, a kebab came out. Ah, shit. It looked great but now it seemed as though I ordered both a kebab AND a salad. I went up to the cashier to try and explain the situation and said – I have no problem paying for both, but could they just box up the salad? She wasn’t understanding what I was saying, so I used GoogleTranslate. She grabbed the manager, whom I explained the situation to. I then said, “sorry – if the salad isn’t made yet, I’m happy to just have the kebab,” etc. I was honestly trying NOT to be a pain in the ass. I really try not to inconvenience waitstaff. They ended up taking back the delicious-looking kebab and giving me a garden salad which was way less appetizing. They proceeded to laugh at me in Bahasa. At one point, I looked over at them and everyone was standing at the counter, looking at me while the hostess explained the situation to them. Mean! In hindsight, I think what happened was that they had just added a side-salad to the kebab order and there was never a full-sized salad being made for me. So, I just made things worse for myself. Alas. Here I am, turning into the Worst Customer of the Week inadvertently. But still, fuck them for making fun of me.

At Ijen, I was supposed to get a medical certificate to clear me to do the hike. The tour organizer said that it’s “included,” but no one ever did a medical examination lol. They just asked for passport details, which is common for tours. I realized later that the reason they probably asked for passport in lieu of medical certificate is that… if I die, they’re able to identify my body LOL. AHH!!!! Which brings me to the concept that nothing is “safe” in Indonesia – sometimes there are no seatbelts, no helmets on scooter rides… you can stand right next to volcanic flames and choke on the smoke… boats be capsizing and lighting on fire. Lord have mercy. Being in Indonesia certainly equates to living on the edge.

I have recently learned that Bahasa is spoken not only in Indonesia, but also Malaysia, Singapore, AND Brunei. I had no idea! It’s exciting for me, because I’ve been picking up more phrases in Bahasa and it’s nice that I’ll be able to use them in Malaysia as well.

One of those phrases is “hati hati,” which means “slowly!” It’s funny, because everyone in Indonesia drives so damn fast.

In Yogyakarta, I also went to the Water Castle / Tamansari one morning. It is an old palace that has water baths where corcubines used to bathe, waiting for the Sultan to pick which consort to choose for the day LOL. I had one unpleasant experience there. A guide came up and was chatting with me, saying he wanted to practice his English. We talked for maybe five minutes and at one point, he invited me for coffee/biscuits. I told him I don’t like coffee and he said that’s okay, it’s part of the cultural experience, etc. Reluctantly, I agreed. I thought he had some of his own coffee that he would be sharing with me, but instead he took me to his friends’ shop. My jaw nearly dropped when I found out it was 100,000 rupiah for one of the coffees. That’s about $6 so not super expensive, but that could have been the cost of lunch for the day! I was still hesitant but the two of them were pressuring me. I told them I didn’t like coffee, etc. but eventually I just gave in because it was easier than being a dick and walking out on them. $6 for a coffee that comes from the processed shit of a mongoose. I had one sip and left. I would have been more than happy to just pay the guide to show me around the palace instead. Alas.

Art of the Week

Really thrilled to be sharing this piece. Inspired by the Komodo dragons of Rinca Island. I drew this while aboard the sailing trip. Drawing while on a moving ship is not the easiest thing to do, but I’m very pleased with how it turned out. I’ve been wanting to explore tongues as serpentine objects surrounding the human subject and this was my first introduction to it. I’m really happy with this one!

Reflections

There were a few days from Gili Air to Yogyakarta where I was feeling on top of the world. It seemed as if everything was flowing. I felt thrilled with the connection I was having with others and the adventures. I think, largely, this is due to joining group tours. Bonds are formed quickly and it’s easy to enjoy fresh sights with other travelers. It has been really nice! My mood soured slightly when I got to Yogyakarta, only because the accommodation that I booked is kind of far from the main area. The outlet next to my bed doesn’t work, so I have to charge my devices in the common area, which doesn’t have air conditioning, etc. But this is all fine – this kind of stuff happens while traveling. I think I would just be happier if I was in a better location because it seems kinda far from everything. Still, at $4 USD a night, it’s hard to complain. Once I get to Jakarta, I’ll get private accommodation and live in luxury for a few days before living the opposite: camping in the Sumatran jungle.

All is good, though. I feel stable and am enjoying myself!

Until next time, sending you all my love. xx