Yogyakarta & Surabaya : Part 8 - The 19-hour Drive to Kawah Ijen

20082012 - Today is the day we start our drive towards Kawah Ijen (Ijen Crater).

Initially, I wanted to take the train and the bus to this place, but because I had to be so 'not-smart' and select the public holiday, there were no tickets for sale. One is not able to purchase the train ticket from another country, not unless you have someone who can buy for you from Indonesia and pass it to you. Yes, that is the difficult part. You have to purchase the ticket from Indonesia. So, I did some research and found a budget drive (from Bromo Adventureland : www.bromoadventureland.com) from Jogja towards Kawah Ijen. I did some bargaining and got a 3-day, 2-night package (Jogja --> Kawah Ijen --> Mount Bromo --> Surabaya) for Rp4,000,000 for 2 persons. Lunch and dinner is not part of the package. The price burnt a hole in my pocket, but there is always a first time in experiencing new things. Haha!

We had our breakfast before we started our journey. Because I love the crackers so much, I took two helpings! The crackers fizzled with the touch of the curry. *sizzle sizzle* Then, it was time to check out to start our journey to Kawah Ijen located in East Jawa. It was going to be a long drive. Distance of about 700km. Mr Wawan whom I liaised with in Bromo Adventureland mentioned that it was going to be a 12-hour drive. I thought to myself, 12 hours? Oh well.. I can handle 12 hours. No biggie. We were scheduled to leave at 8am and to arrive about 9pm.

And on the dot at 8am, our ride came! How very punctual. I like! I requested the driver to bring us to see Jogja Tower, as I saw a mural of it in the Hostel we stayed. It turns out to be a small tower in the middle of a busy road, which explained why it was not listed as a 'must-see' place. It was built as a symbol of independence, as back then Yogyakarta was the capital of Indonesia.

That is me and the driver, Pak Hafidz. He is such a friendly person that a friendship was built between us in that one day itself. Anyway, it helps because I am such a talker. Haha! By the way, Pak Hafidz also has his own personal driving tours. He even offered a price lower than the one I paid for Bromo Adventureland! And he also gave a brilliant suggestion that he would have bought on my behalf the train tickets and mailed them to me. Now, that I like! Here is Pak Hafidz contact details: +6281939706968 // bromo_driver@yahoo.com. // http://www.bromopoint.blogspot.com/. He offers tours to see the volcanic areas of Jawa Island. And he focuses on areas of Bali Island too. A bit of advertising for him here because he is definitely worth the space in my blog!

We passed by a market and stopped to see. There were many roses for sale and these flowers are for visits to the cemetery.

The journey towards East Jawa had sceneries of paddy field.

Then, we stopped for lunch. It was about 4.5 hours since we had been on the road and we had travelled 110km only. This was Ngawi District located in East Jawa. The traffic was really bad. It was going to get worst, Pak Hafidz said. 

For lunch, I took a bottled drink. And I had nasi pecel (rice with peanut sauce and basically lots of dishes). While my sister took a bowl of chicken noodles. How not very adventurous. Haha!

He explained to us that we will be reaching late to Kawah Ijen due to the bad traffic. Traffic is bad for 6 days from Eid Mubarak Day. We were expected to reach by 2am. In addition, Pak Hafidz has never driven from Jogja to Kawah Ijen before, as the driving hours were too long and the traffic during the festive season makes the drive longer. This was his first and last time.

The usual itinerary is to drive from Jogja to Mount Bromo, but ours was changed as we were flying back the same day and the distance from Kawah Ijen to the Airport was further compared to Mount Bromo and the Airport. Plus, the traffic may delay the drive and we do not want to miss our flight.

The railway tracks - my initial plan to take the train. The journey is shorter by train as there were no traffic lights, and definitely cheaper too. It is a 5-hour train ride from Jogja to Surabaya. From there, it was a about 4-hour bus ride to Ijen Crater. From 8am to 2am, it was an 18-hour drive.. I can only wish the time will move faster..

It was a bumper-to-bumper car ride. Plus, driving a manual is not very helpful, as the constant changing of the gear is tiring. I stayed awake after 11pm to accompany Pak Hafidz. He was so tired himself having insufficient sleep the night before. I talked to him during the drive, sat at the co-driver's place trying my best to say anything to keep his eyelids from dropping.

We reached our Homestay in Bondowoso (the town located near to Kawah Ijen) at 2.40am, after 19 hours stretching across 700km, driving through a bad traffic, quiet roads of the village towards Bondowoso, paddy plantation and hovering trees in the wee hours of the cold morning. 

This is an experience not to be repeated.