Indonesia
When
April to Oct
Price
From 2 100€ excl. flights
(based on 2 people sharing)
How long
5 nights
Ideal length
Kawah Ijen, an active volcano in eastern Java, holds within its crater the most acidic lake in the world along with a unique natural phenomenon: electric blue flames caused by sulphurous gases combusting on contact with air, visible only at night. Sulphur miners continue to extract by hand, under extremely gruelling conditions, the bright yellow rock that gives rise to this spectacle, carrying it afterwards in bamboo baskets over several kilometres.
The blue flames of Kawah Ijen, a phenomenon observable in only two places in the world, are caused by the spontaneous combustion of very high-temperature sulphurous gases on contact with oxygen in the air, an electric fire visible only in the total darkness before dawn. The night ascent, made by headlamp across volcanic terrain sometimes crossed by toxic gas clouds requiring a mask, culminates facing this spectacle before sunrise reveals the world's most acidic turquoise lake.
Several hundred miners still descend into the Kawah Ijen crater every day to extract blocks of solidified sulphur by hand, which they then carry in bamboo baskets sometimes weighing over ninety kilos along several kilometres of steep trail to a weighing station. This work, among the most gruelling and dangerous in Indonesia due to prolonged exposure to toxic gases, nonetheless remains sought after for its pay, higher than other manual jobs in the region.
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A Mountain Lodge at the Foot of Kawah Ijen
A simple mountain lodge at the foot of Kawah Ijen, the starting point for the night ascent, heated rooms and a pre-dawn wake-up service for the blue flames excursion.
A Banyuwangi Coffee Plantation Boutique Hotel
A boutique hotel set amid a Banyuwangi coffee plantation, rooms overlooking the surrounding volcanoes, a tasting of coffee grown on site.
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