Holiday in Banyuwangi: Indonesia's Blue Fire Volcano Party

Thetraveljunkie.org – In the midnight, my friends and I travelled around Banyuwangi. One of my favourite memories was hiked down into the Kawah Ijen, where blue fire can often be seen streaming down the mountain at night. The glow is actually the light from the combustion of sulfuric gases.

We spent close to 2 hours walking, hiking, and climbing on all kinds of grassy, rocky, muddy, sulfur surfaces. When we reached the top – we looked down and the world below was covered in a flames glow blue in the middle of the night. It was magical.

Ijen Plateau, part of a reserve that stretches northeast to Baluran National Park, was at one time a huge active crater, 134 sq km in area. Today, it is a quiet but active volcano, and the landscape is dominated by the volcanic cones of Ijen (2368m) and Merapi (2800m) on the northeast edge of the plateau, and Raung (3332m) on the south western corner.

The magnificent turquoise sulphur lake of Kawah Ijen lies at 2148m above sea level and is surrounded by the volcano’s sheer crater walls. Ijen’s last major eruption was in 1936, though a minor ash eruption occurred in 1952.

Been outside all day, in awe of nature. The warm light when the sun rises through the thick fog… It’s just pure magic. And quite impossible to captured this video. #tripofwonders #wonderfulindonesia

A video posted by THE TRAVEL JUNKIE (@traveljunkieid)

Sunrise out in the wild. Everything that’s not touched by the sun is covered in frost all through the day. ?? #tripofwonders #wonderfulindonesia

A video posted by THE TRAVEL JUNKIE (@traveljunkieid)

As we walked down of the mountain, we would moonwalk, like crazy Michael Jackson, down hills of loose grey pebbles, for metres at a time, jamming our shoes deep into the ground to find our footing.

Here, we were half way down the mountain.

As we walked, we watched the weather clear up around us. We took little breaks to just sit on the grass, talking, laughing and just watching the elements transform in front of our eyes.

It was just amazing. And it was one of the best days of my life.

And finally at 8 am, we arrived at our hotel: Ketapang Indah Hotel. Yaaaaas, we need a shower and 2 hours a traditional body massage!!!