sansara : approaching the volcano

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Travels / Approaching the volcano

22.12.2009 : Ijen, Indonesia

(published on 22.12.2009)

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You should be at the plateau around 5am to reach the volcano by sunrise, but right before it we had 12 hour journey on motorbike (with breaks) and we would sleep much longer if not for the mullah's singing from a mosque right next to our room - genuine and natural indonesian alarm clock. So we woke up at 4:30, laughed a bit, complained some more about him being so loud and took our leave. We did not manage to see the sunrise on the volcano but then managed to see some mountains. So, we had to walk 3 kilometers by a road among trees.

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The accent is not too stiff but quite notable. Especially in the morning, especially when you're so sleepy. But then we got warm! One of main mistakes of travelers going to Indonesia not only for Bali but also for volcanoes in Java is forgetting warm clothes. These mountains are almost like Nepal, especially if you travel by motorbike... We wrapped ourselves into everything we had and I also held the driver tightly - it's so much more comfortable to be a passenger. And this is a bench where you can have some rest.

On our way we saw baskets with strange yellow objects which made me very interested.

What is this?

Almost all the places to sit and rest are covered with yellow stuff - small parts of these yellow objects.

And time after time we could see indonesians loaded with these baskets passing by.

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There is a small cafe approximately half way to the volcano. Here you can have some quick and simple snack and of course enjoy a cup of my beloved indonesian coffee. The one smiling on the photo is my friend Sergey, a heroic biker. Why is he heroic? You will find out from other stories :)

Here these strange indonesians with these strange baskets weight their strange content. The numbers are beyond our imagination - it's truly heavy job.

I find another basket next to cafe. These things are really beautiful.

They look like stalactites but why do they have "holders"?

The rest is over. Time to go.

Something interesting can be seen afar in mist.

There are other interesting things quite close as well. It's morning dew.

Landscape becomes different after cafe. First we walked a path in the forest but now it's a road along mountain slope carefully fixed at especially dangerous places.

And these workers with baskets are just everywhere.

Wow! I start feeling more and more amazed with each step I take. These barren trees are so wonderful!

These road curves, this mist...

Silhouettes of trees and mountains coming out of it.

This is the tropical Asia I wanted to see so much.

Somebody of my readers compared these landscapes with nature of Pandora. And somebody else also said that it was exactly Asia which inspired the producer.

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Replace red with blue and violet and you get exactly that planet.

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Sun is quite high, by the way. Sorry for so many similar images, it's too beautiful to my point of view, I cannot choose anything.

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Meanwhile the landscape changes again. The nature turns into desert, the plants become dry and new species appear... but I still cannot take my eyes off the mountain in mist.

Approximately till this moment my friend used to complain that everything is nothing special, that it was not worthy coming here, making such long journey as he had seen similar landscapes in Russia as well... but here his disappointment started to fade. Yes, it's something new.

This is not plainly mountains we're strolling through, we are going to volcano. Burnt snag remind us about that.

But the eruption must have happened quite long ago. Some black snag are already overgrown with flowers. Life and death are neighbors here.

Such interesting plants. Must be some of those which can grow only near to volcanoes, only in hot soil.

Here are again these indonesians with their baskets full of yellow objects. They have their rest, smoke, smile at tourists. Soon, very very soon my sleepy mind would wake up eventually and I would understand what is that they are carrying. But you all must have understood already without my words.