Spontaneous 7-hour Road Trip to Kawah Ijen Volcano Indonesia

Have you ever taken a spontaneous road trip? This is a story about our spontaneous road trip to Kawah Ijen volcano in Java Indonesia.

The Plan: Road trip to Bromo

Our plan was initially to visit Mount Bromo, but that trip is canceled. Ahhh!  Bromo’s an active volcano, and it’s been particularly active recently, so we were told it’s just not safe. Roads are closed off and you can’t get anywhere remotely near to see it.

[Note to Indonesia: please set up a website that gets updated with this sort of information. It would go a looooong way towards making you a tourist-friendly country. Thanks.].

Plan B: Road Trip to Kawah Ijen

Plan B was to go to Ijen, a group of stratovolcanoes on the same island of Java, in Indonesia.  Our target was Kawah Ijen, a beautiful volcano with a turquoise-colored acid crater lake. Also, it has sulfur mining too.

Red eye road trip to Kawah Ijen

At 11pm we – Nadya, Dina, and Dina’s friend Afit – all hopped in the car. Now there’s a slight language barrier so perhaps I didn’t completely understand. I thought we were heading out to get food, and it turns out we had started driving towards Kawah Ijen. It’s a 7 hour drive!  5 hours just to the base of the mountain where we’d change cars.

Again on the drive I pause for a moment to appreciate the situation. We all just met within the week. I met Nadya a few days ago Bali. Then, I met her cousin and friend that night. After that, they decided to just hop in the car for a 7-hour road trip, on a Monday!  Yes they both have jobs – but worked it out. Spontaneous!

The plan was to meet up with Dina’s brother near the base of the mountain, since he has a more powerful car and you’d need it to get up the steep mountain.  Her brother said he’d have a friend drive us up. Again, this is exceptionally nice when you consider this is a difficult 2 hour drive.

What I didn’t realize was that her brother was Indonesian military!  We pulled into an Indonesian military base that morning, and Dina’s brother’s friend drove us up in his military jeep.

For more of my adventures through SE Asia, check out my Asia Travel Destination Guide.