19 Apr 2023
We went to Ijen in late April and this tour was amazing! Our guide was Pebri and he was so kind and knowledgeable.
We were meant to be picked up at 2.30am to see the blue fire but it was closed as there were too many toxic gases where the blue fire normally is and the crater entry time was pushed back to 4am. So we changed our pickup to 6am as we needed some sleep and the only reason to get up early is to see the blue fire. Pebri and our driver Fredy had no problem with this and we're very accommodating. They were there right on time and brought us some food as well ????
We drove to the crater parking which took about 30 mins and Pebri organised all the tickets and parking for us. We then started the hike up which is about 3.2km (5km around the rest of the rim) and 500mish of climbing. The views were amazing and Pebri pointed out the different mountains and how Ijen was formed. When we got to the top there was a lot of smoke from the crater so we couldn't see anything straight away. We put on our gas masks that Pebri bright for us where all the sulphur rock and mineral are and then walked around the rim of the crater. Pebri "whistled" the wind to come and blow the smoke away with a traditional Indonesian kind of "wind whistle", like a rain dance. It must have worked as eventually the wind came and blew way all the smoke and we got some fantastic pictures. Pebri knew exactly where to stand and how long to wait for. Turns out others had been waiting over 2 hours and we only had to wait 10 minutes whilst walking around the crater rim.
Pebri took some awesome pictures and videos for us as well. When we were leaving, Pebri helped to book our ferry to Bali as well and then our taxi and second ferry to the hotel. He was so helpful.
All in all a great experience, would definitely recommend to everyone who visits Java and especially Pebri, what a guide.