Holiday to Banyuwangi – Malang
This was our second trip after getting married and my wife was 3 months pregnant at that time. When we wanted to go the next day, we were informed that if we were pregnant, we had to have a permit for the flight, so we were forced to look for an obstetrician at the hospital in the afternoon. Alhamdulillah, indeed it is not lucky this time, yes, there have been 3 hospitals that we have visited around Slipi and Palmerah but there is no doctor’s schedule, so yes, bismillah. I was browsing for about 3 months of pregnancy, it was still safe for flights, so we left.
The five of us made an appointment directly at Soeta airport and took the night departure. Arriving at Juanda airport around 10 pm and the pick-up car has arrived for the trip to Banyuwangi, at midnight we stopped first at the ruman to eat at Warung Kencur about 1 hour, and in the morning we arrived at the house of a college friend Mas Guntor (doctor Purwanto, please googling, it turns out that he is quite famous in the Banyuwangi area).
After Friday prayers at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque, we went around looking for Asinan, I forgot what the name of the Asinan was, but finally I got it. Pulau Merah Beach is the first location we visited, we had to ask the locals many times because of the many branches of the road and finally arrived after 2 hours of travel. What is red? The small green hill with red soil located near the beach is what caused it to be called Red Island but we did not go there because of the unfriendly sea water.
After returning from there, we went straight to home to rest because at night we will go to Ijen Crater which is the main destination of this trip. Departing after Isha by passing through a dark forest (the wrong way, of course hahaha), seriously, you know, I had to get off first because of the excess “load”, ask the “residents” here and there, anyway it’s fun + plus Derry who is “skilled” to bring a car (he should have participated in the casting of Transporter).
Finally, at midnight, the entrance to Ijen Crater was also visible. After consultation, paying the down payment and favorable weather conditions finally assisted by the guide, we explored the dark road in the middle of the forest. I had to rest several times and joke until I finally saw Ijen Crater from the top of the crater after approximately 1.5 hours of travel.
Masya Allah, it looks very beautiful blue flames from the top of the crater but unfortunately my wife and I did not go down because the conditions were not possible (the road down was quite steep and the path was narrow plus it was drizzling at that time) so we could only see from the top.
After 30 minutes we decided to go back to a hut below to rest and unfortunately the lighting light we brought went off, thankfully the moonlight and cellphone screen faithfully accompanied us until we reached the hut which turned out to be still closed but we were able to rest outside. During the descent, we met other climbers who were going to the crater, most of them were foreigners who looked very excited.
About 3 hours later, we gathered at the hut and ordered some drinks and snacks to warm up. It turns out that the hut was also used by sulfur bearers for shelter as well, because when the sun rose there were several small huts around it. The pungent smell of sulfur came from the stones they brought and I bought some stones that had been carved into fish and turtles, the price was cheap, maybe not worth the process.
After gathering energy, we finally went back down and saw a large yard around the entrance, there were several stalls, toilets, car parking and shelters, far different from what we saw when we first came in the dark. Rest again for a while while paying the tour guide fee in full and finally we returned to Mas Pur’s house.
Arrive home around noon and rest again until nightfall. We had stopped by one of the hotels just to enjoy the moonlight reflected in the sea water and the roaring waves. Around 5 am we have arrived at Karang Asem Station to continue our journey to Malang, seen in the photo of a plain pillow-shaped face, hahahaha.
This trip feels very fun because you are beside my dear, uhuyyyyy. On the train, we just eat, drink, listen to music and sleep until we reach our destination. Unlike the arrival above, this time no one picked us up because we didn’t need a pick-up. It is about a 10-minute walk from the Station to the pre-booked lodging, the Hotel Helios. At first glance, it looks small but when you go inside, it’s spacious too.
During the day we tried to go around on foot, yes walk about 500 meters to Tugu Malang Square and continued 250 meters to Inggil Restaurant. When I entered this restaurant, I got a bit goosebumps because the place was a bit like that, many puppet masks seemed to glance at me, hiiiii. To eat here more appropriately while lesehan, the food prices are affordable and the taste is steady, you can come back here again next time.
After we went around aimlessly until we finally tried to get on the “grab”, why did I give a quotation mark? because at that time there was no application, so we contacted the CS and were picked up by them. The destination this time is Batu Tourism City. When we got into the car, it turned out that there were no back seats available and there were six of us, so you can imagine how “beautiful” the journey of the 2 men in the “back seat” was.
It turns out that it is very crowded, the name is also an entertainment place after all :) We tried several rides and the last one was the Ghost house which made me have to be brave, hahaha. We were not there for long, only about 3 hours and it made our legs want to fall out. What is no less interesting is, why don’t you try it? When we went out the gate, we saw the car we had rented to come here right in front of us and fortunately the driver still remembered, because at that time the position was empty, we immediately greeted the driver and thank God, it turned out that he wanted to take us back.
Satanic Noodles, we didn’t go back to the hotel but had dinner here first. As the name implies, it’s actually not really my menu, finally order the lowest level and I think it’s quite spicy, but the drink is steady, it can rival the spiciness of the noodles. The place is quite comfortable, it seems that this is a house that is used as a place to eat, most of the young people who come here, some are in pairs and some are in groups like us, yes in 2014 I was still young, hehehe.
Arrive at the hotel to unwind because the next day we will return to Jakarta. After breakfast and packing our belongings, we went back to the Safari Dharma Raya bus location, yup they would take a bus to Jakarta while my wife and I only took a temporary ride to the Arjosari terminal, then from here I took a bus to Juanda Airport, even though it was jammed we were not too afraid of missing the plane because we got a night flight. Alhamdulillah, I finally arrived home about 2 hours after takeoff and they ??? They arrived in the morning at around 7 a.m.
Oh yes, if you see that there is a “difference” in the photos, please understand because we invited Mas Guntor, don’t you know who he is? Kaskus Veterans.