Ijen Volcano: Are Tourists Exploiting the Sulphur Miners? (Hardest Job)
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2 سال پیش
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#ijenvolcano #kawahijen
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Mount Ijen in East Java, also known as Kawah Ijen, is best known for one of the hardest jobs in the world.
This volcano is the metaphorical office of sulphur miners. Hard men that get up in the middle of the night to mine sulphur, by hand and in choking conditions surrounded by toxic sulphur gas. Oh and they often carry 80-100kg of sulphur in rudimentary baskets 700m up and out of the crater and then the 3km trek down the volcano........for 8 cents a kilo.
It's humbling to watch.
Mount Ijen also lays claim to having the largest acidic crater lake in the world, with a lake that contains sulphuric acid and is 0.3 on the PH scale. In addition, it is one of only 2 places in the world where you can see the 'blue flames' where the sulphur gas that vents out of the rock ignites and burns with, you guessed it, a blue flame.
This trifecta, along with documentaries from National Geographic and Human Planet have made Mount Ijen somewhat of a tourist attraction. You climb the volcano at 2.30am to see the blue flames, watch the miners at work and then migrate to the crater rim for sunrise and pictures of the lake amongst petrified trees.
With easy overnight access from Bali, there is a question as to whether tourists are exploiting these sulphur miners in that they do the work to gain money from tourists. I personally didn't see that, though I'm no oracle.
What I can say is that a tour of Mount Ijen needs to be on your list if you're in Indonesia (or close to Java). Yes it's a beautiful, almost other worldly place, especially looking at the turquoise crater lake from atop the rim. Yes the blue flames are eery and fascinating. However, the reason you should go is to witness what can only be viewed as incredible feats of strength, endurance and to an extent, a humbling example of what some people have to do to put food on the table.
0:00 - Intro
0:32 - Background on climbing Mount Ijen
2:35 - Climbing to the top
5:15 - Electric blue flame of Ijen
6:11 - Sulphur miners in a volcano
9:53 - The crater rim
10:12 - The tree from Instagram
12:09 - Acidic volcano crater lake
12:38 - Drone of Kawah Ijen
15:53 - Are tourists exploiting the sulphur miners?
17:01 - A 67 year old sulphur miner
18:12 - Carrying sulphur
19:26 - Is a tour of mount Ijen worth it?
20:10 - Mount Ijen tour from Bali (with costs)
21:42 - A convert.
2 سال پیش
در تاریخ 1401/10/18 منتشر شده
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