Ijen Volcano - Arabica Homestay
It was easy to reach Arabica Homestay on the valley of Ijen volcano in Jumpit village. The road to get there was narrow but smooth. The homestay looked better than the pictures of it I saw in the internet. It was located within the coffee factory and was surrounded by coffee plantation.
Almost all rooms were booked on that day by a group of French tourists. We were lucky to get one last room for US$ 20 a night. Our room was one of the three rooms in the left wing villa. It was old but clean and pretty decent for adventurous tourists.
We got everything we needed to spend a night at the homestay except hospitality. The workers were anything but friendly. Two of them even got involved in a violent fight with a tourist in the night. It was almost like a bar fight scene in Desperado movie.
In addition to frowning faces, the homestay served INSTANT foods in their restaurant. It was unbelievable. Jampit, where the homestay is located, is predominated by Maduranese and they actually have a great culinary culture and vegetables farm was a walk away from the homestay. I didn´t understand why they served instant foods.
At least they served high quality freshly brewed coffee and crunchy macademia nuts along with the instant noodle. Both of them were local produce. The coffee aroma from the nearby coffee factory tickled the air. It was really pleasent. The garden which was filled with colorful flowers was also a good distraction.
Above of all, the beautiful view of Ijen Voncano from the homestay restaurant made us forget the bad eperiences we had here. It was a fair trade off.
