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Slightly worse for wear, up at the crack of dawn, Hemma and I bid Rob farewell and jumped into a taxi to the train station. Arriving at 6:45am was upsettingly early for an 8am train! We bought our tickets, more expensive than flying and 8 times longer, take it on the chin! The day didn't improve with the upsetting breakfast of warm orange juice and a croissant with chilli salsa, not a winning combo. We head for our platform to await our train (late, no surprise there), whilst the seats were comfy, they seemed to insist on playing Indonesia's Top 40 from last month on a loop with some of the most infuriating jingles you can imagine. Shockingly we both managed to sleep and 8 hours more or less flew by. We had arrived in Yogyakarta! Tramping into Losemen Bladok, we were greeted by friendly staff, a swimming pool and complimentary tea - win. We had dinner in the attached restaurant and made plans to go and see some traditional dancing. A mini saga actually finding the place ensued only to find out we had been spun a web of lies by the Lonely Planet. There was no show for us! We trundled back to the hostel on foot, got lost toward the end and hopped in a taxi. With the night waning we had a cheeky drink in Lucifers Bar - an interesting take on a karaoke bar and wound up in bed fairly tired.
Sunday came and with it, our plan to visit 'Gunung Merapi' or Fire Mountain, one of only 16 volcanoes in the world to have been active for over a decade. Queue a taxi ride to a deserted bus station, a little haggling and the taxi was ours for the day for the handsome sum of £12.50. During my trip I seem to have developed 'transport induced narcolepsy', put me in anything moving and I'm gone! Makes the travelling part of travelling much less arduous.
Our first stop was 'Ullèn Sentalau Museum' which was just awkward all over. Our 'English speaking guide' clearly lied on her CV and seemed flustered at the prospect of actual foreigners, many questions were simply answered with a drawn out 'Yes' but she tried! Unfortunately they didn't allow photography in the museum which was a shame because whilst the objects on display were fairly mundane, the architecture was beautiful, it was like something out of Lord of the Rings! The tour was ended with a gingery spiced drink. Back to our taxi man who had taken the opportunity to catch up on some sleep...
Our driver roused, we set off for 'Hutan Wisata Kaliurang', the park within which visitors can admire Mt. Merapi from. We tried to decipher the map which was completely missing the central portion, i.e. the part we needed! I've used the term park very loosely here, it was an area set in a valley, with trees and a few outbuildings but littered with even more trees and the remnants less fortunate outbuildings. The surrounding valley walls were scarred by successive landslides, this, combined with Indonesian's apparent hatred of sign posts unless adorned with the words 'Keluah' (Exit) or 'Toilets' made locating the path our first challenge! Once pointed in the right direction challenge number two was navigating our way up the valley on a path which in places had slid almost 15ft down the slope and in other places had simply been replaced by sliding trees! an adventure if ever there was one.
Upon reaching the zenith of the crumbling path we were greeted by a Merapi engulfed in cloud - brilliant! The vista before us highlighted the volcanoes destructive force with baron hillsides strewn with lifeless trees and debris. Then, almost out of nowhere popped Mila - a rather eccentric Dane who joined us on our descent down the other side of the valley on an even more ridiculous path! We gave a passing visit to Tlogo Muncar - a measly waterfall and we all hopped back in the taxi and back to Yogyakarta.
Back in civilization, Mila offered to take us for some street food in a warung - something Rob had specifically warned us against. We went anyway and it was AMAZING, 3 of us at and drank for the handsome sum of Rp. 23,000 (£1.40). Content, we parted ways for a few hours and later met up for a drink, she had some really interesting conversation in her - it was all OK until her douchey Irish friends turned up...time for bed!
Sunday came and with it, our plan to visit 'Gunung Merapi' or Fire Mountain, one of only 16 volcanoes in the world to have been active for over a decade. Queue a taxi ride to a deserted bus station, a little haggling and the taxi was ours for the day for the handsome sum of £12.50. During my trip I seem to have developed 'transport induced narcolepsy', put me in anything moving and I'm gone! Makes the travelling part of travelling much less arduous.
Our first stop was 'Ullèn Sentalau Museum' which was just awkward all over. Our 'English speaking guide' clearly lied on her CV and seemed flustered at the prospect of actual foreigners, many questions were simply answered with a drawn out 'Yes' but she tried! Unfortunately they didn't allow photography in the museum which was a shame because whilst the objects on display were fairly mundane, the architecture was beautiful, it was like something out of Lord of the Rings! The tour was ended with a gingery spiced drink. Back to our taxi man who had taken the opportunity to catch up on some sleep...
Our driver roused, we set off for 'Hutan Wisata Kaliurang', the park within which visitors can admire Mt. Merapi from. We tried to decipher the map which was completely missing the central portion, i.e. the part we needed! I've used the term park very loosely here, it was an area set in a valley, with trees and a few outbuildings but littered with even more trees and the remnants less fortunate outbuildings. The surrounding valley walls were scarred by successive landslides, this, combined with Indonesian's apparent hatred of sign posts unless adorned with the words 'Keluah' (Exit) or 'Toilets' made locating the path our first challenge! Once pointed in the right direction challenge number two was navigating our way up the valley on a path which in places had slid almost 15ft down the slope and in other places had simply been replaced by sliding trees! an adventure if ever there was one.
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| Jenga, with trees. |
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| Mmm, fishy! |
