Backdate: Yogyakarta & Dieng trip Apr 2018 Day 2
10/4/18 Tues: Think we
woke up at about 7am to prepare ourselves for the journey to Mount Merapi, and
checked-out as well since we would be heading to Dieng at night. Walked over to
a hut nearby which oversees the padi field and sunrise in the morning for some
views, before we ate thick toast for breakfast which was included in our stay~
shiok.
Adit drove us to Mount
Merapi, where we took the lava tour (IDR 350K). Buwi was our photographer cum
jeep driver for the 2+ hours of tour, and man the road was bumpy for sure!
We stopped halfway to
visit what’s left of a home since an eruption by this active volcano in 2010.
All things were destroyed, people dead, and the cow that was tied up was “melted
alive” by the lava. It’s a frightening scene for one to even step into. *I experienced bad stomachache, so I went to
a nearby toilet (IDR 5K), and by the time I’m done with business, Jess and WL
were done visiting already.*
We put on surgical masks
as there were lots of sand and dust while on the bumpy jeep. Buwi first allowed
us to alight at a photo spot some distance away from Mt Merapi. One could see
that smokes were still coming out of it, and though it seemed quite some
distance away, but after Buwi explained how far the lavae travelled to where we
were, I can’t help but think I’d always underestimate the power of nature.
Mount Merapi很壮观，它叫人敬畏。Buwi drove us to a second scenic spot and parked the
jeep right on top of a small hump. He then hopped down and went into “photographer
mode”~ snapping lots of photos of us with Mt Merapi as the background. *He knew his angles very well! We were impressed
with his photos.*
Next, he parked his
jeep somewhere below a building, and brought us up to Bunker Kaliadem. Two
people inside died in 2010 when the lava spilled over. Apparently, they were
protected from the smoke, but not from the merciless heat. It was very dark and
cooling inside the bunker, but it’s still hard to imagine thousand of degrees
of heat over it. *Word has it that Mt
Merapi could erupt once every four years or something, and I was that little
worried, but Buwi told us the government monitors the situation, and if anything,
they will not allow tourists and jeeps up in that area.*
I remember having a
long talk with Buwi as we walked along the gravel paths that brought us nearer
to Mt Merapi with every step, but I cant’ recall the contents now lol. Anyway,
we also took photos with a valley and the surrounding as well…
There were many other jeeps that day, filled with both tourists
and locals. After we ended our tour, Adit drove us to where we would be doing
rafting in Elo River. We paid IDR 800K for the package (extra 100K for photos).
It was afternoon and the weather was hot. We left our belongings in Adit’s car,
and hopped into a van with our instructor Farhan.
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