Merapi Trek

Day 13 - January 23

Mount Merapi

 This would be our last day in Jogjakarta. We went down to breakfast early this morning. We had a pickup time of 7 AM for our tour to Mount Merapi so we arrived at breakfast at 6. We were about half way through eating when two men appeared at the table with a small cake on a plate that had happy birthday spelled out on it. Yes, it was my birthday but I certainly didn’t expect to have a birthday cake. I thought Finanda had arranged the cake but she said no. So the hotel picked up my birthday from my passport and provided a cake for Bonnie and I to share. The cake was quite good and so was breakfast.

Our guide was prompt. He was waiting for us when we came down at five minutes to 7. His name was Yogi. We loaded up into the car and off we went. The drive to our drop off point was about an hour away from the hotel. He asked about our origins and we discovered that he had been a waiter on a cruise ship that came to SE Alaska. So he had actually been to at least three ports in SE. He described the recent activity of the volcano. It’s last eruption was in 2010 and we would be hiking over the debris field left by that eruption.

Tall Grass?

Bonnie with Merapi

The first part of the trail was quite easy but as we went along it became much more challenging. He told us the total elevation gain was about 200 meters. When all was said and done with all of the ups and downs along the trail the relative gain was more like 500 meters. The hike was very enjoyable. We got away from the city and into something that brought us closer to the real Indonesia. We saw literally thousands of butterflies on the hike. Other than birds which we mostly heard we saw a huge snail on the path we hiking and that was the only wildlife we saw on the trip.

 At the conclusion of the hike we stopped in a burned village. The village was burned in the eruption and many villagers and volunteers perished during the evacuation because of a fast moving lava flow. The lava from the last eruption moved at at 200 kilometers an hour so if you were in the path you were dead.

We stopped a at restaurant on the way back to the hotel that had great atmosphere but only mediocre food. We would just as soon have gone back to the hotel.

Snail on the Trail

Once we got back to the hotel and cleaned up some Meg sent us a text to see if we were available to Skype. So we did that with her for about an hour. The time in Anchorage was very late so we ended the call so she could go to bed.

Guest for luunch

We decided to get a massage here at the hotel. Called them up for an appointment and they said they were available now (4 PM) so two ladies came to the room and we had a side by side massage on the bed. I’m not sure why these people have to be so rough some times. A massage is not supposed to be painful but it sure did start out that way. The young lady let up some after I complained. This was only my second massage and so far I am not really impressed.We had dinner at the hotel and then turned in shortly after 10. The next day would be our trip to Bali.