Two of my kosmates, one of their cousins and his girlfriend and I left Yogya on Monday night to start our little liburan to Kaliurang, a small town at the base of Merapi. We drove around, sussing out the accommodation situation and eventually came to a little villa. We got a five person villa, which ended up costing a mere $5 each for the night, including the first hot water I've had in nearly two months. I was quite surprised because the cousin and his girlfriend stayed in the same room. Now, by my standards, that's pretty biasa - ordinary. However, over here an unmarried couple staying in the same room is rather frowned upon and very unusual. It's good to get the opportunity to see the diversity first hand in what many people believe to be a largely homogeneous country.
We woke relatively early the next morning, and drove to a small lookout to have a look at Merapi and two small neighbouring hills. Unfortunately, the day began with a cloudy theme which it stuck to almost the whole time we were there. The air was fresh, the gardens were pristine, but what would have been meditative quiet was in fact pierced by the dulcet tones of a Batman-painted train-mobile's siren.
Following that, we hopped back into the car and drove further up until we got to the base of one of the smaller mountains. After climbing a short while, we were faced with two choices: Goa Jepang or the lookout. Being young and energetic, we decided to do both: go up one, come back then go up the next.
Goa Jepang turned out to be about ten or so tunnels dug into the side of the mountain used as hideouts by Japanese soldiers during World War II. These tunnels were fairly creepy and very dark; I was kicking myself for having left my manually powered torch back at the kos. Even though I'm not a fan of tunnels in any way, these looked pretty cool, and lots of them connected at the back. There were also a couple of sniper tunnels, though I didn't seen any entrances; only the little box windows where the Japanese must have looked out.
After hanging around the Goa Jepang, and having the piece and quiet brutally interrupted by a red wave of martial arts students, barefoot and dressed in their robes, which washed over the area leaving them twitching and gasping behind. Anyway, the ambiance was dented, so we headed back to the crosspath and started making our way to the summit.
A snail I saw. No cool story, but its shell looks like it's been sawn in half.
On the way, we got to see a whole bunch of monkeys being fed by a fat man in a red jacket. The leader of the monkey group, and the recipient of the most food, seemed to have a lot in common with this man. Though, as to whether they both sported disproportionately large testicles, I will never know.
After another long bout of walking, and a little rain, we finally made it to the top of the little mountain to find that Merapi looked as though it had been erased from view by the clouds. We decided to wait a while, have some snacks, and I jumped about taking photos every time a cloud looked as though it might shift. However, on one such occasion I was standing on a damp rock, trying to capture the volcano after two of its edges had emerged, when I slipped off, hitting my ribs and winding myself. I fell pretty hard, and hurt myself enough to justify a trip to the hospital for an x-ray the following day (stay tuned for my next post).
The picture that was my downfall.
Anyway, so I was in a fairly bad mood and a reasonable amount of pain for the rest of the trip, which we spent at Kalikuning, the mountainside town worst affected by Merapi's 2006 eruption. Arriving at the town, the damage wasn't as obvious as I'd expected. There was a bit of a rocky, dusty hill.
Then after you climbed that, you could see where the lava flow had ploughed through the dam and down the side of the mountain.
There were a couple of skeletal looking buildings, but to be honest, a lot of poor Indonesian towns look rather run down. It wasn't until I went down to the tourist stalls and saw some before and after pictures that I really understood the damage that had been done to the town. Although a lot had been destroyed, the tourist industry certainly hadn't been. The place was positively overflowing with schoolchildren and families and old Japanese women, so all is not lost for the unlucky residents of Kalikuning. Merapi was still being coy, so again I didn't get any decent photos. Though this time I was much more careful about where I was standing.
So that's about it from me about my trip to Merapi, but a follow-up blog is on it's way about my mild hypochondria and my adventures with the Indonesian medical system.
Thanks for tuning in!
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