Hello there!
Having completed my earlier travel posts on Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Hokkaido) and Maldives, in my previous posts, we have moved the journey of our exploration to Indonesia, and covered mostly about Bali. You can find the posts here:
In my previous posts, I shared the magic of Bali's beaches and temples.
Indonesia - Capturing The Magic Of Bali’s Beaches
Indonesia - A Trip To Taman Ayun Temple In Bali
Indonesia - Watching The Sunset At Tanah Lot
Then we moved on to another place in Indonesia, and that's Yogyakarta! Yogyakarta is a very interesting city because there are a lot of heritage stuff within the city.
Indonesia - Discovering Borobudur, The World's Largest Buddhist Temple
Indonesia - Discovering Prambanan, Where History Lives
Indonesia - Descending Into Jomblang Cave For An Adventure!
As I went through the photos, there's really a whole lot of interesting stuff to do in Yogyakarta! So let's continue our journey!
One of the interesting places to visit from the city of Yogyakarta would be Mount Merapi. It's not too far from the city as well. Mount Merapi is currently an active volcano, or rather, often known as the most dangerous active volcano in Indonesia, which means it could erupt anytime, and this means we had to be extra careful and vigilant during our visit there.
But because it's the most dangerous active volcano, it made us curious enough to want to visit and take a look.
Putting things in perspective, volcano eruptions are infrequent (once every few years) and we took our chances that the volcano would not erupt during the day which we planned to visit. Nonetheless, it was still somewhat of a risk because eruptions often can be deadly.
This was as far as our car transport could take us. At this point, we could already see Mount Merapi itself. There was some smoke emitting from the mouth but we crossed our fingers and hoped that everything will be okay for the next few hours.
Just a random snapshot of the surroundings, while we waited for a local guide to take us deeper into the national park.
These were the vehicles that we sat on subsequently.
I took a photo while sitting on the back row of the vehicle.
The roads were pretty alright, but every minute we were there, we were inevitably nervous as we stared at the smoke being emitted from the mouth of volcano.
The first place we stopped by was a hut. This has been transformed into somewhat of a museum, reason being during one of the bigger eruptions, the immense heat and the ashes actually engulfed the entire area, and everything in the hut was either covered by ashes and badly burnt due to the heat.
This photo shows the bones from animals as well as what was left from a motorcycle.
Over here at this corner, there were some kitchenware and clothes as well. Covered and destroyed by the ashes and the heat.
Electronic devices too. As you can see, some already melted.
This was the old type of computer monitor. The edges were also melted or deformed.
As most of you might know, volcano eruptions not only destroy buildings and things, they also lead to loss of lives as well. While some people would have managed to evacuate in time, there will still be some casualties. After the sombre visit to the hut, we drove closer to Mount Merapi. I think we went as far as what was permitted (there's a safety distance for visitors) and I took some photos of Mount Merapi. By then the smoke at the mouth seemed to have subsided, so we were less nervous, also because our trip was coming to an end.
As you can see, this was probably the furthest I could venture. There were no human beings ahead anymore.
This was the view from where we were standing. Because of the height, we were also able to get a panoramic view of the surroundings.
Before we left, we also visited a bunker. This bunker also acted as a hiding spot in case of emergencies, especially when so many tourists and visitors come over to Mount Merapi everyday.
Soon, the clouds came and covered the view of Mount Merapi. Fortunately, there was a clear sky earlier on and we managed to take some nice photos of Mount Merapi.
After a last look, we were brought back to the meeting point where we boarded our car transport and headed back to the city.
All in all, it was an eye opener trip to Mount Merapi. At least I could say I have been to the most dangerous active volcano in Indonesia. We were also lucky that we got clear skies and good views, and the volcano was quiet that day (other than the smoke earlier on). The hut/museum visit was a interesting and sad experience, seeing how livelihoods and belongings in this vicinity were susceptible to the forces of nature.
So that's all I have today! Have you been to Mount Merapi before? Let me know in the comments below!
Finally, thanks for reading my post in the community under World Map Pin!