After the first day in Jakarta, we spend the night in the Monica Hotel - the only hours of horizontal sleep I got the whole weekend. The next day began at five when we met the van and driver that we'd rented for a trip to the local volcanic plateau. I woke up at 4:55, so I forgot to bring my camera. The traffic on the way up was light so the trip took only 3 hours. The plateau is settled by farmers and is much more beautiful than the city. Sorry, no pictures. The ride back to our hotel took 5 hours, a period during which I lamented again and again my inability to say "toilet" in Indonesian.
That night, we left at 10pm for a bus ride to the base of Mt. Merapi. We joined a handful of other adventurers, and started climbing the mountain at 1am, with plans of making the summit for sunrise. The hike was not too long, but typical of the hiking trails of that continent, it was very steep and had eroded badly. The mountain itself is the most active volcano in Indonesia.
It's colder than it looks there. Also, that's volcanic steam, smelling of sulfur, not just clouds.
The top of the mountain was beautiful, as was the hike back down through the Indonesian morning.
We were exausted when we got to the bottom, but still had a long day ahead of us: a domestic flight back to Jakarta, then another flight back to Singapore. It was the longest 4 day, 1 night trip of my life!
This is Matt and a Frenchwoman after our hike off the volcano. Look at the facial expressions to really appreciate this picture.
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