We got picked up at 6am today to drive 1 hour to the base of Mount Merapi. This is the most active volcano in Indonesia! It is constantly erupting and is categorized as activity level 3. This means that anyone living within a 5km radius is evacuated and anyone within 7km is at risk of ash fall, pyroclastic flow, lava, and full blown eruptions. Right now the volcano ‘leaks’ lava which the locals like as that means the pressure is being released.

Once at the base of the volcano we switched into a military Jeep and set off the the museum of stop 1. This memory museum is 6.5km from the volcano crater. It used to be a bustling village but was destroyed during the 2010 eruption.

The 2010 eruption was the last major eruption of mount merapi. 353 people died with many more displaced. Cattle and arable land was destroyed. In the museum there were remains of burnt cows, melted household items, and even a clock frozen in time from when the eruption took place.

As we walked around the village museum we realized the floor was in fact lava. We learnt that during these eruptions the danger is not just with the lava flow. The ash that rains down is 400°C! People do not expect this and are caught in the ash.During a previous eruption, 3 inches of ash fell onto Yogyakarta!

Stop 2 was the alien stone. This rock was tossed from the volcano during the 2010 eruption. From the side it looks like a face. Here we also learnt about the terrible earthquakes that affect Java. Indonesia and specifically Java sits on the ring of fire; a series of tectonic boundaries causing and creating volcanos and earthquakes. The last major Yogyakarta quake was a 6.1 Richter scale in 2006.

Our last stop was the bunker. This is the only protective bunker on mount merapi and it is 4.5km from the crater. During the 2010 eruption, 2 people, instead of heading down the mountain panicked and took refuge in the bunker. Unfortunately the huge metal doors were not designed to hold back the immense lava flow and they died in the bunker.

After visiting the volcano we head to Prambanan temple. This is the competitive Hindu temple rivaling the size of Buddhist Borobudur.

Prambanan is a temple complex similar to Angkor Wat. The temples are made from interlocking blocks similar to the Borobudur construction.

We had two young trainee guides offer to take us around for free. They told us all about the main Prambanan temple. The compound originally contained 240 temples but not all of them stand today.

Alike to Borobudur, Prambanan was abandoned due to volcanic activity and rediscovered by the Dutch. They started the tedious process of rebuilding. From the blocks they had to build the puzzle. Some had too many missing bricks and so cannot be rebuilt. UNESCO gave Indonesia a 30% margin to bring in new blocks per temple- marked with a nail on each new block used. The idols in the temples are all original.

There are three main temples: Siwa (Shiva), Wishnu (Vishnu), and Brahma. Shiva is the highest at 47 meters and collapsed during the 2006 earthquake. It took 15 years to rebuild!

After the temple we went to the hyatt regency 5 star hotel. We paid £12 each for an unlimited brunch buffet of: roast beef, pastas, salads, deserts, drinks, sushi, roast chicken, veges, pizza, and much more.

After munching we also had access to chill at their 6 different pools. A nice way to end the day.

-M