Hi folk!

Onward we march on our Indonesian ‘volcation‘. Next up: Ijen – our sixth volcano in as many days. Not a bad result considering all the necessary short flights and driving (on not the best of roads with not the best drivers in the world) to get from place to place. We managed it by being on the road by day, and doing the volcano climbing by night. To some that adds up to touristic masochism. To us: tourism at the correct tempo ).

Ijen was no less pleasing than the other volcanoes. This one’s particularly awesome features: a bright turquoise crater-lake, powerful fumaroles, and bright yellow air sulfur resin and smoke…

Read on…

Hi folks!

Right after the Penanjakan morning mist show, our guides took us to one of the main volcanoes that contributed to that show: Mount Bromo, Gunung Bromo in Indonesian:

During the dawn show, it was here:

So what can I say about it? This is getting a bit broken record, but… – it was yet another implausibly fantastical sight to behold! Satellite pics of it look… oh my Gunung, but up close it was simply… oh my GREATEST (caps intentional)!

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I never did quite work out what this place in Indonesia was called. Is it Penanjakan? And is that the name of the peak, or just the name of the tourist spot near it? Whatever, who cares? Well, for one, a person standing on/at Penanjakan and looking up at the stars – he/she for sure does not care one iota).

How do you like the photo? I’m rather fond of it. A still-life, don’t you think?

It and the ones below weren’t all that difficult to shoot. I placed my camera (a Sony A9) on a reinforced concrete wall, set the shutter speed to 20 seconds, the diaphragm to 6 (or was it 9?), and ISO – to… something (can’t remember, or maybe I just guessed: it has a lot of buttons and blinking lights:). And that was that: done! All that remained was to wait for the sunrise…

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After our starter-course Indonesian volcanism, it was time to move on swiftly to the main course. Next up for us – a full bouquet of volcanism. The precise number of volcanoes depends on what source you rely on: Russian Wikipedia states it’s just one volcano, Arjuno; English Wiki says it’s a pair of volcanoes – Arjuno-Welirang; while locals say it’s a collection of four volcanoes, since there are four volcanic cones at the very top. Admittedly, from the side it looks like just one volcanic formation, as it does from up above too.

Here we are approaching the very top, after two days of trekking:

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Our Indonesian adventure had only just begun, while the year 2017 was drawing to a close. There was time for one last flight of the year. Unlike me, my traveling companions don’t keep a tally of their flights, but they don’t fly several score times a year as I do. For me though, this final flight brought my grand total for the year to 104 flights. Not bad at all.

Brief technical data:

• Route: Yogyakarta – Surabaya (the second-largest city of Indonesia – not Yogyakarta, as I misstated earlier);
• Time in the air: 90 minutes;
• Airline: Wings Air;
• Class: Economy (no other classes available);
• Aircraft: ATR 72;
• Flight attendants: Pretty, smiling;
• Incidents: none.

It would have been an unremarkable flight but for one small detail…

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If you look at the map of Indonesia, you’ll see that Merapi and Borobudur are both very close to the city of Yogyakarta, the former capital and present number-two city of Indonesia. And if you look a bit closer on the map you’ll see there’s a third must-see tourist attraction: the Hindu temple of Prambanan.

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After our strenuous scaling of Merapi, we decided to lower the intensity a bit, and move from volcanism to Indonesian culture. Accordingly, next up: Borobudur – the world’s largest Buddhist temple.

The temple consists of several stacked platforms; the lower levels are square (with 100-meter-long sides), while the upper ones are round. “At the very top of the temple is a large dome. It is decorated with 2672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa.” – Wikipedia.

Here‘s the view of the whole complex from a satellite, while this is how my camera captured the temple:

Read on…

Hi folks!

Acclimatization completed, it’s time to finally get stuck into Indonesia’s volcanism, of which there’s rather a lot – as in: hundreds of volcanoes!

Indonesia could be described as simply a huge collection of volcanoes, many of which regularly erupt, many of which are extremely (symmetrically) beautiful, aka – must-see!

Some sources say there are around 300 volcanoes, some – around 400, others – around 500! That’s quite a margin of error! But it’s to be expected: they’re difficult to count. Example: a volcanic mass with three or four distinct conical peaks: does that count as one, or three/four?

‘Active’ volcanoes are counted separately, but again there are differences in the totals as there’s no fixed definition of an active volcano. Anyway, in Indonesia there are around 75 to 130, depending on the source on the internet you look up.

Whichever total you take, there’s no denying Indonesia is one seriously volcanic country. But then, of course it is: Indonesia is a segment of the islands (and peninsula) that help make up the Ring of Fire (together with its volcanic siblings like Japan, Kamchatka, the Kurils, New Zealand, etc.)

But enough of volcanic theory; time for some actual volcanic experience. All righty: in at the deep end – Mount Merapi: the most active volcano of Indonesia…

Read on…

For those who missed the first Indonesian installment, a brief overview of its contents:

Sumatra, December, hot, humid, jungle, orangutans, monkeys; acclimatization: time-zone, climate, food, crazy driving.

All righty. Next up – still on Sumatra: Lake Toba.

I had real trouble finding the words to describe this place. I’ll plump for… paradisiacal!

This is a lake that’s some 900 meters above sea level and so has a real comfortable micro-climate: the air temperature is always around 20-25°C, while that of the pristine water of the lake is 25°C (we measured it ourselves). Yep: water warmer than the air! I sensed volcanism at work here, and indeed that’s just what it was: for Toba isn’t just the name of the lake, it’s also the that of the dormant supervolcano it sits in.

In short, the perfect setting for intense rest and relaxation. The views all around: oh my gorgeous; the bathing and the fishing in/on the lake: oh my great!

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What happens to a regular tourist from the North who, after an extended period of Christmas/New Year mirth and merriment suddenly finds him/herself in equatorial Indonesia? Yep, he/she has a rather tough time acclimatizing: to both the difference in time, and to climate… (and to crazy Indonesian driving! More on this later on below).

So, time: it’s +7 from Greenwich. Not so extreme, I hear you saying; hardly +12 now, is it? No. But when you add the climate to the +7 hours, that’s the killer. For there’s no pleasant resort-like weather here. Instead it’s a full-on extreme equatorial tropical climate. By day – around 30°C; by night – 25°C, and always hellishly humid – what feels like a constant 100%+.

It goes without saying that scaling a stratovolcano immediately upon arrival in Indonesia is the last thing most regular tourists fancy doing. What’s the first thing on their minds is a slow acclimatization and taking it relatively easy over the first few days, which is just what we did – on the island of Sumatra. There we visited Lake Toba (more on that later), and also a jungle – where we observed daily life of wild monkeys and orangutans.

Read on: a guy in a fur coat…