Gunung Merapi Adventure

We are now going to embark on our Volcano Tour.

Some background info:

Gunung Merapi (literally Fire Mountain in Indonesian and Javanese), is an active stratovolcano located on the border between Central Java and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It is the most active volcano in Indonesia and has erupted regularly since 1548. It is located approximately 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of Yogyakarta city which has a population of 2.4 million, and thousands of people live on the flanks of the volcano, with villages as high as 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) above sea level.
A large eruption in 2010 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Merapi

This is the sign for our volcano tour; it includes a jeep ride to view the crater( but now there's only a ash covered village) an alien rock and a bunker.

Jeeps are from the Merapi land cruiser Community.

We are so excited!!!! We have hired a jeep!!

This how the jeep looks like!!

This is a ride of a lifetime...rickety rockety extremely bumpy extremely dangerous but also extremely exciting!!! 

After the ride you get all rattled and shaken!!!

We saw some girls standing atop 

the jeep,.. Double the excitement !!!

All too soon we reached the village that was wiped out by the volcano : first we saw a relic left damaged: a rickshaw.

Sad remnants and remains of what once was a vibrant village.

Sad and philosophical reminder of the frailty of life.

More forlorn leftovers: bones and carcasses of livestock and stone with poetic outlook of transient life 

We visited a house that withstood the onslaught... It is now a museum 

All manner of home artifacts 

"Natural disasters are not the end of it all"

5 November 2010....the day and time the clock stopped

this clock showed the exact time of the volcanic eruption!

This used to be a radio compo!

A series of pictures which tell the events of the eruption and the revival of life

Even a TV that "meleleh" or melted due to extreme heat.

Only the house foundation is left standing .

So we left the depressive house and village to view an alien Rock that was hurled down by the volcano 

If you look carefully you can see the eyes ears and nose of the alien looking rock . 

What to do? Take photo lor!

Look at the volcano in the background? No... ? It is shrouded by clouds 

Men working at the crater

We are now going to view the bunker 

A big group of students are also visiting 

They posed at the entrance to the bunker 

This is the entrance to the bunker 

At the entrance of the bunker 

Small entrance to go in

Once inside, it was actually pitch dark .

There is s toilet in a corner ... but there was no food supplies , it has standing room only ,. and it  could hold about 40 people 

This how the sunken bunker look like from the top 

So now we are out of the claustrophobic bunker.. But I suppose it will be a life saver in times of volcanic eruption. 

Outside there were some mountain fliers for sale everlasting 

Everlasting flowers

We now walk towards the fenced up area to get as near to the volcano as possible 

He says " there!!! The volcano is there!"

Yayyyyy! We have done mount Merapi ! 

And we stand on top of the jeep that took us on the Merapi trail!!