Jawa Tengah-Timur
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Published: July 29th 2016
Some views are not enough to capture inside a photo, there is the video compilation I made.
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So, again, it began with the free seat promotion, that had prompted me to buy only a return air ticket from Surabaya to KL. I did not know where exactly I will go to in Indonesia, but surely I had a free return ticket 9 months before the trip. Since Surabaya is at the east of Jawa, so there are a few options before I purchase the going ticket. Bali, Surabaya, Yogyakarta.. I chose Yogyakarta. Been wanting to visit the ancient hindu-buddhist temples since I'd read about them in history textbook. I also planned to hike a mountain to make the trip more worthwhile.
Gunung Merbabu Why mountain? First, I enjoy the solitude being in a forest. Second, the views that the mountains reward after the physical and mental hardships. Thirdly, maybe it is something about ego and goal-orientation. Fourth, mountains are like the pins on the map, that marks the places we have been.
I saw a very nice picture of Gunung Merbabu on instagram one day, checked it out on the map,
found out that it is not very far from Yogya, that’s it, without looking for other mountains, I had decided to hike this mountain. Most of the information I found about this mountain were from the blogs written in Bahasa Indonesia, which means that it is not a popular destination among foreigners, which means that I would not have to pay expensive entrance fee to just get into a jungle.
Being a less popular and not so commercialised mountain, it doesn’t have many detailed information on the internet. I asked the owners in the guesthouses where I had stayed, they each gave me two different routes. The first guesthouse owner I asked was a middle age woman, she advised me to go for Gunung Merapi instead, since it is easier to arrange the trip. Merapi is on the list of almost all travel pamphlets I had seen in Jogja, so everyday hundreds of hikers doing the mountain, the impossibility of getting lost in the jungle makes it less exciting. Nope, I told the guesthouse owner, she then told me it was a month ago since she heard her one of her guests wanting to visit Merbabu. She said the
guest took all the police station numbers, lots of food supplies and all the necessary and unnecessary things for emergency use. Well, that really made me unsure, anxious and also excited about the hike.
Still lacking information about how to reach there, I asked another guesthouse owner, a friendly young university student, who worked part time at the reception. She briefly searched on the internet, found a blog written in Indonesian that I probably missed, and showed me how to get there without showing any sign of warning. So I thought, there was no need to worry, just go, lost or not lost, either way will be an adventure.
The next day I went to rent a tent and a sleeping bag at a shop near Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, set off the next morning at 6.
Reached the basecamp at Wekas village at around 9am, it was a farming village located at the foot of the mountain. Going up, the woods are orange in colour, misty. Occasionally there were some villagers coming down with logs on their shoulders. I was all alone on the path. It took me 3 hours to get to the campsite at Pos
2. There was another tent at the campsite when I reached there, it seemed that no one was inside the tent. Feeling accomplished I quickly pitched my tent and had dinner inside the tent.
The climate on the mountain was unpredictable, the second it was chill and misty, the next second the sun would shine and heat the tent like an oven. Just when I was getting cozy in the tent and feeling sleepy, the tent was getting heated up quickly. So I decided to leave the tent and hike up to see and explore.
It was around 3pm, there was a group of 3 local guys hiking down to the campsite, we greeted and they mentioned the tent was theirs. So they were my neighbours for the day. Never in my mind would I expect they would be the significant part of my memory of this trip.
It started drizzling, so I headed back down to the camp. The rain got heavier, water seeping in from all directions. I gathered all my belongings in the centre of the tent, squatting on the backpack, busied myself wiping the tent floor dry with a piece of small handkerchief.
Just when I thought I was gonna spend the evening and night wiping and squeezing water out of the tent, a guy, Fajar, came to my tent asked if everthing’s okay. He was the guy from the other tent, knowing my tent was flooded with rainwater, he invited me to share their tent. Can never forget this moment, always reminds me to be kind and have faith in people.
Sitting inside their tent, obviously it didn’t fit for all four people additional with big backpacks that almost equal to the size of 2 adults. The other two guys, Fikri and Joko, volunteered to move my tent next to theirs while it was still raining. From the way I pitched my tent, not bringing any waterproof mattresses, it is not hard to tell that I was an inexperienced hiker and camper, so they politely declined my offer to help moving my own tent.
All the food supplies I brought were just 2 loaves of white bread, 3 cans of tuna, 2 packets of oreos and butter. Never would I expect the fun of cooking in the mountain with no cleaning facilities. At around 7pm, they started to prepare dinner
with rice, eggs, bakso (Indonesian meatball) and sausages. Getting warmth from the gas stove while it was heavily raining and windy outside, the smell of cooked rice reminded me the comfort of homecook food. The dinner was simple, rice, fried eggs, fried bakso and fried sausages with chilli sauce. Sharing a meal from the new friends who saved me from desperately wiping the tent, the experience was way more than I could ask for, I cannot be more appreciative towards their kindness, which gave me the best memory in Indonesia.
There was another group of 5 hikers reaching the campsite while we were preparing our dinners. The next day they treated us with even better meal as lunch before hiking down together. Fried broccoli, pudding, fried tempeh, sausages, omelette, rice and fried noodles.
Although Malay language is very similar to Bahasa Indonesia, they found my Malay vocabulary funny, likewise.
Berus gigi-tooth brush (malay) is Sikat gigi-tooth comb (Indonesia)
After the hike, I went back to Jogja with Fajar, Fikri and Joko. We parted in the Transjogja shuttle bus, as they would be going to train station to go back to Jakarta. I felt heavy hearted after
spending 3 days with these people who accept me a stranger from Malaysia as friend (I can’t understand spoken Bahasa Indonesia half of the times) but we knew we had great time together. I promised them and myself that I would be going to Jawa next year to hike mountains together.
Gunung Kidul Rented a motorcycle for 2 days to visit Gunung Kidul area. With the help of GPS maps on my phone, I wanted to visit Pantai Siung. Made a few wrong turns and riding with average of 30km/h speed, it was around 2pm when I saw the sign board directing me to the beaches. The sky in Jawa turns completely dark at 6pm, it took me around 3 hours to make the return trip, therefore I changed my plan to go to Pantai Baron, the nearest beach instead. It wasn’t the kind of white sand beach that I am used to in Malaysia, the sand was brown, smelling like rotten seafood at where the fishermen park their boats.
On the second day, planned to visit Srigethuk waterfall, saw a signboard to Randusari waterfall, which I had never seen or heard of. Nevertheless I
told myself why not. After parked my vehicle, walking the slippery mossy path, finally reached there and it was a pleasant surprise! There was no one there in this secluded waterfall. So I had the whole waterfall to myself, went for a quick refreshing dip after almost 3 hours of riding on motorcycle.
When I reached Srigethuk, the river was rushing with yellowish brown water due to the heavy rain in the morning. The river and waterfall were not calm and serene as the photographs, it was quite disappointing. They could have closed the whole place for the day if it were impossible to even get my feet dipped into the water, but they chose to let visitors going back disappointed.
Gunung Bromo- Ijen Volcano Booked a trip with local travel agent to visit Gunung Bromo and Ijen Volcano. The 3D2N trips burnt the last dime I had, I was put into a group of 6 other tourists, 5 of them are from Europe, one from China. We all booked the trip in Jogja city with different agents, but we all were transferred to a travel agency in Probolinggo called Hans Travel. Seeing majority in
the group are from rich countries, the agent just asked for each of us to pay 150K Rupiah for guide fee and 50K Rupiah (total around 20 usd), which was affordable for the Europeans, in order to visit the Ijen Blue Fire, so they paid to the agent without showing doubt or feeling exploited. The next two days later, I talked to the guide who guided my group, he told me he needed to provide gas mask for free, and was only paid 150k rupiah by the travel agent, whilst all 7 of us each paid 200k to travel agent. So, the travel agent guys took more than 6/7 of the money for the service that was done by the local guide. Outrageous!
Gunung Bromo’s view was spectacular but the whole experience was not as rewarding as my previous trip. We were staying at the homestay that was 30 minutes away from the volcano. The whole hiking trip was made too easy. My tour package included the jeep transportation to the volcano, which made the whole trip even more meaningless. All I did was to pay and seeing the views that I could see from postcards.
I believe I will still be going to Indonesia for many times in the future. It is chaotic but it is also a place where you don’t need a permit to camp by the beach or mountain. Living in a Singapore and Malaysia, travelling in these two countries is less exciting with the predictability and familiarity.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
The solitude of forest
Sounds like you planned the perfect adventure.