Blogs from Java, Indonesia, Asia - page 117

Indonesia is my favorite country in SE Asia. I visited this beautiful country in September 2004, just a week after the bomb blast at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. I decided to visit Bali and Java islands, as I wanted to see Borobudur temple near Yogyakarta. I had to take 7 flights Hanoi - Sai Gon - Singapore - Denpasar - Yogyakarta - Singapore - Sai Gon - Hanoi on Garuda Indonesia (US$650 for only flights). I did not include Jakarta on this visit. The first place in Bali that I visited was Sari club bombing memorial site, where 202 people were killed on Saturday night October 12th 2002. There were tears in my eyes, as I walked toward the fence of the site and saw a flower wreath from the Australian Embassy and happy smiles ... read more

Fumaroles, Buddhist temples, volcanoes and an abandoned temple The last thing I wrote about in the previous blog entry was my visit to Krakatoa Island in Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. After that I went back to Java again and slowly made my way towards Bali. Kawah Domas On the western end of Java is a city named Bandung. North of Bandung there is a volcanic area called Kawah Domas. There used to be several large geysers and boiling pools there. Geysers and pools need water. At some time underground water took a different route and the area became arid. When there is not enough water to sustain geysers they turn into fumaroles. That's what there is to find in this area - fumaroles. The area is huge and there are hundreds of fumaroles there. ... read more

Mount Slamet or Gunung Slamet is an active stratovolcano in Central Java, Indonesia. 3.432 meters above the sea level is the highest volcanic mount in central java, and second highest in java island. It is also one of Java's most active volcanos, with many eruptions recorded since the 18th century. It has a cluster of around three dozens of cinder cones on the lower southeast-northeast flanks and a single cinder cone on the western flank. The volcano is composed by two overlapping edifices. Four craters are found at the summit. the area of mount slamet comprises four forest areas, which are montane forest, hilly dipterocarp forest, ericeaous forest, Mt. Slamet last erupted in 1999 and produces eruptions similar to most Indonesia volcanoes: central vent explosions and lava flows. Slamet has erupted frequently over the last 100 ... read more

Our bus left Denpasar at 6am, and reached the ferry at Gilimanuk at 9.30am. We had to wait an hour for the ferry, which saw us reach Katapang, on the island of Java, at around 11.30am. The trip through to Surabaya was another 300kms and we did not reach there until 6.30pm that evening. The trip, in a little minibus shared with 7 others, was not too bad, all things considered, except for the 12 hours of constant horn-honking – an unfortunate driving habit round this part of the world that we are going to have to get used to. Asian drivers seem to only have two controls on their vehicles – the accelerator and the horn! Java seems quite a contrast to Bali. This part is very flat around the coast, although it appears to ... read more