Today we had a pretty eventful day of adventures around Central Java. We visited 3 locations:
(1) Gunung Merapi (Merapi Mountain)
(2) Ullen Sentalu Museum
(3) Pentingsari Tourism Village
So, Mt. Merapi is actually an active volcano that's located on the border between Central Java and Yogyakarta. It is the most active volcano in Indonesia and erupts regularly. The last eruption was in 2010. It wasn't too long of a drive to get to the area where Mt. Merapi was located, but the real adventure was actually getting into these off-road yellow jeeps (*like jurassic park status) and heading up the mountain through these small villages seeing locals and seeing so much beautiful scenery. It was pretty hard on our bodies because of how insane the terrain was, but the jeeps could handle it. I actually found a welt the size of a half dollar coin on my right arm. I was freaking out cause I thought it was a mosquito bite, but it was swollen for too long to be one. The tour that we were on is actually called the lava tour because you go through the many sites where the eruption in 2010 took place. A lot of people died and it was pretty hard for me to go into certain areas because of the descriptions some guides went into detail about. Over 300 people were killed either by respiratory complications, burns or illnesses. It was a really intense part of the tour. After walking around the different sites we took a little detour up the mountain to see the beautiful cliffs. It was gorgeous. I couldn't believe where I was standing. I really can't describe it because you would have had to be there. Don't worry I have photos. Taking the yellow jeeps back was another exciting part to end the tour, but it was still pretty hardcore off-terrain. We were dropped off at the Ullen Sentalu Museum, which is a Javanese culture and art museum that displays relics and artifacts from the royal houses and kratons of Java like Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Pakaulam and Mangkunegaran. It was a beautifully built museum. It was mostly outside with greenery all around and the artifacts like batik and special portraits were placed in well air conditioned rooms for preservation. It was a relaxing part of the trip and it was informative learning about the many traditional values of royalty here in our city. After lunch, we went to Pentingsari Tourism Village and did a bunch of team building exercises with the other fellows and some coordinators of our program. It was pretty intense with certain games like taking a hula hoop and putting it around your body while holding onto someone else's hands. Overall, it was eventful and it was a nice ending to the night with a beautiful bonfire and grilled corn. I couldn't have asked for a better last field trip together. Except, for ending it with a few of us going to karaoke right afterwords and singing our hearts out.
