We went with a group of friends from the master degree, and arrived first in Yogyakarta city. The city was crowded, colourful, heated, loud, anything that you could imagine as a typical Southeast Asian city. We and our friends were scattered in a few hostels around the city, and commuted by Tuktuk for getting together.
Our first sight seeing destination was Prambanan, a complex of Hindu temples. It was my first time visiting Hindu temples, and I was completely amazed by its complex decorative stone carving, countless imaginary figures, and grand scale. It was very different from the Buddhist or Christian decoration that I was familiar with. I particularly liked the narrow staircase that leads up to the inside of each tower, and spent a lot of time climbing them.
Then we visited Borobudur. It is also a temple complex, but this time, of Buddhist stupas. I'm quite familiar with Buddhist temples, but have never seen something quite like this before. The structures were built on top of a little hill, and along each level, there were tons of stupa shaped hollow structures where a buddha sculpture was hidden in each one of them. The carving was much simpler comparing to Prambanan, but the scenary, set against chains of mountains and unbounded farmland, made the place very special. We stayed up on the hill and watched the sun set.In that same evening, 4 of us, decided we would go and climb the famous volcano, mount Merapi. It is the most active volcano in Indonesia, and is about 2911 meters high. We set for the hike at 1am, and planned to reach the top at 5:30am to see the sun rise.
Oh boy, after 200 meters into the hiking, I realized I made a big mistake...I am not physically prepared at all, and the moutain is too hard to climb. And my dear companions, being all type A males, are just walking too fast for me. I vomitted at our first stop, and seriously thought about returning home. But somehow, and this is also what I told Alex later 'if I don't do something crazy once in a while, I will feel old'. And because of that, I stuck till the end and almost killed myself.
But by 6am when the sun started rising, all the pains were worthy it. The stones were heated up on top of the mountain which kept us warm. And I saw one of the most amazing sunrise in my life! From the pink smoke emitted from the volcano, the sun gradually rise up into the sky, spreading golden lights upon the mountain and us. It was absolutely stunning!Also on top of the mountain, Alex and I got close, and posed for our first individual photo together!
We came down from the mountain and saw that the crater were converted by the villages into their local football league play field. We were amused by such an arrangement, and didn't know that just a few months after, in November, the volcano erupted and killed 353 people nearby...><... It was an unforgetable trip. Afterwards, I found out Alex is a mountaineer, and we did many more hikings together. But we always talk about Mount Merapi, and how special it is.
0 comments:
Post a Comment