Aside from its beautiful coastal
lines, Indonesia is also famous for its marvelous mountains and volcanoes. According
to worldatlas.com,
Indonesia has the third largest number of volcanoes after the United States of
America and Russia. The web says that Indonesia has around 139 volcanoes (other
sites give different numbers though).
As I said in a previous post, I
love both beaches and mountains equally. Sadly, I haven’t gone hiking/trekking
that much. Almost all of my friends are “beach team” and not into mountains at
all. Anyone here likes trekking to? Contact me so we can go together :D
In November 2018, I was appointed
on a business trip to Special Region of Yogyakarta, a province less than an
hour flight from Jakarta. I’d been to the city before, so at first, I thought I
would go back to Jakarta right after finishing all the work I had to do there.
But then I realized it was a long weekend (a red date Friday, I forgot what day
it was), so I decided to extend my stay. I hired a Trijek (trip by ojek) driver
named Tri. She’s a certified tour guide and is undoubtedly knowledgeable on
tourist destinations in the only province ruled by a monarchy in Indonesia.
After being done with my work, I
moved to another hotel because obviously I couldn’t afford staying in a
five-star hotel using my own money :D I moved to a much cheaper hotel, at only
less than 300k a night.
On the first day, Tri took me to a
few famous places in Yogyakarta. In the early morning, we went to a sun flower
garden near the south coast. Next, we visited Cemara beach (cemara means
pines); it’s named Cemara beach because there’re so many pine trees there. And
then we headed to Parangkusumo sand dunes. When it was almost sunset, we went
to our final destination for the day, Parang Tritis beach. There’s a myth that
this place is ruled by the Queen of South Sea who loves the color green. People
are advised not to wear green if they don’t wanna end up being “kidnapped” by
the queen. I totally forgot about the myth and I wore a dark green skirt :D
Thankfully nothing bad happened to me hehe.
On the second day, we went to farther
places from the city. First, we visited the popular amaryllis garden.
Unluckily, the blooming time was almost over. When we got there, the flowers
were starting to wither ☹. After taking a few pictures there, we continued our
journey to a tourist object not too far from the garden, called Sri Gethuk
Waterfall. The air was so fresh, the water was clean and cold. I couldn’t
resist jumping to the river in front of the waterfall from a 2 meter-high cliff
(wearing a life vest was a must there).
Actually, I had no idea where to
go next after the waterfall. Tri suggested me a few places and an ancient
dormant volcano got my attention. So, Tri took me there. The volcano is called
Mount Nglanggeran. Based on what I read on Wikipedia, Mount Nglanggeran was
formed around 60-70 million years ago!
Tri and I reached at like 3 p.m.
After paying the entrance ticket, we started hiking. But you know what, some
naughty monkeys blocked our way. The biggest of them, probably the leader,
looked angry. We had no idea what to do so we just stood still doing nothing.
Luckily, after like five minutes, they went away by themselves.
We continued our journey. Not
long after, we arrived at a small path between huge rocks. The path was too
small for two people, so I went first. I reached the other end of the small
path and waited for Tri while taking some rest. I waited for more than 10
minutes; I wanted to text her but I didn’t get any signal there. I then
shouted. Tri shouted back, saying she’s too tired. She offered to hire a guide
to accompany me hiking, but I said it’s okay. There were enough signs and I was
pretty sure I wouldn’t get lost.
I then continued walking, slowly.
The trek was quite easy, but they made some challenges. I mean, at some points
you can choose whether you want to take an easy path or a challenging one (like
climbing a big rock using a rope). Half an hour later, I met a group of people
who decided to climb back down before getting to the peak. Of course, I wasn’t
tempted hehe. I kept on going till I arrived at a tree. In order to get to the
peak, I had to climb a wooden stair by the tree. It’s a guava tree if I’m not
mistaken.
So, after I took the stair, I finally reached
the highest peak of the dormant volcano. Trust me, it’s so awesome up there! It
was all green and blue as far as my eyes could see!
I met a couple who was taking
pictures of each other and I offered to take pictures of them both so in return
they would take mine. I tried my best to take good shots, but the pictures the
man took of me were so meh, huhh. So, I set my phone on the ground and took
pictures of myself using the front camera; better than the pictures the man
took haha.
After taking enough photos of
both me and the scenery, and of course enjoying the views using my own eyes, I
decided to go back. On my way, I saw a “kantin kejujuran” (literally translated
into Honesty Stall). This stall is a stall without a keeper; there are some
goods and the price list. You can take whatever you want and pay based on the
price in the price list. You should take your own change too (if any). I don’t
know if they have a specific term for this in English hehe.
I decided to take a bottle of
cold tea because I was quite thirsty. After putting the money, I continued
climbing down. The route was different from the one I took to get the peak of
the mount. A few meters from the parking lot, I was greeted by a goat.
Thankfully it was tied, so I could walk without fears :D
It was a beautiful experience and
I really hope I’ll get more chances to go hiking like this again.
Yogyakarta 😍
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