This was a day we’ve been looking forward to - Mount Merapi Jeep Tour! In addition, this was our second chance to catch the sunrise after missing it at Setumbu Hills previously. We woke up at 3am, and got ready to leave by 4am for the jeep tour :)! We reached the shop organizing the jeep tour around 5.15am. Unfortunately it was raining heavily and we had to wear ponchos again. Even worse, due to the rain, there was a strong possibility we were going to miss the sunrise again :(.
Sheryl looking sharp in a poncho :P
Not going to bore you here, we missed the sunrise again :(. However, we did have a good time on the jeep itself. It was very bumpy, and very fun. I’d say the jeep tour itself was worth it, although it was more on the pricey side (IDR 1,000,000 / jeep). Anyway, here are the photos…
Mount Merapi is supposed to be in the background but it’s completely covered by fog :(
The driver then took us on a tour around the Mount Merapi area to see the damaged caused by the eruptions, as well as to various landmarks around the area.
“Alien” Head
Cooled lava lake
Building destroyed by the eruptions
Another building destroyed by the eruptions
Next, we headed to the museum.
The museum has a lot of things on display and we enjoyed it a lot more than we thought we would!
There are a lot items on display, and we easily spent nearly an hour in that “mini” museum. We left shortly after to return to the starting point :(. We were very disappointed to have missed two sunrises, both times due to the rain…
As luck would have it, the rain cleared up on the way back, and our kind driver removed the shelter from the jeep. We also had some fun taking photos!
The driver also took us on a rather bumpy ride for fun :)! Below are the videos :P.
We arrive at the shop again shortly, where Sapto was waiting for us. The owner’s cats were sleeping very peacefully.
Lovely kitten huddling with its mother
After that, we headed back to Hotel Tentrem for breakfast. Other than an amazing couple massage that we went for at 3pm (it’s the best massage ever :P. Massage + body scrub + yoghurt on your body + jacuzzi + fruits + ginger tea. super!), the rest of the day was spent watching movies in the room!
We had an early (7.25am) flight back to Singapore the next day and had to meet Sapto around 5am for the drive to the airport.
That about sums up our Yogyakarta trip :)! We really enjoyed ourselves in this short 5 days (4 days really, since the last day was just the flight), had lots of fun and adventure, learnt lots of culture and really enjoyed the friendliness and warmth of the locals. Again, I’d like to thank Reza and Sapto from Indoparadiso for making this trip possible in the first place, and for taking good care of us in every part of the journey :)! (Note: Seems to be a Singapore thing now, but I must say that I am not affiliated with them in any way, nor am I paid if you click on that link. This is purely a personal recommendation.)
We highly recommend that you add Yogyakarta to the list of places to visit (if you haven’t already)!
Also, here’s wishing you a Happy New Year :). See you in 2015!
Other parts in this series:
- Travel: Yogyakarta 2014 | December 8 to 12 | Day 1
- Travel: Yogyakarta 2014 | December 8 to 12 | Day 2
- Travel: Yogyakarta 2014 | December 8 to 12 | Day 3