Mount Merapi

Mount Merapi

Mount Merpapi was not what I was expected. It was a Volcano much different from any I have ever seen. Normally when there is a Volcano in the area it is like a skyscrapers standing alone in the middle of a field.

I am a little worried that I did not even see the Volcano. There are two areas where you can view the volcano or maybe two volcanoes. The first viewing had a large valley with a river between the volcano and me.

This is maybe the volcano of Mount Merapi; the groups of person at store seemed to say this. I did not expect to have a problem identifying the Volcano. The Indonesia English here in this area is not good, the viewpoint that is complete with admission gate, signs, parking and such, has no signs in English to explain.

This is the stop barriers saying that Merapi is closed, however all you have to do is walk by the stop point and you can go to the viewpoint.
I would say that you could see anything you would normally want to see with no problem. A person may have to walk farther, that is the only difference between being closed and not closed. I did not have to pay the entrance fee.

As I started to climb over these bamboo barriers, I met a couple of men, I am not sure, my first guess is Australian, and however any western country is possible. I did not think much, I was asking them in English how to view the Volcano.

I turned around to look at them again and spot the Red Cross - Red Crescent sign on the back of their van.

I can sense that people do not feel I am truthful about what NGOs are doing. It is like a Missionary, you can see them in all the tourist spots. Nobody can work 24 hours per day.

I go to look at the Bantul Earthquake area and I see zero white people or Western Persons, I go to the Merapi Volcano Tourist attraction and I see two of them.

I was told by the boy at the convenience store to look at Merapi Golf, I had nothing better to do, and the area is very beautiful so I turned near this sign. I never found a golf course, however I did find another entrance.

A guide came up to me and was trying to explain this is a walk to see Mount Merapi. I do not know, I think this is a viewing of the backside of the Volcano. He was a guide; his group of Italians had taken off on a one-hour walk to view the Volcano. He spoke very bad English.

I had no rain gear, I had my camera, nothing to protect me, it looked like rain therefore I decided to opt to go back to the city of Yogyakarta.

Mount Merapi is a tourist site, there are tours advertised everywhere in the area I am living. I could not go on a tour because there are no tourists. I could hire a private tour, however I hate guides. IF I would have met one person that spoke good, English I would have ask them to go with a motorcycle to the mountain. A guide needs to speak English or they can take you to every restaurant or bar in the area and let you sit so you do not ask questions or maybe shopping.

Mount Merapi is not primitive; it has maybe 30-70 Hotels spread out on the adjacent hills. I was not able to see the bottom of the volcano, however there appears to be nobody living at the bottom. This is not a primitive area, it is more or a resort, trekking, living in a hotel, walk around in the mountains area. I saw very small amounts of farming.

Danger? I am not sure; a large explosion of the mountain would be dangerous. There a large ravines and valleys between the hotels and the actual volcano. The lava flows cannot come down on them as they are about as high as the Volcano.

There are many mountains in the area or hills, the volcano is in many ways just another of the hills.