The Detouring Doctor

A surprisingly modern and comfortable train takes us from Jogjakarta to Surabaya in four short hours. It is a further 3 hours by car from the dirty and unattractive Surabaya rising up the mountain along winding narrow roads through verdant jungle. Our overnight base is 1900 metres above sea level at the cool misty Jiwa Jawa resort.

Three a.m. comes around quickly and after an unusually restless night I am well below par. Our jeep is waiting for us and it’s an often bumpy trip to Mt Bromo National Park for a sunrise lookout. Nothing is as I expected this morning. Being the off-peak season I expected a hardy few tourists but looking back out of the jeep is a line of headlights as far as the eye can see. Apparently we are part of a convoy of over 400 jeeps!

Being a national park I expected to find nothing but nature on arrival. I forgot that this is Indonesia and there are literally kilometres worth of brightly lit stalls selling anything from jackets to food and souvenirs all hustling and doing a roaring trade at 4 a.m.

Despite the crowds I find a nice patch of dirt below the lookout to taken in the daylight over the nearer Bromo Volcano and Mt Severus brooding higher n the distance.

Sated with the view and a “camera” full of pictures we drive down to the foot of Bromo for the 400 metre climb to the rim situated at 2300 metres. The climb up starts  across a long stretch of black volcanic sand that slopes gradually upwards. Although the altitude is not extreme the lower oxygen levels do play with our breathing. The walk is a 40 minute up hill push and is more arduous than the “easy” descriptor but the view from the rim looking down into the crater belching out a steady thick plumes of smoke and the sound of lava sloshing below like waves at a beach is magnificent. Face to face with the power of nature is humbling.

One third of the way my beautiful life partner declared herself “cooked”. To her credit she waved me on and I felt for her but understood her decision. The final part of the ascent is a steep 250 step climb. Three quarters of the way up I take a breather and am gobsmacked. Looking back slowly and steadily climbing to the foot of the stairs is the unmistakeable “Barbie” pink jacket Suzanne bought for this trip. Looking bedraggled she makes it all the way up. I love this woman and her determination. On the way back in the jeep she was heard to say “I wasn’t going to let the f***er beat me!

What a name, try saying it without rolling the “r”s! The sound alone evokes both history and mystery, perhaps something out of Indiana Jones! This magnificent Buddhist temple, the largest in the world has long been on my bucket list.

Constructed in the 8th century AD, damaged by earthquakes and eruptions then abandoned in the 11th century and left to the jungle. Rediscovered by Thomas Stamford Raffles, yes of Singapore fame, in the late 19th century. The first reconstruction took place over 100 years ago. Faced with subsidence it was comprehensively reconstructed over 10 years from 1985 with the assistance of UNESCO.

Bright sunshine sees us leaving Jogjakarta early in the morning for the 1 hour drive to Borobodur. Dominating the northern skyline is the dark conical volcano of Mt Merapi, threatening with thick plumes of white smoke. I wonder what it would be like living with the constant reminder of Indonesia’s most active volcano on your doorstep.

Arriving at Borobodur I am impressed by the modern, slick efficiency, modern western amenities and an efficiently organised system of guides. I am also surprised by the actual layout. I expected masses of stupas scattered throughout the jungle. Instead there are manicured lawns and pathways leading up a hill to a massive but coherent temple complex. It does not disappoint.

The afternoon sees us on the other side of town at The largest Hindu Temple in South East Asia. Prambanan was built in the 7th century. Just as with Borobodur, the centuries leading to the last one were not kind to it effectively reducing it to rubble. As with Borobodur the reconstruction is nothing short of magnificent.

The plunge from an upgraded suite in a five star hotel to a standard room in a (barely) 3 star place in Yogyakarta is not pretty. For me the room is basic but not the worst I have ever stayed in by a long shot, especially in my back packing days. My life partner has a look like thunder on her face. Through the torrent of criticism the phrase uttered “I want to go home” grates against my consciousness. Then there is the thumbing of the bed sheets presumably looking for bed bugs. What to do? We have started on a guided private tour with a company that I have researched and gets excellent reviews. I go back to reception and inquire about the existence and availability of better rooms. I am sold a better room for the princely extra sum of $40 per night. This room passes muster (just) and we are back on track.

Indonesia is a country with 130 volcanoes. Geologically it is part of the “ring of fire”. Prone to tectonic plate shifts and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Mt Merapi, an hour drive north of Jogjakarta has been quite active on Java. Major eruptions in 2006 and 2010 have reshaped the landscape and lava flows 11 months ago destroyed a number of villages with loss of life. As we drive up to the volcano it is remarkable how resilient the villagers are and the regeneration of vegetation on the fertile volcanic soil. The devastating forces of nature destroy but the fertile volcanic soil that results restores the balance just as quickly.

Heavily shrouded in cloud Merapi flirts with us revealing some of her flanks through transient breaks in cloud as we jump into the jeep to ascend her flanks.

One cannot ascend the peak and the main tourist complex is about halfway up. The whole area is run by the local villages and I cannot begrudge them the tourist fees. These people have repeatedly had their livelihoods wiped out by the volcano and they keep coming back! There are multiple places to go to, most of them kitsch creations that particularly appeal to a certain Asian tourist stereotype we tried to avoid these. Our first stop was the bunker which is as its name suggests an underground shelter from the thermoclastic volcanic events. As the name suggests these are bursts of superheated steam up to 2000 degrees Celsius. It was such an eruption that killed the tourists on White Island in New Zealand. In the 2010 eruption 2 people sought shelter in the bunker. This time it was lava and not steam and they were entombed and died.

Our final stop was the museum Sisa Hartaku a village chieftain complex again destroyed in 2010 here it was not lava but the thermoclastic cloud. The ruined structure is particularly poignant and demonstrative of the power of nature. The twisted molten metal tells the story.

The afternoon sees us back in Jogjakarta and through the enervating heat we visit he Taman Sari Water Castle. Damaged by earthquake in 1865 it has been restored to its former glory as a castle and water wonderland for the Sultan’s harem. From his vantage point he would watch the women bathe and select from the “smorgasbord” of beauty for the next concubine to pleasure him.

More and more airports, even in the developing world, have set up kiosks in arrival halls to purchase preordained fixed taxi fares to banish the rapacious taxi touts. Not here! We step out and face the wall of humid heat to the full on gamut of taxi madness. I always plan ahead, Google advises the appropriate price. I download the appropriate ride sharing app for Indonesia and what could go wrong? Firstly, the app reverts to Indonesian language upon landing. Secondly my bank’s credit card will refuse to pay on the app without a certification code which arrives late or not at all. Eventually after turning down the tout who quotes four times the going rate for one who settles on double the rate.

We have one day here and book a 3 hour walking tour. We are at the meeting place as the monsoonal rain teems down. We wait patiently and after 45 minutes abandon the trip and set off independently. The guide arrives an hour late and tracks us down. We are not in luck as she seems to be manic and difficult to understand. Her online reviews are impeccable but we had to excuse ourselves early and head off home.

My advice to any would be tourists here is not to bother with Jakarta. If you find yourself stuck here the highlight is the mosque which is apparently the third largest in the world. On returning to our luxury hotel booked, of course, by my life partner we found the rooftop bar and the best view we have seen all day enjoyed over a cocktail.

As I am writing this I was originally supposed to be in Syria right now. The Hamas attacks on October 7 put paid to that idea. With only 2 weeks off I toyed with Burma but civil war there literally killed that one off. Then I remembered my longstanding bucket list item of seeing Komodo dragons in the wild. It ticked a number of boxes being shorter, easier flights readily accessible from Australia.

Suzanne and I went to Bali in the 1980s and have no great urge to spend much time there so what else to do to fill 2 weeks? Borobodur on Java was similarly on my bucket list. This segued beautifully on to my discovering that Java is actually a fascinating island of jungles, waterfalls and volcanoes. The rest as they say is history and we have booked a full week here.