Author: Jayant

Merapi: Mountain of Fire

Merapi: Mountain of Fire

Posted by | May 27, 2012 | , , | 17 |

Previously: Journey to Lava land: Borobudur and Mt. Merapi -1 The news of the ‘fresh’ lava flow into the innards of the Mt.Merapi filled us with trepidation.To us, this news was alarming,but was just a piece of information to locals. I guess living on the ‘Pacific ring of fire’ makes you ready to face anything. We were informed that the volcano goes thru cycles and this is merely the start of the next. There was no reason for worry and it would be ‘business as usual’. On hearing this, we gave an emphatic ‘GO’ to the plan. As we waited for our...

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Journey to Lava Land: Borobudur and Mt.Merapi – 1

Journey to Lava Land: Borobudur and Mt.Merapi – 1

Posted by | May 11, 2012 | , | 10 |

We bid adieu to our French friends and started for Borobudur in the afternoon. Here, a nice lady from Canada accompanied us. She was a tour guide in Europe and was volunteering for an NGO in Asia. When she said that after the weekend, she needs to get back to work, which was basically touring Europe, I could only wish to be in her shoes. It was a hot afternoon and we were getting desperate for some respite from the heat, when all of a sudden it started raining and continued for the next one hour. Luckily for us, we were...

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Jogja – The Spirit of Java

Jogja – The Spirit of Java

Posted by | May 10, 2012 | , | 8 |

We arrived in Yogyakarta (a.k.a Jog-Jakarta) after a short flight from Jakarta.30 min and 55,000 IDR later, we arrived at the guest house. Staying in guest houses is an interesting experience in itself as you get to meet a lot of people from across the world. I met some Germans, French and a lady from a previously unheard “country”-Guernsey. After settling down we made plans for the next 3 days. The primary objective was to climb Mt. Merapi (a live volcano) and visit the Prambanan and Borobudur temple complexes. We started checking with different operators to arrange for transport...

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Backpacking across South East Asia: Bangkok

Backpacking across South East Asia: Bangkok

Posted by | Mar 27, 2012 | , | 5 |

Day 1 Puru: BerT and I took a cab to reach the Cambodia- Thailand border. At around 9:00 AM we crossed the border from the Poipet town of Cambodia and entered into Thailand. This was the first time when I crossed an international border on foot. 🙂 After the immigration check, we set out to find our way in Thailand. Hired a Tuk Tuk driven by a girl (I had read about her in Lonely Planet before) which took us to the nearest bus stand. From this bus stand, we got a minibus to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport bus terminus. By the...

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Backpacking across SE Asia: Banteay Srei & Preah Khan

Backpacking across SE Asia: Banteay Srei & Preah Khan

Posted by | Mar 18, 2012 | , | 5 |

Siem Reap -Day 2 Banteay Srei After Puru and BerT took the land route to Thailand, I had until the afternoon to explore the man-made wonders around. I planned to see Banteay Srei and Preah Khan, and squeeze in any other spots en route. En route to Banteay Srei, we checked out the ‘state temple’ of Pre Rup. As with other un-maintained stuructures here, it appears to be a crumbling bunch of stones stocked together. Though the carvings are now faded with time, the structure in iteslf is interesting as it is a temple mountain. After the steepest  flight of stairs I...

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