Adventures in Java

Last month we spent 10 days traveling in East and Central Java. This was my first time to East Java, Dave's 2nd. 

Hotel Majapahit in Surabaya is named after the Majapahit empire that ruled from about 1300-1500.

Our first stop was Surabaya, Indonesia's 2nd largest city! Surabaya gets its name from "sura" meaning shark and "buaya" meaning crocodile. Local legend claims that these two battled it out for the title of "most powerful animal". We spent 2 nights in Surabaya and successfully found one of Dave's old friends, Pak Supri, from 12 years ago!

Dave with Pak Supri at the site of the man made Sidoarjo mud flow, active since May 2006.

It was pretty amazing how we found D's old friends with only an address from 12 years ago and their names to go by. Here we are on a motorbike with this nice man who helped us find D's friends! 

Ibu Yudha in her combined home and work space. She supports her two sons as a tailor. Such a beautiful smile!

    From Surabaya we travelled a few hours South to Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. Bromo and Semeru are two of Java's tallest active volcanoes. 

Getting there was the biggest adventure of all! A 3 hour taxi ride, 1 hour 4x4 ride, 5 minute motorbike ride, 3km by foot and finally an 8 minute motorbike ride was how we transported from Surabaya to the village of Ranu Pani 2,200meters. 

The beautiful surrounding landscape! It is so nice to find fresh, clean air here in Indonesia!

First stop on our hike, Ranu Kumbolo.

Jambangan, our high point and turn around for this day hike of over 20km.

Our home stay in the village of Ranu Pani.

The dusty and busy street in front of our home stay. ;D

    After 2 nights in Ranu Pani we travelled down to the city of Malang for one night where we had dinner with one of our previous students from Tembagapura.

From Malang we took the Malioboro Express train 7 hours west to Yogjakarta in Central Java. Once in Yogja we met up with our friend Rustam from the island of Sumba who is studying at a University in Yogja. 

Rustam left and his friend Adi right.

Rustam & Adi posing in front of our home stay in Selo village which is located in the saddle of Mt. Merbabu and Mt. Merapi. 

Sunrise on Merapi!

Yeah! We all made the summit of Mt. Merapi, 2930m! Rustam and Adi's first mountain climb ever!

Sambisari Temple in Yogjakarta is a Hindu temple from the 9th century.

Bike ride to and from Sambisari Temple!

Henny at the ancient bathes! 

Our last full day in Yogjakarta was with our friend Henny. She took us to this beautiful old Hindu palace just outside of the city.

It was a journey of extremes with elevations from sea level to 2900+ meters, temperatures from >90 to <45 F, modern and ancient and much in-between. It was also full of sweet reunions with old and new friends in each place we visited. Thank you for sharing our journey with us through these photos and short stories. Salam.