It was my first trip to Asia, and really my first trip anywhere where English is not widely spoken. Such a great feeling to just hop on an airplane and zoom off, with no scheduled return date and, well, no schedule for that matter. OK, so I did have a return ticket for 60 days later - Indonesian authorities won't give you a tourist visa if you can't convince them that you'll leave within 60 days - but tickets can be changed. I had just bugged out of graduate school and had no responsibilities back in the West, so I figured I'd travel until the cash ran out. What better place to stretch your budget than Indonesia! We stopped in Seoul and had to deplane for a security check (the Korean officials were very concerned about my pack of AA batteries, which I had brought along to power my camera and a little shortwave radio). Then a six-hour layover in Singapore, where I was surprised to see an A&W fast-food restaurant. (So this is where they went...) On the final leg over to Java I figured I'd better make an attempt to at least learn how to count in Indonesian. Satu, dua, tiga, empat... I really started to feel a long way from home as we descended over the ocean towards Jakarta. Little bamboo fishing platforms poked up out of the sea, and then suddenly we were flying over swampy lowlands. Rice farms stretched forever, broken by groves of coconut palm trees. Excitement and a bit of nervousness crept over me as I wondered what lay in store on the ground. I knew very little about this country, but I was transfixed by photos I had seen of beaches, jungles, and volcanoes, and I had to see for myself...

In the Jakarta airport I met some friends who had just arrived on a different flight a couple hours earlier. We hopped on a bus to Gambir train station, grabbed a quick bite to eat in a sketchy back-alley restaurant (lots of nodding and pointing, and whatever it was that we were served turned out to be really tasty!), and took a smoke-filled night train to Yogyakarta. We arrived at about 3 a.m. and crashed out at the Hotel Afrika-Asia. I awoke at 11 the next morning, walked outside, and was subjected to the most oppressive heat I've ever encountered. Sticky sweat immediately coated my skin, and we quickly realized that walking anywhere was out of the question. We jumped into the first becak (bicycle taxi) we could find, and spent the afternoon strolling around the ancient Hindu temple complex of Prambanan. It was amazing! Huge temples of black basalt, with endless intricate sculptures and carvings in the stone. Apparently the whole complex was in ruins until a massive project in the early 20th century began to reconstruct the temples. There are still literally tons of carved blocks scattered around but many temples have been restored to what I can only assume might approximate their original grandeur. The main temple Candi Loro Jonggrang was in very good shape, with lots of visitors. Many of the outer temples are much less restored, but very cool and peaceful...

The following day brought a visit to Borobudur, the legendary Buddhist temple - but not before some delicious nasi goreng (fried rice, Indonesian-style with tons of chili sauce) for breakfast and a stroll down the Jalan Malioboro, Yogya's main drag for local crafts. It was an important lesson in bargaining, a skill which would take me weeks to get comfortable with, and after an hour or so the Indonesian numbers were rolling off my tongue. I picked up a few batik clothing items, and then off to Borobudur. On the busride there we caught a glimpse of nearby Gunung Merapi, sending up its volcanic plume not too far away - my next destination! But today was Borobudur, an enormous, three-tiered Buddhist temple. The lowest tier represents the realm of desire (hell), the next the realm of struggle (earth), and finally the realm of otherworld (heaven). It was indeed a struggle to get to the upper tier, with crowds of people and very tall steps. You circulate clockwise around the structure, passing each of the 500-or-so stone buddhas (many enclosed in bell-shaped stupas) situated on stone lotus blossoms. On the way back we stopped by a smaller, active Buddhist temple amidst some grand banyan trees called Mendut, where we chatted with a Buddhist monk and a visiting Roman-Catholic priest, meditated a bit and burned an incense stick. Our minds clear and at peace, we headed back to the crowded madness of Yogyakarta.

My friends were on a tighter schedule, and left the following day for Bali. We planned to meet up in Ubud a week later, but I could not pass up the opportunity to get a closer look at the notorious Gunung Merapi volcano since it was so close by. After checking out of our hotel, I took a bus up to Kaliurang, a small city right on the slopes of the volcano. The Lonely Planet guide recommended Vogels hostel in Kaliurang as a good base for exploring the volcano, and sure enough I was soon signed up for the "lava tour" starting at 3 a.m. the next morning!

Vogels hostel has a lot of good info and some wild pictures of a big eruption in 1994 that had blanketed Kaliurang in ash. A huge nue'e ardente had apparently rushed down the mountainside nearby, resulting in several deaths. As I strolled around town that afternoon, I saw very clear warnings posted not to go down into the Boyong Canyon that skirted the town. Should a sudden eruption trigger a nue'e ardente, the canyon was a likely path and you'd be incinerated with little chance of escape. Needless to say, it was kind of difficult to relax. There wasn't much else to do that afternoon but gaze up at the smoking mountain and let your mind wander. In the evening several families set up food carts along the streets, and I ordered some satay from one of them. The man behind the cart furiously fanned a little charcoal grill and seared the satay sticks, while his wife rolled up some lontong (rice cake) in a cone of paper, added a couple satay sticks, and drizzled peanuty satay sauce over the top. A fantastic snack on the cheap! Mmmm...

At 3 a.m. the next morning, a small group of tourists set out on the "lava tour". We walked for about an hour and a half in the pitch black night. Our guide paused midway and we stopped and listened: you could hear rocks falling up above us! We continued on to the designated observation point, and sure enough we could see a steady stream of boulders tumbling fast down the mountain from the crater area near the summit, glowing red and breaking apart as they rolled. Spectacular! This is a very steep cone, so the rocks are really moving. (Not so good for photography though - I wasn't carrying a tripod, and there wasn't much to set a camera on for a long exposure. Most of my photo attempts were fruitless...) We gazed as the sun rose, casting beautiful morning light on the cone.

On the walk back to town, we passed by a small mud and ash flow from a couple weeks back - it was still warm. Our guide, an enthusiastic young Javanese boy, maybe 18 years old, pointed out other interesting sites along the trail - various bird species, noteworthy plants, insects... At one point he reached between some leaves into a spider's web and picked up a huge spider, which proceeded to crawl up his arm and over his shoulder! He had also brought some snacks and we munched on a quick breakfast at a little trail-side hut. It was a great walk and I felt very satisfied to have seen a bit of Merapi's action! Later that evening, after a quick rainstorm, I went out to a lookout platform at the edge of Boyong Canyon, which was dramatically shrouded in mist. Merapi was completely obscured by dense clouds, and as I was snapping pictures of the canyon a loud rumbling noise suddenly rang out from up in the clouds. Darkness was approaching, and my heart began to race a bit. It got really quiet, and the sounds of the forest seemed amplified in my ears - bats flew by, their wings clicking in the dark and sending shivers up my spine. Something rustled in bushes, and then the clouds parted. For a moment I could see Merapi's summit, emiting a red glow. A rather large avalanche of glowing rocks came crashing down with loud booming sounds! I waited a bit more, but the fingers of mist moved up the valley and soon I was completely enshrouded in fog. Spooky - time to head back for another satay dinner...