Da Nang Vietnam Travel

We booked our flights and hotel a few months before the actual trip to Da Nang, Vietnam and we realised that we hit the beginning of the China's Covid-19 epidemic outbreak. Lucky for us the outbreak seems to be self contained in Wuhan, China but gradually it became a very deadly pandemic in a matters of few weeks after we reached back home from our trip from  Da Nang, Vietnam. Well, this blog is not about the epidemic but more of our relaxing and utterly enjoyable experience when we visited Da Nang. 

For those of you who don't know where Da Nang is located, here's a map of the actual location. Da Nang is located practically along the many beaches which we will be guiding you later in this blog and it's such a great place to visit.

DAY 1 - 28.01.2020

We reached Da Nang International Airport at around late afternoon and manage to get a cab to our accommodation in Seashore Hotel. We proceeded to walk nearby our hotel for dinner and manage to secure a table after searching some of the restaurants for food from google maps recommendations. We headed for Ngoc Huong Seafood restaurant as this was recommended most with 4 star ratings. Generally most places for dinner are seafood as Da Nang nestled around beaches like Myt Khe, Non Nuoc, Lang Co and many more.

Since there are only three of us, we manage to order only a steam grouper, lobster and a Vietnamese fried rice which tasted quite good. The lobster was handpicked by us and the flesh was firm and fresh out of sea indeed.

DAY 2 - 29.01.2020

Our 2nd day we booked a car to visit Hai Van Pass Mountain in Hue City for some photoshoot and it was drizzling and cool possibly around 16 - 18*C. The haze was quite thick and we miss out on some of the sight seeing spots except for Hai Van Gate which turns out great. 

After the chilling cool in Hai Van Pass, our driver continue our next stop at Thien Mu Pagoda.  It is a seven-story pagoda and it's regarded as the unofficial symbol of the city, and the temple sits on the Hà Khê hill, in the ward of Hương Long in Huế.

Our last stop for the day is a visit to Khai Dinh Tomb and it is said to be located in Chau Chu mountain near Huế in Vietnam. It was built for Khải Định, the twelfth Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. It was built from 1920 to 1931 taking 11 years to complete. The tomb is a blend of Western and Eastern architecture. 

ANGKOR WAT SIEM REAP GLORY REVISITED

It's the time of the year again for another vacation. This time around my wife and I decided that we pay a visit to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I still recall some fuzzy memory of my last visit here at about 7 years ago and it was a pleasant experience and not forgetting the extremely hot weather during the peak season. We really got lucky as the month of June and July of the year are typically low peak season and supposedly rainy and it barely rained except for some minor drizzling. 

DAY 1 - 30/6/2014 Monday

We arrived at Siem Reap airport at around 1420hrs Cambodia time. Siem Reap has not changed much but tourism development has sprouted numerous 4 to 5 stars luxurious hotels which are very affordable. We manage to book Royal Crown Hotel & Spa which was located only a short walking distance from the Old Market and Pub Street. Hence, getting around the town having meals, buying souvenirs and visiting some of the local attractions are hassle free. 

Since it was pretty late in the afternoon, we wasted no time but headed to old market and have our lunch at The Soup Dragon. We are delighted that the curry fish, seafood salad and the beer were fantastic. Generally, the food in Siem Reap are reasonable priced in the range of USD2 to USD5 per dish. The type of food available comes in huge varieties as the menu of almost each restaurant we had visited are rather impressive. The Cambodian beer is about USD0.50 which was nice too.  

After our lunch, we went over to Siem Reap Art Center and there are various kind of crafts, bedsheets, t-shirts, jewelleries, hats and the list goes on.  After a short while, we walked over to Wat Damnak which was originally King Sisowath royal palace which eventually becomes a Buddhist monastery. Wat Damnak is now an independent institution on Khmer cultural studies and has one of the largest public academic library in Cambodia outside of Phnom Penh. It is not surprising that we do see students within Wat Damnak having some leisure time, studying and playing around with friends. It was also getting late and we decided to call it a day and return to our hotel.

 
DAY 2 - 1/7/2014 Tuesday

As usual, we had confirmed our 3 days tour via online with a guy called San Park several months earlier after much research on how to go about our trip. Our 1st day tour was an impressive one as the places that we are covering are staggering. Our morning started off with the purchase of the 3 days pass which cost USD40/person and our tuk tuk driver, Mr.Paul was a very courteous, polite and always a smiling guy. Since I knew that Angkor Wat temples are located less than 9km from Siem Reap, it was a right decision to just take a tuk tuk which cost us about USD60 for 3 days and for both of us which was a great deal.  

Our journey started with the visit to the South Gate which was in itself a splendor of what to come. Later, we also have the opportunity to visit Angkor Thom also known as the 'Great City' in Khmer which consists of Bayon, Baphuon, Terraces of Elephants & Leper King which was established during the 12th century ruling of Jayavarman VII. We were left to explore the temples ourselves without our tour guide to rush us which was a bonus. Each of these attractions has its own uniqueness and a story behind it on itself. Bayon was the most distinctive with its huge 4 sided stone faces on most of the towers which some expert refer it to the faces of Jayavarman himself portraying as the God King. Others may refer the faces as the Hindu gods and even Buddha at the later centuries. Nevertheless, the remaining ruins are magnificent and still constantly in restoration at present day. 

After much eye opener in just the 1st day morning of our tour, we settled for a simple lunch at a restaurant within the Angkor Wat vicinity as recommended by Mr.Paul. The choices are good but the price are rather high as the restaurant is situated within the temple attractions. We only ordered a sweet and sour pork at about USD8 with rice and plain drinking water and we are quite surprise as the dish in itself is quite a large portion which we barely manage to finish. 

After our lunch and much rest, we were on our trip to Banteay Srey which was one of the furthest temple of the archaeological sites and about 26km from our location in Angkor Thom which took us almost an hour to reach via tuk tuk. I still recalled my 1st visit to Banteay Srey in the early hours of the morning and the red sandstone really brings out the temple glory during the sun rise. It's best to visit it during sunrise but our trip this time around was planned in the afternoon and the huge difference is very obvious. Nevertheless, it was not crowded as it's already late afternoon and our visit during a low peak season does give us the opportunity to take more photos without having too much obstructions. Banteay Srey was dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva and built at around 10th century and the main attractions are the intricate decorative carvings which are still visible at present day. 

On our way back, we had our chance to visit Banteay Samre, a 12th century hindu temple built by Suryavarman II and Yasovarman II. There's also a legend that tells a Banteay Samre king which was a cucumber farmer but I won't delve into the details. Since I'm at it,... it was told that the original king likes the farmer's cucumber so much that he will kill anyone who tries to eat them. One day the king went to the farm wanting to taste the cucumber late night but was killed by the cucumber farmer thinking the king was a thief. As the king do not have any replacement, it was decided that the royal elephant chose the king by letting it roam the lands and eventually bow to the cucumber farmer and he was bestowed as the new king! However, the royal servants disrespect the new king and the farmer left the palace and hid in Banteay Samre. Sometimes I felt that little stories or legend are told for a reason with a hidden message behind it. Usually there are told among the villagers or the peasant and low ranking hierarchy in society expressing the dissatisfaction in life. Similarly, some are told in novel and art form at present day by artist like Ai Wei Wei, etc.

By the end of the day, Mr.Paul brought us to our requested side tour to the Landmine Museum during our visit in Banteay Srey. Luckily enough we manage to visit the rather small museum (I rather call it an exhibit) and it took us 10 minutes to finish looking around the exhibit but it does give us some history of war and landmines in Cambodia. The entrance fee was recently raised from USD1 to USD3 per person and part of the entrance fee will be used for help care of children who live there and support for the relief center.

Well, our day ended with much anticipation for the 2nd day tour highlights on Angkor Wat.
 

DAY 3 - 2/7/2014 Wednesday 

Our 2nd day tour was really testing our physicality to the limits considering the temples that we are about to visit. Our 1st temple is a visit to Angkor Wat also know as 'City of Temples' which is one of the largest religious monument in the world built by Suryavarman II. The temple is surrounded by a moat with an outer wall of 3.6km and we have to walk across the stone bridge which was about 235m in length. I watched a documentary on Angkor Wat on my flight to Siem Reap and it was told that Suryavarman ambushed and killed his uncle, Dharanindravarman I to take over his throne during the king's excursion in the jungle. It was during his reign of power that he expanded his borders into Siam, Laos and Peninsular Malaysia. It was also his desire to bring heaven down to earth in which Angkor Wat was built with 5 towers representation of Mount Meru with the centre highest tower linking to the chambers where the King rest in peace. There are still several other theories on how Angkor Wat was built but we just have to settle with this as it relates back to the inscriptions found on the bas relief and other expert findings. We might got a chance to know the true story if we only have a time machine! or perhaps hollywood might just do a movie on the reign of Suryavarman II as they did with 'Prince of Egypt' and the upcoming 'Gods and Kings'.

After our lunch we continue with our visit to Ta Prohm, Preah Khan, Neak Pean and Pre Rup temples. Ta Prohm was made famous and better known when the movie, Tomb Raider was released some years back. It was founded by Jayavarman VII at around early 13th centrury as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. It was very popular due to its giant silk and banyan trees growth enveloping the temple and its surroundings as though it was just founded by some scholars. However, Ta Prohm did not age well as one of the largest giant tree which was an attraction there was not visible despite our several attempts to find it. I later noticed some of the visitors also surprised as to not finding the giant tree. There's no doubt that there are still several other giant trees here and some of which are at 400 years old. I also notice that one of the giant tree seems to be uprooting and the stones in which the tree roots grasp has been missing and metal brace was used to prevent it from uprooting further. I would certainly imagine that the temples are slowly and gradually deteriorating despite much efforts of restoration. I also noticed some stones are bulging outwards at the bottom of the walls indicating lateral force and inconsistent loading dispersion from the top. This may just be my own opinion and we do hope that it stands majestic for decades to come so that the next generation may see it with awe. We were also quite shock to find that the bridge with its tug of war figures were headless when compared back to our old photos of the Angkor South Gate.

Anyhow, we just have to move on with the other attractions. One of the serene attraction was an artificial island Buddhist temple called Neak Pean  which was also built by King Jayavarman VII.  I guess the King is certainly having an interesting life with all these constructions during his lifetime. Once we reached Neak Pean, we had to walk about 400 metres toward the temple with the soil path and a very interesting wooden platform crossing a lake. I have to say the lake is rather interesting with slim leafless trees, tree logs floating, whistling sound of crickets and toads. The word Neak in itself means 'naga' in Sanskrit or dragon and most often associated with the 2 dragons of Anavatapta, the mythical lake in Himalayas with its waters having curing properties.

With Preah Khan and Pre Rup visited, we just have to call it a day as it was really a marathon of 10 hours non stop. I still recalled that my friend almost had a heatstroke when visiting Angkor Wat on our 1st visit here having exposed to direct sunlight at 35 degree celcius is just no joke and fun. Once we reached hotel, I just couldn't take it and started to feel ill already and went for dinner at our hotel before hitting our cosy bed.
 

DAY 4 - 3/7/2014 Thursday

Day 3 was really a killer and I meant killer not because of the marathon of places to visit but the heat. Luckily, I had some medicine last night and now I'm back on my feet for the last day of my tour. We started our journey to floating village near Phnom Krom at about 11km south from our hotel. It was a bumpy ride as there's practically no roads but undulating red earth but we do see a lot of laid back living lifestyle in villages and small huts. Unfortunately, once we reached the floating village, it has already moved out as the rainy seasons are coming and our driver is also not aware of it. We may actually be able to see them by taking a boat to their location which may take 1/2 day from what we overheard later. So, Mr.Paul decided to bring us to the villager's market near Phnom Krom and some of the Roluos Group temples which was not covered in our itineraries. The market was rather small as we manage to walk pass it in less than 1/2 hour. 

In fact, I missed out on the Roluos Group on my 1st visit to Cambodia. It actually consists of Lolei, Preah Ko and Bakong. There's also Prasat Pre Monti which our driver skip as it's too small and insignificant. Lolei was the first temple we visit and also the last to be built by Khmer king Yasovarman I for his dedication of Shiva and his member of royal family. It was rather small and still under some kind of restoration. Preah Ko better known as 'The Sacred Bull' in Khmer was built by Indravarman I in 879. 

 

I strongly felt that it was one of the impressive temple within the Roluos Group with its intricate carvings and architecture. Our last visit was Bakong and it was a sizable sandstone temple mountain with a stepped shape pyramid. We did a short walk up the steps and took some photos before returning to our tuk tuk. Some said that Bakong was built in reference to Borobudur temple in Java due to its similar architecture. Our Day 4 was a short one as we manage to finish our tour right before lunch. We requested Mr.Paul to drop us at Siem Reap town for our lunch at old market before returning to hotel.

 

DAY 5 - 4/7/2014 Friday

On Day 5, we manage to have a long night sleep yesterday and our luggage are all pack up ready to fly back to Malaysia. Mr.Paul agreed to send us to airport with a fare of USD5 which was very reasonable but we just tipped him an extra USD3 for his sincerity and humbleness. We felt that most Cambodian people are very friendly despite being poor and live a simple life. My Cambodia trip did not covers the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh and perhaps it could possibly be my 3rd trip here in future. Overall, my stay in Siem Reap was very pleasant and the food were very nice despite the hot weather throughout our tours.

There's so much more to talk about Angkor Wat but I would just sum it up in 3 words, "Explore, Enjoy & Exhale".

Yogyakarta - Our Java Adventure Trip

December 2013 is the time of the year for another vacation and we manage to make a flight reserve to visit Yogyakarta, part of central region of Java. Yogyakarta also better known as Yogya or Jogja which actually means 'prosperous city'. It was an interesting visit as Jogja tourism and development are booming with many hotels under construction and a major transformation is underway. Our visit was just the right pace with 5 days and 4 nights and most major attractions in Jogja were pretty much covered in our visit.

DAY 1 - 20/12/2013 [The Arrival] 
We arrived at Adi Sucipto Airport around mid noon and proceeded to take the local bus transportation to malioboro which cost about IDR3,000/person and it was extremely cheap. It's barely 10km from airport to Hotel Dafam Fortuna in Malioboro which we stayed. However, for convenience a taxi can be chartered for roughly around IDR100,000 which was not too bad either. Since it was already late noon at around 2:30pm, we are starving like mad and decided to taste some Jogja street food for lunch. We ordered nasi goreng and mee bachok with drinks which were not bad. After having our lunch, we proceeded to the crowded malioboro streets with lots of tourists and locals alike on a buying spree. There are a lot of things available for sale ranging from T-Shirts, handicrafts, scarfs, sarungs, hats, batiks, etc. Although the merchandise sold here are rather reasonable but the price in Malioboro can be further bargain at a very much lower price. 

One of the much reasonable fixed price goods in Malioboro is Pasar Seni Nadzar located at the very end of Malioboro street near Tugu Yogyakarta Train Station. We also purchased some handicrafts here and the  variety of goods are much diverse compared to Malioboro streets which sadly has mostly repetitive goods only. The javanese locals are quite friendly as we manage to speak to one of them which introduce us their finest batik art exhibition with their small studio housing Java's best artists in batik design. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed.  

 

We also manage to visit Malioboro Mall which is located centrally in Malioboro street. It was having a choir performances as Christmas is just around the corner. The christmas atmosphere reminded us on our last visit to Vietnam as it was the same time of the year. 

By the end of the day, we contacted Nomad Tours which we secured for our day tours to confirm our pre planned itineraries for the remaining 3 days. We did some rigorous case studies of the top attractions for Jogya initially and selected most of the tourist spots based on popularity while Nomad Tours provided us with the transportation to bring us to our planned daily visit.

DAY 2 - 21/12/2013 [Borobudur Temple & Dieng Plateau] 
We are all pumped up ready for our 1st day tour to Borobudur Temple on an early morning. Our trip to Borobudur took us about 1 hour ++ at 36km from our Hotel. Our driver insisted that he take a short cut as the main road leading to the temple has more vehicles and the journey is also in a way obstructed by traffic lights and jams. Hence, we do not mind and let the driver lead the way which crosses myriad scenes of the countryside agriculture, farming and villages which was a huge departure from city living. Frankly, it was not really a short cut as it took us a bit longer but a smoother ride bypassing the traffic congestion but nevertheless refreshing. 

Finally we arrived at Borobudur Temple but no temple is in sight yet. Luckily, our driver got tickets for our visit and we skipped the queue for tickets as though we are the VVIPs,...ahem! Once we entered, there was a nice wide open  garden leading up to the elevated Borobudur which was a magnificent view. Borobudur Temple being the 9th century Mahayana Buddhist Temple, it sure has gone through a lot and still looking majestically. The tourist and school children crowd here is huge and packed with people. Borobudur is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues complete with a main dome at the top. It is also surrounded by 72 Buddhas within a stupa which is still visible from the outside but touching the Buddhas is a tad bit difficult. Borobudur is a stupa with stepped pyramid base and consist of three realms in Buddhist cosmology: Kamadhatu (realm of desire), Rupadhatu (realm of form), and Arupadhatu (realm of formlessness). As we observe the sign outside the entrance correctly prior to entering, we noticed that we are supposedly walk from the lowest base clockwise and proceeded to the top base platform.

We proceeded our walk along the path and eventually reaches the main stupa at the top which was rather huge. Most of the lower stupas right below the main one are at the edge of the floor slabs and there is no railing preventing anyone from falling to the lower platform which is probably 1.6 metres in height. We are a bit cautious as the crowd and school children are running around happily everywhere. However, the lower platform is monitored by quite a number of guards and they'll alert you if you are at the edges of the upper level. Well, we do hear the guards shouting every now and then to warn the visitors if they are too near the edges. 

From Borobudur we continue our journey to Dieng Plateau ("Abode of Gods") located 77km from our present location. Our visit to Jogja has never intended to see Dieng Plateau but as I was finishing my case reference on Jogja, I stumbled on some major tour groups which introduces Dieng and it has a few nice attractions in one spot which attracted us to list it in our day tour. Dieng Plateau is situated at 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above sea level and dubbed as 2nd highest populated plateau after tibet. As such, this place is quite cold as we needed a sweater to visit Arjuna Temple but we were greeted with light rain upon our foot were set there. We took a few photos and make our way out. As we were walking out halfway, the rain stops probably Arjuna Temple has not shown its full grandiose potential to us. We thought oh well,...we just need to go back and have another look. We spent probably a good 1/2 hour there and Arjuna Temple really did stood up as the mid 7th century oldest standing stone temple in Central Java.

 

Our next stop in Dieng is the Sikidang Crater ("Deer Hopping Crater"). The reason why it's called deer hopping crater is mostly due to the nature of its brewing mud and earth heat with spewing sulphur smolder everywhere. We just have to wrap our noses with scarf as it's a hazardous and somewhat disgusting smell. The earth formation around these small craters is somewhat 'alien' as it's as though you are walking on another barren planet. As we reach the crater nearer it started drizzling again. We manage to find a nearby gazebo with a group of people which are also shielding themselves from the rain and luckily we are not threaten by the smoke from these craters as the wind did blew away most of it. Once the rain stop we slowly but surely step our way as though we are on the moon to the main crater and as the sulphur starts to penetrate all over our crevices of our body,...woo hoo we just have to surrender and retreat our selves from it. I later only found out that after my visit to Yogya that there's a magma chamber beneath the crater and possibly unstable earth around the craters. Well, a word of caution to smokers, don't throw your cigarette butts here as you might just light up the mountains!
The next attraction in Dieng is the Color and Mirror Lake. The Color Lake was said to be changing its color due to discoloration caused by algae formation under the lake. We did not spend a long time here as it was freezing cold coupled with the irregular rain drops. The view here is rather pleasant if only we can spend an hour or two to soak in the peaceful scenery. Anyway, that wraps up our first day trip in Yogya and it was a tiring marathon for a day and not forgetting the long hours travelling back to our hotel. It's sure a great start for our 1st day tour in Jogja.

DAY 3 - 22/12/2013 [Silver Craft, Batik, Indrayanthi & Parangtritis Beach] 
Our morning on our 3rd day tour started with a visit to the silver craft factory. It was sort of a side track for us as we thought maybe we should have a look since our tour did come across it as recommended by our driver. Not forgetting the batik factory which we were presented with the process of making batik using wax, etc. We did get ourselves some souvenirs on both of these occcasions.

The next visit we headed to Indrayanthi beach which was located 65km away from where we are at the southern most of Yogya. It took us roughly 1 hr and 15 minutes to arrive at the beach. It was already late afternoon and luckily the beach is filled with cafe restaurants and we had to settled down for our late lunch there. We ordered noddles and coconut drinks for our lunch - nothing very special but it did replenish our energy for us to continue walking up the hill which was located at the east end. At the very top, it was an impressive scenery overlooking to the entire Indrayanthi beach. We settle down a short while and enjoy the winds and the views before we continue our next visit. On our way out we bought some crispy seaweed snack and it was tasty!

Our last stop for the day is Parangtritis beach located 48km west from our location which took us slightly more than an hour for us to reach. At this point, we are quite drained and tired. Our guide proposed that we settle at Queen of The South Hotel in Parangtritis and decide whether we go down the beach if we have the energy. We manage to pass through Parangtritis beach and it was crowded and fully packed with tourists everywhere on our way to the hotel. Our guide did told us Parangtritis beach was badly hit by Tsunami in couple of years back. Most of the the locals do not return to work in hotels near to the beach and the incident still haunts them even now. That has led us to this somewhat deserted hotel which was once a renown hotel prior to the Tsunami and was once fully accommodated by foreigners. We can see why as we reached the hilltop, the views are spectacular overlooking to the beach below us. The winds are rather strong too but the pool fronting the banquet hall was under major reconstruction.

As we are too lazy coupled with the earlier sensory overload and certainly starving as the afternoon dwindled away, we ordered our early dinner at the banquet hall. We ordered nasi lemak rice and some spring rolls. Our waiter brought the nice spring rolls but drop it before it landed on our table...sigh. After a short while, the lady boss come to us with the replacement and greeted us. After our meal, I've decided to stroll along some pathways which seems to be some chalets next to where we seated. With much rest and relaxation, we call it a day and our guide brought us back to hotel.

DAY 4 - 23/12/2013 [Sultan Palace, Car Museum, Merapi Volcano & Prambanan] 
The fourth day was the day we've been looking forward since my first planning to Yogya and it's the Merapi volcano visit. Our tour started with a slower pace with the visit to Sultan Palace or Kraton [residence of the ruler - "Ke-Ratu-an"]. It was Monday and we were quite surprised that they are horde of visitors, some of which are local students and others are tourists like us. Sultan Palace has been the residence of the Sultan in the 1700's. It is still used as cultural performances around the large open air pavilions. There are pieces of art, portrait of the sultanate families and royal gifts to the Sultan which are exhibited here. It's interesting to see that the royalties live in simplistic lives here and respected by the locals everywhere.

Our next planned visit was supposedly Taman Sari Water Castle but the weather is not on our side. So our guide recommend that we have a visit to Museum Kareta [Car Museum]. Oh my! there are these royal horse carts with huge chunks of gold ornaments all around it. I'll let the photos for you to judge and you can almost feel the royal family heydays in your mind. 

Check out the small willys vehicle on the bottom right for the sense of scale.

I mean how often one can see the volcano face to face without getting some magma heat on your face or sulphur gas choking your lungs. The last volcano I've witness was Kintamani volcano in Bali. Kintamani and Merapi were both active volcanos and some guides may cancel their tours if there's any irregular volcano activities as cautioned by authorities. Our guide did inform us that he had a very scary experience bringing a volcanologist who is reluctant to evacuate from Merapi.

We departed from our hotel in Malioboro and headed to Kaliadem which was roughly about 29km towards the north. At first, I do recalled in some of the blogs I read that Merapi volcano is visible from Kaliadem but once we reached Kaliadem, there's no sign of Merapi as it was too foggy. Kaliadem is one deserted eerie place to be as the soil are from the Merapi eruptions and the foggy environment reminds me of 'The Mist' movie. But there are a lot of Willys Military 4WD jeeps everywhere and tourists are seen flocking in and out from Kaliadem. Since we are already there we might as well book a Willys to get a closer look into the foot of the giant Merapi. Well, Nicole Kidman was here and a few other celebrity photos was shown here too.

We took 2 tickets (300,000 Rupiah/person) and up we go into the Willys jeep and that's when all the fun starts the moment the Willys engine starts. It was one heck of a ride with all the bumping, twisting and strangling of our bones due to the uneven route of soil, magma, rocks, puddles, mud - You name it and it's all here! There are some surreal sights on our way to Merapi volcano. We did saw a lot of sprouting greenery plants of vegetables planted by the locals here on the volcanic black soil. You can't imagine these black soil is actually in its utmost fertile nature for plants. There are also truckload of sand mining vehicles coming in and out non stop 24 hrs/day from nearby Merapi. Our guide did told us that these sand were used for construction sites and sold at very reasonable price. I can really imagine a whole mountain erupted and spewing million tonnes of sand around it ala' Pompeii style!

As we draw closer to Merapi, there are shocking scenes of abandoned houses already engulfed in flames during the incident. There are also a whole river covered with magma literally dried out and blackened. The most shocking news was we are literally standing 5m above ground on some of the villages buried by the eruptions. Our 1st pit stop was a small house exhibit showcasing the remnants of human belongings and the leftover of the cow bones. Our next stop bring us to the Alien Stone where a huge rock was flung all the way from Merapi eruptions. The Alien Stone does really has some resemblance of a human face but Alien maybe not. We did have our photo taken there.

Eventually we arrived to the titan foot of Merapi and here lies a bunker. We did not waste for a minute and started to walk the inclined slope towards Merapi. It was a magnificent view to behold although we arrive at about 9am it might be a perfect view if we depart much earlier. We rested for a while and we noticed that the mist from the mountain was coming towards us slowly. We took some photos and descend our way down the slopes but the mist seems to picking up speed. Luckily we descended quick enough because the mist was a total whiteout and we might not be able to see the path in front of us as our surroundings were not so visible. We visited the small bunker and I doubt that anyone can survive inside the bunker as it was way too close to Merapi. A quick check on the news revealed that 2 men was killed inside the bunker due to scorching heat from the eruption. Merapi erupted in 1930, 1994 and 2006.

Our next visit of the day was Prambanan which is also the finale day tour highlight in Yogya. Prambanan is a 9th century hindu temple built in 850 CE (Christian Era) by ruler of central Java, Rakai Pikatan during the Mataram Kingdom. It was said a Bristish surveyor of Thomas Stamford Raffles stumbled upon the ruins by pure chance in 1811. As expected, upon arriving it was sparsely crowded everywhere with tourists but it was quite pleasant with large open spaces around us and our guide ushered us in without queueing. The Candi or shrine really a stand out piece of architecture and it is a reminiscence of my  trip to Angkor Wat several years back. The main Candi consist of Candi Prambanan, Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu and a few more smaller ones. Candi Shiva has a long queue to enter due to the limited visitors allowed at any one time for safety reasons. Candi Shiva did sustained some significant damages during the May 2006 earthquake but declared stable in February 2013. After queueing for more than 20 minutes we manage to enter Candi Shiva. Upon entering Candi Shiva we noticed the huge stones are reinforced with thick galvanised steel cables and some earthquake monitoring systems were in placed. Everyone are required to wear safety helmets before entering the shrine but if ever an earthquake strike, a single chunk of stone is huge enough to squash us into a pile of exhausted sugar cane juice. It was probably the scary and anxious feeling that makes you wanna explore more of Prambanan ala Indiana Jones.

It was quite an eye opener and the feeling of having a small adventure by visiting Yogya and we are very pleased and happy with our guide and the overall trip. I guess I've finally finish my long overdue blog of my trip here. Thanks for reading! Cheers!