On a 10 day trip with a group of many travel bloggers, we discovered Javaland, Bali and Raja Ampat.
Javaland is the cultural slice of Indonesia, full of temples, ancient history and boundless mystery.
On an invitation from the ministry of tourism, Indonesia, we set out to explore Phillippines‘s neighbor. Direct flight to Jakarta took 18 hours from Frankfurt but there is nothing to complain when you are on A380.
It was minutes before reaching the hotel, snoozing off to shrug jet lag and again waking up very early to catch a flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta.
But when you spot a golden sunrise in the plane, even lazy minds are more than ok to endear early mornings.
We arrived within an hour and were already on our way to a small village -Desa Pentingsari on a bus. Driving through the lanes of Joygja, the first thing everyone noticed were green surroundings in the entire region.
A traditional cottage with local snacks in the village awaited us. The greens became even more prevalent, almost resembling a forest. Filtered sunrays, a tiny pond and chirping birds chased away the tiring morning.
Travel as an experience is incomplete without the taste of local culinary specialties. And Javaland is famous for its variety of fishes.
The villagers served a large banana leaf loaded with a spread of dishes. Full of fresh veggies, local farm fresh harvest, rice and rolls.
The fish crackers were so yum that we gobbled them as if the world was ending.
We then made our way to the rice paddy fields, the most popular thing to do in Yogyakarta.
Transported into a land of cultivation, bullock carts and conical hats.
Almost everyone in the villages here grow rice, making it a village profession.
We could not resist contributing to growing rice in our own fun way.
Learning the art of planting rice stems is therapeutic in its own way. Losing count of time with all the concentration required can be a stress buster.
Pentingsari is a village located in North of Yogyakarta city, on the edge of Kali Kuning, Mount Merapi.
So we headed near Mount Merapi post lunch for an adventure jeep ride popularly known as Merapi Lava tour.
A bumpy road trip towards the volcanos was breathtaking.
On the way, we stopped over at a museum build as recently as 2010. Established by a small family inside their house, showcasing the effects of the Merapi eruption in 2010.
Personal things owned by the family like motorcycle, cutlery, furniture, lanterns etc. are on display for people to see.
This clock attached to the wall is particularly intriguing. Its hands are stuck at the time of eruption forever. It is a chilling reminder of what happened when the hot ask cloud reached the village.
It started raining. Donning colorful raincoats we continued our jeep tour which was even more fun now.
We got to Bunker Kaliadem for a misty foggy view of Mount Merapi.
Day 1 ended on a splashy note driving through cold lava.
Get details of the booking process with Willys Jeep tour on your trip.
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