Tom Another major attraction in Yogyakarta is Mt Merapi. It is an active volcano and had recently erupted prior to our visit. On day 3 of our Yogyakarta travels, we visited Mount Merapi via the Merapi Jeep Tour, did cave tubing at Pindul Cave (aka Goa Pindul) and enjoyed the sunset at Pinus Pengger Pine Forest. So how did the day 3 of Yogyakarta Travel Itinerary turn out?
Merapi Jeep Tours Yogyakarta
On day 3, we woke up at 6am and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at Greenhost Boutique Hotel. We briefly mentioned about its sumptuous spread in our previous post. There are several cool parts about the breakfast here in that there is a focus on healthy eating. There are vegan options, healthy fruit juices, salads and fruits – lots of it! Felt kinda detoxed after having breakfast here…
It’s a 45 minutes drive from Greenhost Boutique Hotel to the Mount Merapi region. As we edged closer, we realised that there were so many Merapi Jeep Tour companies there. Arif, our driver, took us to Merapi Jeep Adventures. Most people head there as well. Here are the routes available…
The short route takes about 90 minutes, while the medium and long routes take 120 and 150 minutes respectively. The longer routes take you to “Stone Henge”, The Lost World as well as a splash along the river. But if you just want to “been there and done that”, the 90 minutes ride is definitely more than enough. Plus, the ride’s pretty bumpy due to the mountainous terrain. Anything longer is definitely not recommend – that is unless you have ample time, excess cash and are very adventurous. The short route of Merapi Jeep Tour costs 350,000 IDR (~$30 SGD). The cool part is that the cost is for the entire jeep. Meaning, same price for 1,2 or up to 4 pax 😉
Do note that there is a small charge of 8,000IDR just to enter the Merapi area. Sorta like a tourist tax.
Merapi Jeep Adventure (Short Route) Stop 1: A home destroyed in the 2010 Mount Merapi Eruption
Our first stop was a home destroyed by the Mount Merapi Eruption in 2010. Mount Merapi actually also erupted in 2010, this time, there was a higher death toll as the eruption occurred at midnight.
Merapi Jeep Adventure (Short Route) Stop 2: Alien Stone (aka Alian Stone)
The second stop on the Merapi Jeep Adventure was the Alien Stone. There are 2 versions to how this stone got its name. If you take a look at the stone…
Yup, there’s actually a face on the stone. That’s where the stone got its name from. There’s a second version in that in Javanese, the word “Alian” means “thrown”. In other words, the stone was thrown from Mount Merapi to this location. Hence, it is also called “Alian” stone. At the same sight, you’ll also be able to see the entire path carved out by the lava as it flowed down from Mount Merapi. As a result, a beautiful valley was formed…
Merapi Jeep Adventure (Short Route) Stop 3: Bunker Kaliadem
Our third and final stop was the Bunker Kaliadem. “Kali” means river while “Adem” means cold. Hence, the bunker was actually built next to a cold river. 2 people died during the eruption and you can still see the lava inside the bunker today…
The third and last stop is actually also a venue where visitors can get amazing views of Mount Merapi. Unfortunately for us, it was a foggy day and we were only able to make out the silhouette of Mount Merapi…
(What’s with us and fogs? Hmm…check out our foggy encounters at Montville (during our Brisbane Trip), Jeju and Vancouver Washington)
To end off the trip, our driver took us to the edge of the lava cliff for photo-taking. It was actually quite exciting as the entire jeep was inclined!
The shot of the rest of the jeeps were taken from our position, RIGHT AT THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF! While posing for the shots, we prayed that the cliff would not suddenly give way…yikes! To illustrate our close to the edge we were, the jeep that we were on, actually needed other jeeps to pull it out! Our driver passed some straps to the other jeeps and they managed to pull us out of the “ditch”. Phew…an exciting conclusion to a great tour. Temperature wise, it was cool – a balmy 20 degrees. A light jacket would be good. Masks would also be provided because the tracks are basically ash and they are essentially everywhere as the jeeps drive past. Keep the masks on! The entire trip lasted from 9am to 1040am.
Merapi Jeep Adventure
Price: 350K IDR (Short Route for up to 4 pax)
Opening Hours: 8am to 4pm
Pindul Cave Tubing (Goa Pindul) Yogyakarta
After close to 2 hours drive, we arrived at Pindul Cave at about 1pm (left Mount Merapi at 1045am). Pindul Cave is famous for 2 reasons. Firstly, the cave tubing experience allows you to float through the cave filled with lime stone formations and bats! Secondly, there’s a hole right in the middle of the cave that allows sunlight to come through. At mid-day, the sun’s rays forms an amazing sight. Though we were not able to catch the sight, the entire tubing experience (our first) was absolutely amazing!
Inside the cave, the tour guide would drag the floats to various formations and introduce us to them. Of note, 2 particular formations stood out. A rock formation called “strong” as it is a vertical rock coming out of the water – at which the guide would clench his fist and hit against it (why would he do that?!). The other is called “Mutiara” (or pearl). The guide says that ladies should allow a drop of water from “Mutiara rock” to fall on their face and they will be beautiful. Hence, all the ladies queued up. -_-”
Soon, we were at the famous point inside Pindul Cave where sunlight enters the cave through an opening overhead…
Once there, several tourists got off their floats and either stepped “ashore” to take photos. A really cool experience. But that’s not all. There’s a second part to this excursion. A lazy river cruise…
Besides being able to enjoy the leisure cruise down this river, we also noticed that the formation on the sides of the river were a sight to behold as well. Tourists also took the chance to disembark and leap off a cliff or simply allow the refreshing waterfalls to flow overhead. There were about 3 mini waterfalls during this trip. All the way through, we were dragged by our guide. A small tip at the end of the trip for your guide would be nice.
After the river cruise, we loaded up our rubber floats back unto the trunk and begun our bumpy ride back. Remember to hold on tight to the railings. An approximate 5 to 7 minutes ride. There, we paid 50 cents for shower (there are holes in the cubicles as they were put together with wooden planks) and there after enjoyed a mee goreng with egg (included in the price of entry). All in all, this was an unique experience for us. Thoroughly enjoyed it. #whenwasthelasttimeyoudidsomethingforthefirstime
Pindul Cave (aka Goa Pindul)
Price: 180,000 IDR ($16 SGD) per pax (includes cave tubing, river cruise and simple lunch)
Opening Hours: 7am to 4:30pm
Pinus Pengger Pine Forest Yogyakarta
To end off the evening, we headed to Pinus Pengger Pine Forest. We left Pindul Cave at 3:30pm and arrived at the Pinus Pengger Pine Forest of Yogyakarta close to 4:30pm. One of the main attraction of Yogyakarta’s Pine Forest is the views of sunset…
However, as we were a wee bit early, we headed to one of the many small huts and enjoyed a fresh coconut for only 10,000IDR (~$1 SGD). Entrance to the Pine Forest was 5,000 IDR per person.
There are many instagrammable shots at Jogja’s Pine Forest. For instance, if you look up, you’ll notice the pine trees forming a beautiful symmetric pattern at the top of the canopy. Take a shot of yourself from bottom up with the pine trees above you – that makes for a beautiful and unique photo. Arif introduced that to us. Thanks Arif!
There are also many other structures strewn across the Pine Forest. In addition to the iconic hand that you see above, there are also many little huts and swings that you can take photos with…
Soon…we were treated to an amazing view…
Though we were not able to take sunsets of ourselves at the hand at Pinus Pengger Pine Forest, we were still able to enjoy God’s wonder here. If you would like to take a sunset shot with “the hand”, remember to queue early. There’s always a queue to take picture with this iconic structure at Jogja’s Pine Forest.
Pinus Pengger Pine Forest
Price: 5,000 IDR
Opening Hours: 6am to 8pm
Before we left, we also did several jump shots with the pine forests. We found out that Arif is not only an expert at taking photos, he’s also really good at jump shot poses! :O
To round off the evening, we headed to the roof top bar of Greenhost Boutique Hotel – Agenda.
To start things off, we had Bintang draft beer (support the local brew!) for 50,000IDR and Lychee Mojito (120K IDR). For food, we had the Agenda nachos (45k IDR), Chicken Salted Egg (40K IDR) and Duck Curry Cilantro (85K IDR). The total with 5% service charge and 10% tax came up to a 393K IDR ($36 SGD). The tomato-based curry was really quite good. However, the salted egg was disappointing. Speaking of which, having tried several renditions of salted egg dishes overseas, none tastes as good as those back home in Singapore. Standards driven up by picky Singaporean foodies?
We noticed that there were many foreigners at the roof top bar on a Friday night. Probably a great place for expats to gather and mingle. The down side to Agenda that there isn’t really a “roof top bar” per se. Views were not fantastic either. Nonetheless, the jazzy chill “live” music did lift the atmosphere quite a bit…
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We hope you have enjoyed our coverage of day 3 travels in Yogyakarta. Stay tuned as we check out more attractions from Yogyakarta in our next post!
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