The Lava Tour

Since it erupted in 2010, Merapi has become a tourist object. Many people come to see the view after Merapi's eruption destroyed the village. But however, the village is now rising again. The villagers took the advantage of that condition to mend their life condition. By not giving up to the situation, they finally bounced back from the sorrow caused by the eruption. That's why I decided to take a look at the volcano tour. All the tourists were allowed to use four-wheeled drive vehicles and trail bikes to traverse the volcanic trails.

***

I headed from the hotel to Merapi by using a Jeep at 5.00. The day began with a frigid morning, with a little bit of wind chill (yes, this is a pretty yuck drama). Then we arrived at Merapi's slope. The sunrise was sharp at 5:15 am. And wow. The views were surreal as the weather stayed really clear. The colors of the sun, the landscapes and the views of the distant mountain kept me dumb struck for a long while.  The clouds also seemed to rise with it making the entire world above seem like a maze of clouds (yay! lol). And yes, I took some photographs.

A little while after, I started my journey to go around the village. I travelled around by renting a trail bike with my brother and visiting the emergency bunker. Have you ever remembered about the accident of Merapi's bunker? One more thing that interesting for the tourist is a bunker where two of safety guards of Merapi were died. At the beginning, the bunker, one of several dotting Merapi's slopes, was designed to provide temporary protection from hot clouds, not from sustained exposure to large amounts of burning volcanic debris. The 2 men were trying to enter the bunker when the hot clouds slide down from the mountain. It's a pity that the bunker was closed with dry lava and volcanic material, so their bodies were burnt inside. The men were helping evacuate a village when a burst of volcanic activity forced them to seek shelter in the bunker.

Then I took a visit to the graveyard of Mbah Maridjan, the caretaker of Merapi. Visiting the village and still be able to see some remains of the Merapi eruption. Countless houses and livestock were destroyed together with farms and forest. It was indeed a surreal and humbling experience standing on the soil blackened with fine black sand ejected from the bowels of the earth by the forceful volcano. There are also a burned car and a motorcycle that become a tourist attraction.

Back to Hong Kong!

Day 4 : Hong Kong

We took a ferry on the way back to Hong Kong. It was a very comfortable ride and the ferry took us to the city in just about an hour. After we arrived, we went straight to the Avenue of Stars. Unfortunately, the rain poured on and there are dark clouds over us. I got so mad that it was so foggy, I tried to take a photo clearly but the light was pretty bad. We spent the afternoon there by holding an umbrella up, how pathetic. Then we headed to Victoria Peak. In every country, there's at least one place that provides a high altitude and panoramic view of the area. And in HK, The Peak could be just that place. At 428m above sea level, and depending on your luck (as it’s most unpredictable at times, foggy or not), you'll be able to see an astonishing view of Hong Kong. We took a tram. The tram ascends 373 meters from the Lower Peak Tram Terminus in Central to The Peak. The steepest inclination is 27 degrees at May Road. If you have the heart to stand up from your seat, gravity automatically kicks in and you will actually be standing at a 45 degree angle on the way up - a really unique experience which will have the rest of the passengers staring at you in awe. After we arrived at The Peak, we decided to take a lunch at Burger King. After that, we managed to take some photos and 2 hours later we were picked up to going to Tsim Tsa Tsui (one of the shopping districts in HK) and then we headed to Regal Oriental Hotel to take some rests.

 

Day 5 : Hong Kong Disneyland!

And now is the time for the main highlight of our trip. From this moment onwards, we are going to explore Hong Kong Disneyland to its fullest!! Yeayness. HK Disneyland was located in  Lantau Island. After breakfast, it was time for us to head over to the resort park. We were picked up by the bus at 9am. Excitement all over again, because once you enter the park, you would hear dreamy Classical Disney Music playing on the speakers, and that surreal magical feeling won't go away! After we entered the main gate, we walked around The Main St. and then took some photos in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.  We went on the Jungle River Cruise, where there were simulated creatures like elephants and cobras that looked super real and there was a scary section where there's real fire and smoke just a few feet away from our boat! I felt a little heartbeat because of that. But it was really awesome! Then we went for the Lion King show which is a -live stage musical performed in Adventure Land zone. The show uses songs, dance, puppetry and visual effects to portray a tribal celebration in an African savanna with setting filled with lions, elephants, giraffes, birds, zebras and gazelles. So, do plan your schedule and pick up one of your suitable time slot to enjoy this wonderful 30 mins musical show which is a "must see" in Hong Kong Disneyland. I enjoyed the entire show SO much! I was really amazed with the singing (there’s no lipsync in the show lol) and staging, and there were other acts too like trapeze dancing and even fire spinners! It was really stunning and I was enthralled throughout the performance. Then we went to the next show. That was The Golden Mickey Show. All characters of Disney were shown on the stage. So cool! We went to Toy Story Land- which is an Asia-Exclusive attraction that located at the far "left" end of the theme park with two exciting new rides that we love and conquered. Toy Story Land was designed to be look like Andy's backyard, with larger than life toys that makes you feel like you've been shrunk down to the size of an ant. Toy Story Fans will not missed their chance taking photos with Woody and Rex which is located near the attraction entrance! For those who are brave enough, you can take up the challenge to go on board the RC Racer (a shuttle ride that goes up and down a soaring U-shaped track). It's really thrilling but too bad I am not brave enough to test it up lol, my brother wanted to try this so he got in line for this ride but unfortunately petugasnya announced that the ride tiba2 bgt rusak pdhl kakak gue udah ngantri 15 menit HAHAHAHA I felt so sorry for you bro kasian bgt emg dasar. After that, we entered into the Grizzly Gulch zone (roller coaster look alike). It was just the two of us (we separated from mom and dad). This ride will bring us through caves of Big Grizzly mountain which is filled with friggin surprises. Each train can take up to 24 guests and the roller coaster ride wasn’t as scary as I thought (boong padahal gue merem dan teriak mulu) except for some turns with slight gravity force. After that we went to Fantasyland. We saw the Cinderella's Carousel, which has got an assortment of beautiful horses, all of them have a different design. The queue for this ride was insanely long so my brother and I decided not to go. Since we reached the park around, we decided to watch "Flight of Fantasy Parade" which is a must see musical parade whenever you visit Disneyland. This was the meeting point of us (my brother and I) and my parents. You absolutely cannot miss the parades. It was one of the highlights of my day. Once the parade music starts booming and the huge beautiful floats with Disney characters start parading down the street, I felt like I was a kid again! You really have to experience the parade in real life to understand how I felt at that moment lol. When you're standing in the crowd and so near to all your favourite Disney characters, hearing the joyful parade music over the loudspeakers, and seeing the enthusiasm and energy of every single performer in the parade, the feeling is indescribable. I was so happy, I almost teared because I felt so overwhelmed! Sounds silly I know. After the parade ended, I still felt like I was in a happy daze. Lol. But we didn't want to lose any time, so we started our embarkation to go on as many rides and see as many attractions as we could! One of them is Mystic Manor. Mystic Manor is an all-new attraction within Mystic Point with special effects and architecture featuring Lord Henry Mystic's Magneto Electric Carriage which transport guests into a mysterious and fantastic universe to view his amazing collection of art and antiquities from around the world. So sad the firework couldn’t be displayed at Sleeping Beauty Castle (because it was rainy in the night), so we just hang around the shops along the Main Street USA to do our last minute shopping on gifts, souvenirs or photo taking. Then….. It was the time for us to going back to the hotel. We were so tired of the full day's activities, we fell right asleep! And that’s the end of our trips at Hong Kong.

Main St. Station with tiny mom and dad lmfao

"once upon a dream......" I spontaneously remember Maleficent

Long live the king!

Cinderella bulket *emoji onyet nutupin mulut*

Day 6 : Bye bye!

It was the time to going back to Jakarta. I had such a wonderful experience of HK. I’m gonna miss every part of this city. We took a flight at 2pm and at 7pm we arrived at Singapore to take a transit for about 2 hours then we continued to take Singapore-Jakarta flight at 9pm. Arriving in Jakarta was a mix of jet-lagged euphoria and sheer excitement lol, I must admit that I missed Indonesia so much. Anyway, thanks for reading this post, bye bye! :D

Shenzhen and Macau

I've been really busy with my random personal stuff (you know, being a 12th grader, especially in recent days is like an ultra-dizzy month. Started from the preparation for those admission tests until those unnecessary things I’ve done) that I feel like I've neglected this space so much! Anyway, it would be fun to tell about my abroad trip. My dad decided to plan this trip last month and hoping this will be as great as the previous trip. But so sad that my sister couldn’t join us. She entered her second month of pregnancy. It’s ok.. Daddy shall plan the next family trip very soon & make sure all of us are participating!
 

Day 1 : Jakarta-Singapore-HK-Shenzhen
We travelled by Singapore Airlines and that’s why we should take a transit for about 2 hours in Changi Airport. Then, we continued to going to Hong Kong International Airport. Straight from the airport, we went to the bus terminal to continue our trip to Shenzhen. Thank God that the weather was awesome. It was really exhausting, but until we arrived at Shenzhen, we went straight to the Yijia Hotel (where we stayed at) and took some rests to be saved in the next day.
 

Day 2 : Window of the World, Splendid China
We touched down in the morning, headed to Window of the World in Shenzhen. It opened from 9 am to 11:30 pm daily. The theme park was divided into several areas, namely The World Square, The Area of Asia, The Area of Oceanic, The Area of Europe, The Area of Africa, The Area of America, The Sculpture Park, and The International Street. Among all the areas, I liked the Area of Europe the most. It was a sunny day and that was BEYOND SUNNY. I almost pingsan bcs you know badan gue ringkih bgt kalo cuacanya jd panas trs mendadak dingin gitu heu. The entrance gate leads to a big open air theatre. The theatre is surrounded by structures and relief walls that represent the civilization of the world. There are more than 80 different sculptures replicas of the attractions or iconic buildings around the world. We can't name them one by one. We took more than 2 hours to walk around the theme park. We bought the Eiffel Ticket (we were picked up to the top of Eiffel replica by a lift then we could see the view of Shenzhen from the top). Many of the replicas looked good and real, while some of them were not (especially for Borobudur Temple replica, I thought "ewww I have seen the better and best one in my own country" lol). Sign of lack of maintenance was obvious in some of the area of the park as well. Overall, the theme park made us felt like we were in a small world, with all the building, structures and sceneries around us were small. Next destination was Splendid China. You know, there was filled by all Chinese-things. I was a bit bored there but luckily the show got me so excited. 

 

 

view from the top

Day 3 : Macau
We took a ferry to Macau from Shenzhen and luckily I didn’t throw up. Welcome to the city of Casino! I must say, Macau was so beautiful. The architecture of some buildings were so Europe-ish. We headed to Ruins of St. Paul, it was a historical site and we managed to take some memorable photos of us (including the selfie!) during Macau trip. Well, I will make sure the little detail of love will be taken in our future family trip & hopefully a family group photo can be taken as well (with my sister too). At 4pm, we went to The Venetian. I must say it’s quite a replica of The Venetian at Las Vegas, California, USA. Likewise for both, big shopping gallery, and the same ol’ grand canal and gondola ride. Because it was only one day-city trip, we couldn’t afford to visit too many different tourist spots. 

I decide to divide my trip posts into two parts. Keep on reading my next fourth and fifth day in Hong Kong post! :)