Nglanggeran (again)

After New Zealand I headed off to Jogja again. This time around I had a few days worth of fieldwork to finish; I also wanted to spend Christmas with my friends there.

The first day after I arrived, I had some free time, so I invited my friend Sigit to take a quick trip to Nglanggeran, a short hike with a beautiful view near Jogja. It was a nice day and a little hot. Here are some pictures:

 The narrow walkways between the rocks feel a little more narrow this time. Maybe I'm just getting fat.

 Thanks to the previous night's rain, the air was clear. Here's a shot in the direction of Jogjakarta. The cell phone towers add a little special something to the landscape.

 They've been upgrading the trail. Now there are clear signs. This one says, "Summit, Dude." That's an approximation. "Mas Bro" is an amalgam of "mas," a traditional Javanese appellation for a young man, and "bro," which has been adopted from American slang, e.g. "Don't taze me, bro!"

Indonesian is a fascinating, maleable language, and it easily mixes in terms from other tongues. I've been hearing "mas bro" for the past year or so. This is the first time I've seen it on a sign.

 You can't climb to the top of a mountain without at least some tom-foolery.

 The mountain has two summits. This sign points the direction from the east summit to the other. The sign says, "Ancient Volcano Summit."

 Smiles. Sweaty, hot, a little-worse-for-wear, smiles. It was hot. Ugh.

Remind me to never hike during the middle of the day in Indonesia ever again.

 Looking down from the second summit.

 My cell phone camera apparently takes panoramas nowadays. Fancy.

What won't they come up with next?

Here I am with Sigit. It's really hard to arrange timer shots on the top of a mountain. There's never a good flat rock in the right place. This one turned out okay, though.

After climbing down, I saw folks planting rice nearby. It's the rainy season, so there's a great deal of new rice being planted to take advantage of the abundant water. For farmers in Nglanggeran, a relatively dry area, this is their most productive time of year.

I went to Nglanggeran a few years ago when I was living in Jogja. It's changed a little. The local community received a grant from the government to develop their tourism-base; I think it's gone to good use. The trails are better maintained, signs point out the proper path up the mountain, and garbage cans are easily found. Hopefully they'll be able to maintain this beautiful spot.