hi. I 've heard from some of you that you did read my updates on krakatau although no comments were posted.
In any case,I will briefly update you on the rest of my trip in java. climbing merapi, bromo and ijen.next update will be on my weekend trek with chee peng and
gang last month and then my 3 day fishing trip which was last weekend.

After krakatau, i went to jogjakarta and visited the famous borobodur . Did the mainstream tourist thing by hanging around the complex for both sun set and sun rise.
At sun rise, i could see merapi in the distant.Thats the next big active volcano
that i was going to climb.

Merapi is considered dangerous but the local guides convinced me its a safe period.
unfortunately, I had bad indigestion during the midnight climb . I was hoping to climb through the night and get to summit for sun rise.Must have been the satay i had for dinner. Too many flies on the meat before it was cooked . I stopped to take po chai pills but it didnt help. I continued and was then caught in thunderstorm.
It was dry season, no rain for 2 months. So I think the signs were telling me not to
go on. I aborted my climb.

Next was Bromo in east java. beautiful place with nice hotel overlooking the volcano. Most tourists goes there to see sun rise and then hurry off to Bali.
I stayed on to explore the villages and the crater after the tourists left. Its
beautiful.

Then I moved on to Ijen which is almost at eastern tip of java. This volcano is
active and have a sulphur mine inside the crater. Men will go into the crater to carry out basket full of sulphur plates.Each laod is about 70kg. hard work plus the sulphur fumes are certainly not good for health. sulpuhur dioxide(fumes from volcano)
+ H2O(saliva and tears)= sulphuric acid. think of what it did to my eyes and throat!Sobering experience to watch this people work.until I got a call on my hand phone on my way down.. it was one of our customers.. having problem with his internet banking. I politely told him to call june /jerry then realised that it was a saturday afternoon after I hang up!! I smsed june to contact CM. Think leonard
eventually reolved the issue.CM did not even thank me.. even though he knew i was overseas and i told him i left citi!!

The photos will be uploaded later.
wc