My journey: MOUNT MARAPI PART 2

Salam to all again...Special doas for the Palestinians..May Allah protect them from the agresor and indeed "victory" awaiting for them ... Just to share, I joined Malaysian protesters against the Israeli terror and cruelty with my son Nurrudddin on the 30th December 2008.. published in BH and other local dailies...our pictures were on BH 31/12/2008, page 37-Dunia Section

SECOND PART OF THE EXPEDITION

The ascending mission started where Toyota Innova stopped. There were three parts of the journey..1) from the dropping off zone to the bammboo areas-fresh water collection; 2) camping based level 3) volcanoe area

First level: The farmers on the highland were very approachable.."Mahu mendaki bu..hati-hati ya" the usual statement when encountered them on the way...Minang fellow climbers would say" Assalmualaikum bu, pak , jalan dulu ya" not one person but each member in the group greeted us.. It would be nicer to meet fellow youngsters in Malaysia to greet us like that..

While walking we saw a nice view of prime agricultural land and lots of vegetables left by the roadside..e.g tomotaoes. We could actually ate the tomotoes for free..but no taking home policy.

After two hours of walking and resting..the guide said"jauh lagi ni bu"....We met Canadians and English couples while ascending...The thick vegetation showed that indeed it was still a long walk to accomplish... Steps after steps..trees and more trees...and in between take five and may be fifteen minutes of breaks..the vegetation changed with slighty smaller and less denser as it was before..We knew that we were at the second level..after two hours of walk..

Second level : "Tak lama Bu, mungkin 45 minit, kita sampai kawasan bermalam" the guide gave some motivation... In actual fact we had to ascended another two hours to the camping base. 6 o'clock in the evening, but here in the forest it was darker...as expected we arrived at the base around six local time ..maghrib time..after almost six hours of journey..the rain welcomed us..it was cold..we quickly set up our tent..took about 1/2 hour. I jumped into the tent as soon as it stood still..cold beb..needed to changed wet clothes..temperature around 12 degrees may be so at night below ten I guessed. Rosman and my husband still finetuned the tent....Alhamdulilah the coleman tent was wind-proof so I felt warm inside and ate my dinner of chicken and rice..I did not feel to heat up the dishes just in my tummy...Hakim joined later..cold even to brush my teeth I felt ...argh...

I slept may be not yet 9.00 p.m due to exhaustion.. well ...at 12 mid night I heard some kind of commotion..A group of youngsters climbed up to the top..the locals like to ascend during maghrib time and straight to the top crater/caldron...and early morning started descending...

Third level .. to the sumit : "Setengah lima kita naik..lihat matahari terbit.." Ferri(the guide) told us.. at 4 a.m.... I heard Ferri was cooking and ...I did not hear any responses from the two guys..I thought "setengah lima" means half past 5...not 4.30...then Fajr...the sun could be seen already... We only started climbing around 7.00 a.m to the top.. After two hours of waliking on the volcanoe gravel and sand..we heard gushing of sulfuric water like a water fall...we arrived at the volcanic crater...Subhanallah beautiful scenery on the top... not clouds but gaseous of volcanic sulfur came out but it did not smell like"rotten eggs"(as in Lake Rotoroa, New Zealand).

Photo session...and more photo sessions.. to the two football field(flat area on the volcanoe), we proceeded to the top...Ferri and my husband walked as fast as they could to the top..I took my own phase..Rosman and Naim took more photos...a bit behind......THEN WE reached the summit...ALHAMDULLILLAH to the Creator of this Universe...majestic creation....human civilization could not be near par with what we saw...see pictures

The pictures are not sequenced properly...part 1(ascending), part two(level two and based camp). part 3(the tops) and part four (villages of Bukit Tinggi and look out of Lake Meninjau) ..Enjoy the scenery...

PART FOUR