Travel #3: Nglanggeran Ancient Volcano, Sri Gethuk Waterfall, and Bat Cave

My lovely walking shoes took a rest after a long walk

Just had a wonderful day!

Went to Gunungkidul and explored unexpected yet amazing things... Walking through the wilderness of Nglanggeran Ancient Volcano - not the touristic route of course -, walked from one peak to another, got cuts here and there, slipped and landed in not-so-beautiful-pose several times, slapped by tree branches even more...
Went to Sri Gethuk Waterfall... it's been a long time since the last visit. It became too touristic now so just sat for few minutes then left.

The final part was the best: watched thousands, wait, no, millions bats flew out of a massive vertical-horizontal cave when the sun set. They filled the air with the sounds of their wings while the local people trapped some of them with nets. The smell of guano was strong but still, it was absolutely majestic...
This moment stunned me.. it really did..

Story #3: The Passion Pursuivant

I work behind the desk when I work in my home country. Most of the time, I was just sitting there, did nothing. It was good if you see it from the amount of money that I got, but for me, it was not good for my existence as a human. I felt like I was not important. If I weren’t there, nobody notice. My position could be replaced by other people without any one notice. At that point, I realized that I had to do something else.

She talked with her soft voice but her eyes showed confidence.

I, a completely new player in the real world, listened to her carefully, matching her story with my own experience.

When she was a student, she joined camps abroad to do some volunteering activities. She met a lot people from all over the world. And the most important thing: she felt she did something for herself and also for others. She felt that those activities changed her as a person. That was why she wanted to do the same for students nowadays.

Then, she took one action. She resigned and chose to work for herself. She started a foundation that holds camps in Indonesia for foreign students.

Story #2: The Winner

When I first met him, my impression was only: he’s tall. I mean like, he’s tall, REALLY tall, over 2 meters. 

For Indonesian, it was, yeah, extremely tall.

However, he’s not just slender; he’s quite muscular so everybody could tell that he did sport regularly.

Then, it was revealed that he was a long distance and marathon swimmer. He won a golden medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 for open water swimming, 10 km.

So, Olympic winner? That’s amazing, according to me, a person who cannot swim for more than 50 meters. But it doesn’t stop there. His story is more than that.

As a curious human being, I googled his name. I found a website of him and they said that ‘In 2001 he was diagnosed with cancer (leukaemia)

Story #1: Unconditional Love

When I walked behind him, I saw his tall figure was trembling. He walked with minimum ability of balance. He bumped things when he walked. His head hit doorways more than one time. His feet kicked the stair steps even more and it made him nearly fell. One time, I caught him from behind after he missed a step on the stairs.

Ah, maybe it is because he very tall, I thought. Body size affects people’s body balance, right? I think so, but I don’t know for sure.

I also told my friend that he was clumsy just to make sure that she would watch after him as well.

Then I put my eyes more on him. I let my friend guide us in the front while I stayed in behind when we visited some places just to remind him to watch his head from hitting something.

My eyes later inspected something on both of his ears. I thought it was the tip of his glasses but it was not. It was hearing aids. In my opinion, he was too young to use that tool.

At the end of the tour, my friend said that he had problem with his nerves.