Friday, 29 October 2010

Java: Prambanan

Wednesday 27 October: Prambanan is a large 9th century Hindu temple complex now a World Heritage Site and since the 2006 earthquake has been mostly covered in bamboo scaffolding or fenced off.
Thursday 28: Television coverage is dominated by news of the Mt Merapi (Fire Mountain) eruption. Five villages have been destroyed, many animals and 29 people are dead from breathing hot winds and ash from the volcano. The air temperature at the cone is 600°C and plumes of volcanic ash are settling up to 100 miles away to the west. I'm still based in Yogyakarta, about 20-miles to the south - Borobudur, where I was on Tuesday, is now coated in thick layer of grey ash and is closed to visitors.
Photos of Prambanan temple.
Friday 29: The Mentawai tsunami, with a death toll estimated at 400, and the Mt Merapi eruption remain very much in the news, Son of Krakatoa has also sparked off. Merapi erupted three times today - lava and hot gas pyroclastic flows are pouring down the upper slopes, ash billowing upwards - hospitalised cases have burns and breathing problems - the death toll is now 36.
It's time to leave, the
Bima sleeper train departs Yogyakarta for Surabaya tonight at 12:47am.

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