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     Yogyakarta, Island of Java, Republic of Indonesia

     Monday, 29^th November 1993

     On today’s schedule I was assigned to fly from Jakarta to Yogyakarta, Bali, Ujung Pandang, Palu, Balikpapan, Banjarmasin and return to Jakarta.  Altogether seven legs, with a total flying time of seven hours and thirty-six minutes.

     First stop was Yogyakarta, at 264 miles east of Jakarta, with a flight time of 1:12 - slicing straight down the middle of the narrow Island of Java.

     Twenty-five miles northwest of Yogyakarta is the world’s largest Buddhist Temple called “Borobudur.”  The same name of the five-star hotel BOURAQ put me up at in Jakarta.

     The temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six squared and three circular, topped by a central dome, decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa.  Borobudur is in an elevated area between twin volcanoes and two rivers.   There is no written record of who built the Borobudur or of its intended purpose.  Even so, the “experts feel” it was likely built around 800 CE.

     My hotel at Jakarta has a huge, impressive model of Borobudur in its garden.

     The other landmark of note is Mount Merapi, “Gunung Merapi” (literally Fire Mountain in Indonesian and Javanese). This was an active strato-volcano at 17 miles north of Yogyakarta city, which had a population of 2.4 million, plus thousands of people living on the flanks of the volcano, having villages as high as 5,600 ft. above sea level.  It was the most active volcano in Indonesia and had erupted regularly since 1548.  Smoke can often be seen emerging from the volcano, and its eruptions always caused many fatalities.  Next year, 22nd November 1994, the volcano will blow producing a pyroclastic flow that will kill 27 people, and cover all aircraft parked at the airport in volcanic ash.

Volcanic ash covered everything at the airport.

   Fortunately, dear reader, by sheer accident, I will miss this horrific event by the skin of my teeth.

     Adisucipto International Airport at Yogyakarta consisted of two, east-west parallel runways, one paved at 6,070 feet in length, and the other a grass strip at 5,906 feet, both 3.7 miles from the city’s center.

     Paved Runway Nine (090°/270° magnetic, East-West) had the ILS/VOR instrument landing procedure. 

On final approach to Runway Nine.

Once again passengers are allowed to wander across the ramp with no supervision to their aircraft.

Downtown Yogyakarta.

     As we spent a mere hour on the ground, there was little time for sightseeing, dear reader.  Gratefully we rocketed out of there for Bali; anything to avoid the Merapi Volcano!

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