Despite many trips to Indonesia, I only have seen Jakarta and really wanted to visit this country’s World Heritage Sites especially the nearest one from the chaotic capital, the Ujung Kulon National Park. The inscribed area covered two separate sites, one is the Ujung Kulon National Park which is famous for its mangrove forest and the last place to see the endangered Javanese rhinoceros in the southwest of highly populated Java Island. The other site is the group of volcanic islands of Krakatoa in the middle of Sunda Strait and belong to Bandar Lampung, a city on Sumatra Island. I really wanted to visit Krakatoa since I heard the name of this volcano since my elementary school time, its 1883 eruption story is very well known especially for the Dutch. In October I visited Jakarta again and successfully managed a one-day trip to Krakatoa with the tour company. After some research I found that Krakatoa receives steady number of visitors every day and most of the tour companies are the same. The tour driver picked me up at hotel in Jakarta at 6 AM and drove thru congested morning traffic on the highway to Cilegon before use a small seaside road to the beach town of Carita. The journey was about 2.5 hours, the time I arrived in Carita, I was really hungry. After met tour company manager to make payment, they provided me a breakfast at a restaurant. After meal at 9.30 AM, they took me to the jetty where I met captain, his assistant and my tour guide, and the double engines boat. The sea journey took another 2 hours on surprisingly calm sea. After saw four dauphins near the boat, I started to see the Krakatoa at the horizon releasing smoke from its crater. It was much smaller than Sakurajima I saw at the beginning of the year, but the location in the middle of the sea is really awe inspiring.

In fact, Krakatoa at present is a group of 4 small islands which are the remains of the 1883 old volcano and its nearby islands. In the center is the new volcano called Anak Krakatoa or Child of Krakatoa. This volcano is very active and is expanding. At first the captain took me to see the biggest island of Rakata which was the main vent of the 1883 eruption, the high cliff shows evidence of explosion. The island is covered by lush tropical forest, a really amazing of how nature can transform the danger volcano to green paradise. Then I went to Anak Krakatoa. The boat moored at the only beach of the island, the beach is blackish with volcanic sand, and behind the sea is the small forest. When my feet were out of the sea, I immediately felt the unusual heat of sand. The ranger office, the camping area and the toilet are located in the same area on the beach. The toilet water is really warm that reminded me a nice hot spring in Japan. My guide took me thru the forest, the soil was indeed hot, and I really surprised how those trees can survive. I entered into the main volcano area; the soil is reddish and full of gigantic sulphuric rocks. I walked pass death trees and many big rocks. The soil become a hot sand when we started to climb the volcano. It was very hot by the sun and the heat underground. Then I saw the sea of black volcanic rocks, the cold lava flow and the volcano that continuously releasing the fumes. My guide took me to the highest point that authority recommended to go. From here the view of Sunda Strait and surrounding island were just beautiful and rewarding for hot climbing. After some volcanic explanation and eruption stories, we walked back down to the beach for late lunch, the Indonesian most famous fried rice, Nasi Goreng.

Later I swam in the sea, the cold water helped me a lot after long hot hiking; however, the tiny black volcanic sand covered all my body, and it was really hard to clean. I also did some snorkeling to see some fine coral reef. It is really stunning to find coral reef on the seabed that is actually the growing volcano. Then we sailed around the Anak Krakatoa to see the island expansion by the cold lava flow. Except the small forest area where I landed before, the whole island is almost lifeless with only red and black rock, but I could see many small bushes and shrubs dotting around in the area next to the sea, the nature is doing her best to turn the red dry volcanic island to green tropical paradise again. After 4 hours of luck that no eruption during visit, the captain turns the boat backed to Carita ending the fantastic Krakatoa trip. When I landed Carita and saw all the beach resorts and hotels as well as many small villages with densely population, I could not stop thinking that all this area was once devastated by the 1883 tsunami and what will happen again in the future as the Krakatoa is coming back again. Anyway, Krakatoa is indeed amazing and very easy to visit since the volcano is still not too high and there are almost no rules to restrict the volcano sightseeing, actually you can go anyway you want on the island if you are willing to climb and walk on the sharp hot volcanic rocks with good equipment. The continued progresses of thermal and gas explosion as well as volcano forming are really interesting and at least should be seen once in the lifetime and Krakatoa is one of the nicest to do. For trip preparation I recommended a nice walking shoe with good ventilation, don’t buy fancy expensive one since the hot sand and sharp rocks will later make your shoe deform. Another suggestion will be long sleeves rash vests to protect UV and really useful for swimming and snorkeling later. If I back to Indonesia and have more time in Jakarta area, I will revisit this place but for the Ujung Kulon peninsular for sure. Anyway, even visit only Krakatoa, this World Heritage Site is really amazing and one of the most unique experiences in Southeast Asia.