10

TANGKUBAN Prahu
(the VOICE OF GOD
JAVA INDONESIA
Of reminiscing about Afgh, Nepal, Burma, etc.
But they had the catch the 6PM train to see Jakarta
+ it was getting late. Informally agreeing to meet,
possibly tomorrow night at Mama's restaurant,
Jogja, they scurried back down the 4KM mill.
Geo. + I continued up - it wasnt far to the crater
lip. It was the first volcano crater I've ever
seen. A huge bowl, of 100 shades of gray. At
bottom, a tiny greenish lake. There were 2 other
craters half visible over "saddles" on far side
but this was the famous one. We noticed a path
leading down to lake + after our fill of the topside
scene, we scurried down the path. At several
points the path was barely detectable (by looking
some yards ahead). The smell of H2S grew
stronger. The floor was ash-white +ash gray.
Near the water the ground was cracked (maybe
lake is larger during the monsoon). There I slipped
+ fell - it was deceptively tricky & slippery.
With bad luck, I'd have slid all the way to the
bubbling pond. It looked quite hot+deadly. All
of a sudden God spoke from all directions at
once "Attention. Attention. It is not permitted to
walk in the crater. Come up at one. As it
turned out, it was not God at all but the sup't
of the Parj reverberating over loudspeaker. We
took some final pictures + headed back up. Halfway
up we paused for rest, but encountered divine