Merbabu Hiking

Merbabu (3145m) is less known sibling of infamous Merapi (2968m) – highly active, one of the decade volcanoes. Nevertheless climbing Merbabu is probably more pleasant experience due to green scenery around, less crowds and amazing views on Merapi on the way from Selo. Which one of these 2 climb? Tough choice. Merapi can be climbed quicker in about 5 hours from New Selo as opposed to Merbabu´s 7 hours hike from Selo, which can be important factor if you want to ascend during the night to catch sunrise on the summit. 2 extra hours of struggle during the night are probably not on the pros list. On other hand Merapi is highly active volcano. While it might sounds cool to conquer such beast, there are risk coming with it. Also it is very touristic, especially in high season between July and August and on weekends, so it will be probably far from peacefull hiking experience. That is also the reason why many locals at the base camp will try to persuade you that it is mandatory to hire a guide to climb Merapi, especially if you are Bule (white person). It is huge business for them. To this date (18.8.2016) it is not mandatory to have a guide to climb either Merapi or Merbabu. If you don´t have experience in hiking volcanoes and how to react in emergency situation consider hiring local guide. It will costs you about 300 000rp. You will support local economy beside maybe saving your life. Whether you decide for Merapi or Merbabu, you need to register yourself in basecamp before you start. Locals pay 15 000rp while foreigners pay 150 000rp. If you know few phrases in indonesian you can try to tell them that you are student from Yogya and they might give you price for locals. This will more likely work in Merbabu because of the reason mentioned above. source: http://www.shorts-trip.com/southeast-asia/climbing-merbabu-night-without-guide/

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