Last weekend, to celebrate Valentine’s Day and my husband’s birthday, we booked our flights to Yogyakarta. This was initially supposed to be a weekend getaway but to celebrate these two special occasions, we decided to club the getaway into a romantic escapade. From Yogyakarta,, we would be driving 90 minutes to reach the temples of Borobudur where we would stay for 03 days.
On Friday morning, we were excited and reached the airport at 06 am for our flight at 8. After checking in , we were waiting near the boarding gate when the airline staff approached us.
“There has just been a volcano eruption near Yogyakarta”.
Just like us, everyone else had a stunned expression on their faces. All of a sudden, a volcano had erupted! How often does that happen?
“The flight is cancelled”, the airline staff continued. “We will make alternative arrangements for you to fly to Semarang and then travel 03 hours to Yogyakarta by road”.
As I heard this I looked at D and told him that I didn’t have a good feeling about this. We should just cancel the trip. The volcano had started erupting and could affect our return flight as well. Not to mention, the ash from the volcano could blanket Yogyakarta and be a health hazard.
After thinking for a while, D went ahead and cancelled the flights and the hotels.
This is how Borubur looks on a normal day at sunrise :
 |
| Borobudur , photo courtesy Trey Ratcliff |
This is what Yogyakarta and Borobudur looked like on the weekend.
 |
| Photo Courtesy BBC |
 |
| Aircraft covered in Volcanic Ash |