Who thought climbing a mountain would be so much fun… and so much challenging mentally?
My journey that would mentally challenged me begins on Friday, 26th of June 2026 where i took off half day leave to take a train from Gambir to Bandung at 13:40.
Q: If Merbabu is on Central Java, why would you took a train to Bandung?
Great question! Well the answer is simple: I booked my ticket almost last minute and train tickets from Jakarta to Yogyakarta almost always sold out especially on weekends so i didn’t secure it. So I took a detour by going to Bandung first then to Yogyakarta.
Alright lets continue my journey!
So the first phase took me about 3 hours to Bandung with beautiful landscapes across almost the whole trip!
After arriving at Bandung, my next train is still 3 hours away so I decided to look for a dinner in the meantime (dinner on the train is expensive so I avoid that). My choice? Mie Gacoan! Well other than I don’t know where I could go for a dinner, its also that 3 hours is not actually that much time. Since the closest Mie Gacoan is just 3 km away from the station, I decided to go there (and its also cheap!).
Dinner finished at about 19:00 and i took Grab bike back to the station for quick travel. My departure is 1 hour away so I took Maghrib and Isya prayers first then board the train. The train departs at 20:00 and the name is Mutiara Selatan (literally Southern Pearl). This time I took the premium economy class because I secured a promo ticket from KAI during school holiday (25% off). This second journey took me 11 hours.
Q: Wait why did it took you 11 hours to go from Bandung to Yogyakarta?
Another great question! The reason it took me 11 hours was because my ticket was going for Surabaya instead of Yogyakarta (the promo made it better) and I did got off in Surabaya (not in Yogyakarta) because my ticket and I got some disagreement with my best friend about our schedule for the Merbabu summit because he had some sudden personal matter (funeral) that he can’t left it. So in order to calm myself down and gave him some time, I decided to actually use my ticket fully to the final destination in Surabaya.
Immediately Turning Back to Yogyakarta
Well call me crazy but I myself is also a train enthusiast so when people say riding a long distance train is tiring, its not at all for me. Since I don’t have anything to do in Surabaya, I decided to go back immediately to Yogyakarta using the morning Sancaka train. The gap between my train arriving and Sancaka train departing is only 17 minutes! I kinda got worried too because Surabaya Gubeng station hold up my Mutiara Selatan train in the signal for about 5 minutes, so the train got delayed by that. Fortunately everything was still according to the plan and I boarded Sancaka immediately after I arrived at the station. Sancaka departed at 07:00 and took me about 4 hours to go to Yogyakarta. Its kinda express because it only stopped on large stations.
Now during this train ride, my best friend contacted me again saying he offer me to choose between his house (our initial plan) or my other friends house for me to rest for the day. I initially hesitant to answer because 1) I don’t want to bother him, 2) I don’t want to bother my other friend, 3) I don’t want to book a hotel because last minute hotel in Yogyakarta will basically gonna empty my wallet. I kept thinking this but decided to choose the initial plan (his house) then he says he will left me at his house to do his family funeral.
Change of Plan: Delay Hike by One Day
Due to my best friends funeral, after I arrived at his home we both agreed to keep our hiking plan but push it back by one day since he had the funeral until late night. In the meantime, I decided to go to a cafe in the slope of Merapi mountain: Warung Kopi Merapi. Its about 30 km from Yogyakarta city center and the roads are dark at night but I can assure you, you won’t regret going to this cafe!
I will always try to recommend my friends when they are going to Yogyakarta to try to go to this cafe because its so good. Food and coffee selections varies and the price is not a regular cafe price (its affordable!). You could also see Merapi not too far away from here (if its not foggy). This cafe opens until midnight so you could take your time if you want to dine here. Recommend 👍.
Departure to the Base Camp
As a working class, its kinda not normal to hike like this because when working class people usually hike on weekends, I hike on Monday! I initially don’t want this to happen because I’m too lazy to request for a leave, but unexpected situation comes and its better late than sorry.
We prepare ourselves this day by purchasing everything that are not yet included in my logistic I brought from Jakarta such as hiking shoes! I usually hike with my hiking sandals but my friend who hike the day before (we supposed to hike together but my best friend got unexpected case like I said so I (and him agreeing) to delay our hike by one day) said that Merbabu have mandatory hiking shoe. Well what am I gonna do? Rules are rules.
Now since we are going to hike it “Tektok”, we need to depart from Yogyakarta in the evening since the ticket counter opens at 19:00 and it has limited quota per day. Also the hiking stream starts at 02:00 so we need to hurry. We departed from Yogyakarta at 17:00, arrived in Selo (Boyolali regency) because we choose to take Gancik trail at 19:15 and immediately go for the ticket counter. When we arrived there are already a number of queues but its not too long. We secured our entry ticket then we got assigned at Pak Wandi base camp (top most base camp).
For those who haven’t hiked a tall mountain, usually after you secured your entry ticket, you will get assigned to a number of base camp in that specific hiking trail based on the number of hiker that day and its kinda random. This is the base camp that you need to report yourself on before doing the hike and after the hike. This will also be your emergency support crew so you need to contact your base camp (not the trail party) if you need an emergency help.
Because he haven’t got any dinner, we decided to go back to Selo to look for something to eat and since this is a very small city, there’s not much available even if its still at 20:00. Due to limited food availability, we choose to eat pecel ayam for the night then go back to our base camp to get some rest before preparing to hike at 01:30.
Since this is the first time I slept at a base camp, I don’t bring myself a comfortable equipment to sleep on so i’m freezing, thus causing me to not sleep very well (only 1,5 hours). Other than that the uncomfortable sleep also accompanied by a sore throat which made me suffer.
Hiking Time
Everyone started to woke up at about 01:00 even before the base camp people ready, so i woke up too and prepare myself. RIght about 01:30, base camp started the hike briefing and not long after that we queued in front of the base camp to take an ojek to the gerbang rimba.
Base camp basically told us what should we do and what should we don’t, such as time constraint (earliest time to arrive back at the base camp is on 07:00 and the latest time is 17:00), aware of each other, don’t do anything stupid, bring down any trash, etc. just like other Indonesian mountain hike