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Greetings fellow Global Sapiens and welcome to my new travel log. Here you will find stories of some of my past and planned travels. Hopefully you will enjoy them, and do drop a line or two anytime, esp. if our travel plans coincide!! 
Apr 27, 2005 02:00 PM Trip To Krakatoa
As part of my travels in Indonesia, I embarked on an adventure to the infamous Krakatoa islands of Indonesia recently. The excitment of the trip was heightened due to recent seismic activities in the region (this trip occurs just after the huge EQ in Padang, Sumatra) so I was buzzing! Of course, there were no explosions, EQ's, tsunamis in the end, but it was far from a boring trip.
The excursion to the island was long. A 3-hour drive to Carita (harbour town) from which there was another 3-hour (slow) boat ride to the Krakatoa islands itself. Misfortune had befallen our boat trip and so it got delayed, by oh well, just another 4-hours. (Time is almost arbitrary in this part of the world). Nonetheless we eventually reached our destination.
History- THe Krakatoa valcanic island was around 2000m above sea level before the massive explosion in the 1800s. Today the crater becomes the ocean and there are three islands on the fringes of the original Krakatoa. One of the island is conveniently named 'Anak Krakatoa' (Krakatoa's son/daughter) since it is active and growing by several cms every year. It now stands a few hundred metres above sea level.
To witness Anak Krakatoa is to be part of history. Here we are on the site of one of the most powerful volcanic eruption in history, I was in awe and admiration. The surrounding islands are well covered with flaura and founa but Anak Krakatoa itself is almost barren, so it gets fairly hot during day time.
We camped on one of the islands at night, and it was basic w/o any running water, electricity but we had tents and a starry night sky to keep us company. There weren't any other people, so we had the whole island to ourselves. We erected tents and slept to the sounds of waves ploughing the ocean floor. We swam, snorkeled and hiked up Anak Krakatoa the next day, all of us savouring the natural beauty of the islands. It was a fantastic adventure, one that feels like being lost in time.
TIP: Be sure to charter a reliable boat (and captain!)
ps: I'll upload the pics next time..
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