Mount Dempo

just came back from hiking Mount Dempo (3052asl) in South Sumatra. The trek is quite hard.
From Karya Jaya bus terminal of Palembang, take a bus Telaga Biru Putra to Pagaralam (about 7 hours, 40.000rp). Ask the driver to take you to the house of pak Antoni Umar at tea plantation PTPN VII Pagaralam. As former tea plantation security and now guardian of dempo hikers, he will gladly give shelter and infos about Dempo.
From here, next destination is Kampung IV (4th village). The road from PTPN to the village is in bad condition, only truck or 4-wd cars can reach it. Another option is hire ojek/motorcycle taxi to K4 (30.000rp). The truck will leave PTPN around 4.30am (10.000rp, 2 hours).
At K4 or pak anton better to hire guide as it's quite difficult to find the track to pintu rimba/starting point. The route is pintu rimba-shelter 1-shelter 2-top Dempo. It takes 6-8 hours to reach top Dempo.
From that point, go down to Pelataran, the meadow between top Dempo and top Merapi. Then hike for 20 minutes to reach the top of Merapi/3159asl and you can see the crater if the weather is clear.
Water source can be found at shelter 1, 2 and Pelataran.