Bandung (Day 2) Gunung Tangkuban Prahu, Bandung

Over in July, my friends and I decided to travel to Bandung. It was I who decided on our holiday destination, simply because I didn't get to see much of the place the last time I was there in March. Second time around, I would do it my own way.

Anyway, I'll write in a different posting about my Bandung trip later.

This time, I would like to share about Tangkuban Prahu. Most of the Malaysian that I knew who had been to Bandung, never actually went to Tangkuban Prahu. [The typical shopping habit of Malaysian explains it!]...It's such a shame. No one should go to Bandung without going to the mountain.

The journey from Bandung city to the mountain took us close to 1 hour or so, passing the mountain village of Lembang. Gunung Tangkuban Prahu, an active volcanic mountain has not had any major eruption lately. The mountain is over 2000 metre in elevation.

It doesn't take much effort to get there. The car can take you right to the rim of the crater of Kawah Ratu actually. Among the things that I noticed as I got there is of course the smell of the sulphur, the strange looking trees that looked like they are from the LOTR movie, and lots of dragonflies flying around us.

To get a good view of one of the volcanic craters is to go to the watch tower. Be very mindful of the local peddlars, who would go around and pester you to buy stuff. As much as possible, be polite and FIRM! If you'd ever say, "Later" rather than "No", they would literally take it. So, really mean what you say. If you think that you would buy the souvenirs just because you're being polite, forget it. The souvenirs are so much more expensive than the city.

Also, when approached by locals wearing the Guide vest and offer to take you the nearest volcanic craters i.e. Kawah Domas, do ask how much they charged. We had a hard lesson the other day. We thought it was just like any other national park or so, where rate is standard. Apparently not!!! We only knew it when we were returning from the crater.

[We had a scary experence though. Besides the guide, the souvenir sellers actually followed us to the crater. It did cross my mind on how dangerous it could be for us. There we were, 3 ladies travelling, with about 5 or so men, trekking along a lonely trek at the mountain. If something were to happen to us, there would be no way anyone would come to our help. There were no one else in sight, perhaps not within 1 kilometre. Besides being lighteasy about the walk, I couldn't help feeling uneasy about it, especially when Miza was walking way ahead of us with the guide, leaving me & Shima with the men.]

Well, back to the crater...the walk DOWN will take you more than half hour, if you're not fit. The guide told us that it would take us about 20 minutes, trekking down the 1.2km. Oh boy, we were fool to think that it would REALLY take us 20 minutes.

Do take it slow. The trek down is okay but do remember to get a good walking shoes. Be extra careful as the trail might get slippery...and you could trip over uneven steps. Enjoy the view and scenery. Notice that the vegetation changes as you walked further down the mountain.

After making a few stops, we finally arrived at the bottom of the crater. Coming from a non volcanic country, it was an amazing experience for me. There you'll be able to see the bubbling water from the hot spring and steam coming out from the ground.

If you're up to it, get to relax your feet in the hot water...and since there'll be strong smell of sulphur, don't stay too long...it's kind of hazardous to be exposed for long.

The trek back didn't take us as long as we did when we came down. The reason is that we took the short cut back to the main road. If you decide to do this, make sure you inform your driver to wait at that point....otherwise, you'll have to find other means of transportation to take you back to the top or...TREK back...The short cut was of easier trek as we only needed to climb up to about 100 metres and then trek alongside the mountain until we reach the main road.

It was definitely a trip to remember, which was coming very close to a volcano (well, my Gunung Batur trip didn't count. )

Last pointers:

• It is not that cold at the mountain (if you're comparing it to Mount Kinabalu), so, you don't really need a warm clothing


• A good pair of walking shoes would be excellent, though a normal flat shoes is sufficient.