Volcano: Tangkuban Perahu (upturned boat)
This volcano on the outskirts of bandung.(30km) It has a funny shape because the inside collapsed at some stage. There is a folk lore story about the reason for this.
The legend tells of Sangku Riyang who was courting a beautiful lady but he did not realise that the lady was his mother, when she realised it was her son she broke off the betrothal and he was so upset that he kicked a boat he had been building for their honeymoon. He kicked it so hard and far that it flew up into the air and when it fell to the ground it landed upside down creating the volcano crater.
The crater is actually made up of two large twin craters of a depth of approx 630 metres. They are constantly gassing out a variety of noxious gases including CO, CO2, HCl, H2SO, SO2 and there are several warning signs to be careful and not to enter the craters.
Forest on the way up the mountain
Entry to the park has a small fee.
Dual pricing system entry 48.000 IDR ($5.00) for locals and expats with a KITAS (working permit) dunno what nasty tourists and foreigners have to pay.
A road goes right up to the peak, with a crowed parking are thus it is overrun with shops selling food, toys, clothes and assorted crap, hawkers everywhere combined with a strong sulphur dioxide smell.
But I read that it is possible to walk all the way around the crater (about 2 hours) so I'm hoping that it will be a little more quiet.
Well, the walk was quite steep, and not easy (MrsSW was not impressed). It didn't help that several indonesian woman told her it was impossible. We saw a couple of other expats walking around and there was a small shop selling drinks and hot noodles at the peak.
There is also a lightening research station set up by Bandung Institute of Technology.
Half way around the weather closed in, big time. Visibility was reduced to 20metres, cold rain soaked us, the ground turned to a river and the 'walk' included a 70 metre scramble down a cliff.
Every now and then strong winds would blow away the mist and we'd get a glimpse of the view before it closed in again.
The walk took us across a narrow ridge between the two craters where the wind blew fiercely. In the end the walk took us more like 3.5 hours than the advertised 2, but we were walking very carefully, due to the rough terrain.