#  >  > Travellers Tales in Thailand and Asia >  >  > Indonesia Forum >  >  KW and MrsKW do West Java (or Sunda)

## kingwilly

Long weekend, deciding to do something different we opted for a road trip, the details were vague, but driving down the coast of West Java, with Ujung Kulon National Park, famous as a surfing mecca and home to one of two last surviving Javan Rhino populations in the world. 

Details for said trip were also not easy to find. Basic plan involved booking a room at a resort in Anyer for the first night, then see what happens after that.

First point of order, a map of West Java.



The evening trip from Jakarta to Anyer took about 3 hours. the last hour was on a road that looked like a moonscape, apparently the road washes away every rainy season and the rebuild it again afterwards. (quality not really being an indonesian priority)

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## kingwilly

pics of the road, the car was bouncing around like nothing else, in between avoiding other dickheads going the other way, motorcycles and trucks and several waist high mounds of rock in the middle of the road so that the workers know where to fix the road in a month's time, meant the mrskw didnt take the best pics.

but hopefully you get the idea.

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## kingwilly

apparently there used to be hundreds of resorts up and down this coast, but the financial crash 6 or 8 years ago, plus difficultly in traveling there, advent of low cost airline flights to bali, and increased number of malls and so on in jakarta has meant that many have failed, but there still remains dozens of them, particularly around Anyer and Carita beach areas.

The one that we stayed at had views of Krakatoa in the distance, and a nice swimming pool with medicore rooms, but getting a breakfast call, even though I hadnt asked for one, at 8.00am will positively mean they get no recommendation from me.

rocky beachline at resort.

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## kingwilly

We set off again, early the next morning, well, just after breakfast and just before lunch. traffic was not too bad, however, the main road was really awful, I think we averaged 25km/hr some of the potholes littering the road were literally 2 or 3 feet deep...

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## kingwilly

The road basically followed the coastline, there were dozens of small fishing villages along the way, with plenty of places to eat and stay.

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## kingwilly

following the coastal road is a line of mountains, some of which used to be volcanoes, hence the richness of the soil, which is good for agriculture, rice and palm oil grown here, since they have cut all the teak out  :Sad:

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## kingwilly

its possibly a bit hard to tell in this pic, but this fellow just filled 2 22 gallon drums with petrol and loaded them into the saddle bags onto his bike, perhaps he runs a mini petrol station somewhere further down the road, perhaps he rides out to people who have run out of petrol...?

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## kingwilly

we didnt quite make it all the way to Ujung Kulon, the sea waves were bad, and the only way in is via boats, perhaps another trip. but we stayed at a particularly nice bay just shy of Samur.

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## melvbot

> we didnt quite make it all the way to Ujung Kulon, the sea waves were bad, and the only way in is via boats, perhaps another trip. but we stayed at a particularly nice bay just shy of Samur.


Is that it?

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## kingwilly

> Is that it?


oh yes, sailing boats, good food, fishing, beer, friendly people, meant we stayed at the next resort we found for the rest of the weekend, and didnt bother to go elsewhere. one group of people had just left on a local fishing boat in 2-3 metre swell for a 4 hour one way trip to the park, you do the math on enjoying that.

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## kingwilly

it looked a lot bigger and closer in real life, but this is the famed volcano, Krakatoa.

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## Loy Toy

Don't worry about the detractors mate and thanks for the effort.  :Smile: 

The resort looked nice and its great to see some waves and sea swell again.

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## kingwilly

another reason the fukin traffic is so slow is every damn village had at least one or more mosque fund raising drives (presumably every weekend when jakarta drivers are down here) 

This involves several women and children standing in the middle of the road with fishing nets, in which you can throw some small change...sections of rope or bamboo serve as make shift speed humps, or _polisi tidur (_sleeping police man) in bahasa Indonesia.

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## kingwilly

we took the inland route home, it was supposed to be quicker, 5 hours in the car wasnt really what i was hoping for...

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## kingwilly

to my delight, and mrskw's disappointment the durian stall was all sold out!










but i had to promise, next time!

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## melvbot

> Don't worry about the detractors mate and thanks for the effort.


I wasnt being a detractor, that sounded like a closing statement to me.

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## Loy Toy

^ Your too impatient mate!

Good things come to those that wait.  :Smile: 




> the famed volcano, Krakatoa


I hear that Krakatoa is still active KW. Is that cloud cover or is the oven heating up to blow again?

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## kingwilly

> I hear that Krakatoa is still active KW.


it tis.




> Is that cloud cover or is the oven heating up to blow again?


hard to tell in that pic, but some pics from a different location the next day show that it is coming from the old lady herself, I have heard rumours that she is due to blow again, but volcanology is a very inexact science, so I dont put much credence in them just yet...

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## Propagator

> but volcanology is a very inexact science,


Don't say that to this bloke




NIce thread KW

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## Johnny Longprong

Thanks KW, interesting pictures. Most of us on the big island down south know stuff all about our large near neighbour. Looks like they have a mild touch of the brokes up there? I'm looking forward to the wildlife shots.

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## kingwilly

> Looks like they have a mild touch of the brokes up there?


Yep, though most of the damage done to the economy during the big crash has allegedly meant that this slow down has been weathered a lot more easily. 

The theory goes that any companies and banks that were too small or on shaky ground were weeded out in a Darwinian fashion and that therefore the survivors are doing alright this time around. I guess time will tell.





> Most of us on the big island down south know stuff all about our large near neighbour.


There has been quite a lot in the news here about that, the prevailing view is that Kevin Rudd wants to change that, given the once great relationship that Paul Keating had with Indoneisa 10 years ago, in fact there were a couple of articles suggesting that Australia is running out of Indonesian Experts. Now might be the time to brush up on ones Bahasa skills and apply for a government advisory job.




> I'm looking forward to the wildlife shots.


oh oo. Not really many of them, though mrskw did get this wee critter...

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## phuketbound

^Eww, what type of spider is that? 

I like the pic of the volcano. Interesting, as I've never made it to Indo yet.

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## Rural Surin

Nice Willy. You seem to approach the photo/travel threads a little differently. Hope the Java travels extend into Central and Eastern. Anticipating more on Sumatra....lovely pics! :Smile:

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## kingwilly

Cheers, 




> Anticipating more on Sumatra....lovely pics!


There is still more to come on this thread, but I am running around like a blue arsed fly right now, so perhaps later today or tomorrow when I have time!

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## kingwilly



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## kingwilly

we hired this fishing boat for a day trip to another island...



the island was smallish but looked quite jungley....



the caretaker of the island lived in this house and paid $20 a month rent...

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## kingwilly

we continued on to do a spot of fishing, caught a few but nothing worth keeping (nor taking pics of, besides which, the days beers were beginning to take their toll and I was feeling a bit headachey and grumpy.)



another pic of Krakatoa, which can be seen more or less from the entire coastline of west java.

one can hire a fishing boat which takes about 4 hours to visit, but remember the Sunda Straight can have very big waves, or pay several hundred dollars to hire the faster (and safer speedboat) to visit the volcano.



there were hundreds of these wooden structures around, apparently they are fish traps.

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## sandy123

Hi friend 
i really liked this collection of pictures too much.

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## Marmite the Dog

Not much fanny about, is there?

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## kingwilly

> i really liked this collection of pictures too much.


thanks.






> Not much fanny about, is there?


not really.

they'd all be in Jakarta,

one does not go to the middle of nowhere if they are looking for fanny.

besides mrskw was with me...

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## Matthew

There's something a bit otherworldly about that fish trap structure. All around good stuff mate, thanks.

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## phuketbound

I like the pics of Krakatau from the coastline. I was reading that it erupted in October 07. Have you seen it erupt?

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## Texpat

nice pics KW. 
Shame about the durian being sold out.
Would have made a nice souviner for the missus' friends only five hours drive back home ... in an enclosed car, air re-circulated.

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## kingwilly

> Shame about the durian being sold out. Would have made a nice souviner for the missus' friends only five hours drive back home ... in an enclosed car, air re-circulated.


must confess, I was thinking the same sorta thing.

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