Natural Cave and Stone Garden (Padalarang, Bandung)

Here, I would like to give you an interesting place, natural and amazing known as Goa Pawon (Pawon Cave) and Stone Garden located in Padalarang.

To visit this place, you can go to Padalarang, around 30KM from the center of Bandung or around 80KM from the center of Karawang. From exit toll Padalarang, you must go to the direction of Rajamandala or Sukabumi in a hilly road that is also passed by trucks, buses and other big vehicles. 

If you already reached a hilly road where there are some limestone mining around you, it means you're near to the site of Goa Pawon. Actually the sign of this place is not really remarkable since it is quite small, it's only written "GOA PAWON". The road to Goa Pawon is only enough for 1 vehicle, if there are 2 vehicles and both are in a contrary direction, one must stop first. This is actually an unfortunate thing for GOA PAWON as it has a lack in infrastructure in terms of the road (narrow), toilet (quite far) and parking lot (small). 

To enter the site, you must only pay IDR 5K each person. The cave itself is very near from the parking lot. You must only go up within a few minutes and you can see an amazing cave. Before, there will be a lot of apes. Inside the cave, there are still a lot of bats so that no wonder the cave is a bit smelly. Tips for you, you can bring along a mask with you if you can't stand with the smell. But, not to worry, you can breathe a fresh air because the cave is a type of an-open cave.

Not only bats, there is a fossil also of a human, maybe a human from the era of Sundanese Kingdom where meditation in a cave  is a common thing in that era.

bats flying in a tunnel of light in the cave

From the Pawon Cave, you can also go the Stone Garden. Stone Garden means a hill with a stone spread everywhere, makes an interesting place to be visited, for a leisure or just for taking pictures. To go to this place you can hike a hill from Goa Pawon, around 20 minutes. But it can be very tiring hike because the hill is quite slippery and steep. On the other way, you can go around 5KM and park your vehicle near to the Garden Stone so that you only need to climb a bit.

Stone Garden in Padalarang

To enter this stone garden, you must pay IDR 5K each person. Besides the stone, there is also some huts around the garden that everyone can sit and enjoy the scenery. 

I recommend you to visit this place and you will feel another world sensation (in case that you live an urban life too long). Just pity that some irresponsible people left their path by making graffiti on the stones and cave. What stupid people they are...

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Interesting Places in Karawang & Purwakarta

Karawang is a potential big city with a large plant area of multinational companies / industries. Besides becoming industrial city in Indonesia, it also has some interesting places to be visited.

1. WALAHAR DAM

The dam of Walahar was built in Dutch era so that the architecture is with a touch of Dutch architecture. The Walahar dam is located in East Karawang, or in the area of Klari. From exit tol East Karawang (KM 54), you must go right about 3 KM.

In Walahar Dam, you may not only see the beautiful dam but you may be able to taste delicious original food from Karawang, 'pepes'. Pepes is the Indonesian way to cook using Banana leaf to wrap the food before it gets roasted / steamed. There are many food that can be cooked to be 'pepes' : fish, tofu, chicken, prawn, etc. Pepes Walahar H. Dirja is very famous not only for local people but also for people who live outside Karawang. The spices are really delicious and the price is really reachable. 

To get into the restaurant you must across the Walahar bridge that is only enough for 1 car width. While you crossing this bridge, you can also hear the water flowing into the dam.

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2. CIGENTIS WATERFALL

Curug Cigentis or Cigentis Waterfall is located in Karawang, about 35 KM from the center of Karawang. The road to reach this place is not really good, really rocky and slippery. Moreover, you must hike around 20-30 minutes to the waterfall spot from the parking area. It is better to ride a motorcycle than to drive a car to visit this place. 

The entry ticket is cheap, only IDR5K but the place is a bit dirty because of the irresponsible visitors that dump rubbish everywhere. There are 2 waterfalls in Curug Cigentis. One with the heavy flowing water and another one is a bit slow. You may also be able to soak up your feet in the river in which the water is still clean and clear.

If you're hungry, there will be a lot of food sellers along the river (inside the tourist object) that sell meatballs, chicken rice, etc. This also one of the factors that make this waterfall a bit dirty.

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3. JATILUHUR DAM

Jatiluhur Dam is located in Purwakarta, exit tol KM 76. It is the biggest dam in West Java that impounds Citarum River. Citarum River is quite a big river that sometimes causing flood in the area of Karawang and Bekasi, especially when the water debit increased during high-rainy seasons.

The entry ticket during weekend is IDR 15K/person, with IDR20K for one car. Inside, you must still pay IDR 2K to the parking man. 

Here, you can enjoy the beautiful scenery around the dam. There are also many wild birds that come fly near the dam to drink.

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4. SAN DIEGO HILLS 

San Diego Hills is located in West Karawang, exit toll KM 47. It is actually a cemetery that can also be visited to get some refreshment. The cemetery here is managed with a luxury and beauty. You may not realize that it is a cemetery because of the concept. 

In this cemetery, there is a cafe and swimming pool that is open for public. This place is also regularly used as a place for shooting (i.e movies, product advertisement,etc)

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5. SATE MARANGGI - CIBUNGUR

Sate or Satay is a typical Indonesian traditional food using chicken, rabbits, beef or goat meat that is roasted on the burnt charcoal. Satay Maranggi is satay from a lamb (young goat). This food is one of the most favorite food here because Maranggi has less cholesterol and much tender than the mutton or adult goat meat.

During weekend, more than thousand people come to eat in this place. Yes, thousand people. Believe or not, even to pay in cashier, we must queue in a very long queue. Here, not only sate maranggi that is served but also other food such as sayur asem, karedok (West Javanese salad with peanut sauce), sop daging, etc. The rice is also still wrapped by banana leaf, makes it fresh, warm and smells good.

Sate Maranggi Cibungur located in Jalan Raya Cibungur. It is 2 KM from the exit toll Cikampek. For the price, rice is charged IDR 6K/pcs, sate maranggi IDR 4K/pcs, meat soup IDR 25K/ bowl, karedok IDR 14K/portion (latest in 2015). For the place, people eat surrounded by teak plantation (owned by Perhutani) that makes people feel relax and comfortable because the air is fresh.

the open kitchen for Sate Maranggi - Cibungur

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Tourist Objects in Batu (and Malang probably)

Batu and Malang are located in the southern area of East Java. Both of those cities are suitable for tourism since they offer many beautiful places to visit. Since they are located in a high land, the temperature is a bit cold, significantly different from the big cities in Indonesia (such as Jakarta, Surabaya, etc). It'd be colder if you visit them in June-July, that you might bring a jacket if you want to go outside. Basically, since the area is higher, Batu is colder than Malang.

There is an airport called Abdul Rachman Saleh in Malang. It is a commercial airport now, and people often go to Surabaya first before heading to Malang because the air ticket will be much cheaper than go directly to Malang. For example, from Bali / Jakarta you choose the flight to Surabaya first / transfer via Surabaya, not directly go to Malang.

Especially in Malang, you still can see the typically old buildings from the Dutch colonialism such as churches, houses along Ijen street, schools and many other landmarks. Some guest houses along Kawi Street also have the touch of Dutch architecture.

Batu, is less crowded than Malang. Batu is a hilly land with a river that is suitable for rafting. In Batu, you can also see the apple and flowers plantation. Apple from Batu is normally green but still, it is sweet. Apples and other tropical fruits are processed to become chips in Batu, such as jack fruit, banana, salak, pineapples, etc. 

Batu has a lot of tourist objects, from artificial until natural ones. Natural ones, you can see waterfall, hot spring water, hills, etc. For artificial ones, Batu offers a lot of play land, and it is quite complete and large, not only amusement park but also zoo.

1. BATU SECRET ZOO (JATIM PARK II)

Batu Secret Zoo, is around 1,5-2 hours driving from the central of Malang. Admission ticket will be various (Monday-Thursday: IDR 75K; Friday-Sunday/Holiday : IDR 125K). In Batu secret zoo, visitors will enjoy the zoo based on its category in a different spot: for example mammals, birds, fish ,etc. There are a lot of animals you can see here, not only tropical animals such as monkeys, birds, etc but also animals from other countries such as Kangaroo, Hippo, etc. At the end of the journey you can visit Museum of Animals (Museum Satwa). Here you can see statues of primordial animals, endangered animals and animals that can't be found in tropical area just like in a museum way.

In Batu Secret Zoo, you can take pictures with certain animal, but you have to pay IDR 5,000 for each animal. For me it is quite interesting to visit Batu Secret Zoo but unfortunately the wild animals that you take picture with, for example, baby tiger, looked quite sad. I don't really know but seemed that the baby tiger was given something that always made him sleepy and less active.

Museum Satwa, BATU SECRET ZOO

2. ECO GREEN PARK


Eco Green Park is a bit about science park. Here you can know further about animals because they put information related to certain animals such as insects, etc.
Admission ticket is IDR 40K, Monday-Thursday and IDR65K, Friday-Sunday/Holiday. But, you can also buy combo ticket for only IDR 150K to be able to discover Batu Secret Zoo and Eco Green Park.

Personally, I prefer Eco Green Park to Batu Secret Zoo because there are more to see in Eco Green Park rather than Batu Secret Zoo. Not only be able to take pictures with certain animals for free, we are also able to enter Rumah Hantu (Haunted House), Rumah Terbalil (Upside -Down House), and ride a Hunting Car. They are all free, no additional fee required.

Eco Green Park

3. TREE HOUSE and PARAGLIDING

In Batu, we can also enjoy the beautiful scenery from the hills through a tree house. It is located in the same location with paragliding spot, where many young people start their flying experience. The road to reach the tree house is a bit small and a typical of mountainous road. There are not many directions to show this spot so that sometimes we must count on locals instead of merely using GPS.

The entry ticket is very cheap, IDR 5K per person. Since it is very cheap, many people like to go there to take pictures that sometimes we have to wait in a queue to enter the tree house.

Tree House, Batu (2015)

There are a lot of many other tourist objects in Malang that I can not write down all of them here. For beaches, several names are good: Goa Cina, Tiga Warna, Balekambang, Sendang Biru, etc. You can also do rafting in Batu river besides visiting many waterfalls such as Coban Rondo, Coban Sewu, etc. Near Malang, you can also visit the famous Bromo mountain that is suitable to see sunrise.

Tourist Objects in Jogjakarta

There are a lot of tourist objects in Jogjakarta. It is one of the city in Indonesia where we can see the combination between culture, heritage and tradition that appear in current life. In Jogjakarta we can see temples (majority is Hindu temple), beaches, mountain and even its kingdom legacy. In fact, until recent, Jogjakarta is still lead by a King (or known as Sultan) even though the Sultan more likely acts as a governor.

Jogjakarta is rich of its tradition that obviously appears in its local culture: Batik, Javanese dances, crafting, etc. If you have plenty time and you decide to visit Jogjakarta you may spare time to visit some places such as Kasongan (you can see the making of pottery, hand made), Kota Gede (silver jewelry, etc, handmade), Manding (leather production for  bags, shoes, jacket), Malioboro (batik process, the making of Bakpia - traditional cake).

Talking about other cool places to visit, you can check below:

1. Prambanan Temple

Prambanan is a Hindu temple, that is located in Prambanan, an area between Jogjakarta and Klaten. In this site, there is also a Buddhist temple, called Candi Sewu (literally means Thousand Temple), at the back of Prambanan Temple.

The apparent difference between Hindu and Buddhist temple is the shape of the top of the temple itself. Hindu temple is more likely to have a sharper shape for the top of its temple, while Buddhist one is more round. Another difference is related to the statue. Hindu temples have different statues of God for each of its temple, while Buddhist temples only have the statue of Buddha, as its role model.

To enter Prambanan, you must pay the entry ticket of IDR 30,000/person (for local tourists) and USD 18 (for foreigners). To enjoy the temples, you may bring along umbrella, hat or scarf with you because the temperature is quite hot there. Not to worry, there will be local people offering umbrellas for rental and you can bring them by yourself.

Prambanan Temple

2. Ratu Boko

Ratu Boko is an archaeological site of (used to be a Palace of King Boko) located near to Prambanan Temple. After visiting Prambanan, you can visit Ratu Boko, just around 15 minutes driving to the hills. It is such a perfect place to see a sunset with a beautiful view.

Here in Ratu Boko you can see the legacy of a Palace in an old time, complete with its baths for princess and a canal-like system (or maybe a tunnel) that remains unsolved until today because the restoration is still incomplete.

a gate in Ratu Boko

Here, you may see a few deer also in a garden before you go to the Ratu Boko Palace. The weather is a bit windy in the afternoon and not too hot, suitable for you to enjoy the scenery. For entry ticket, it will cost you around IDR 25,000 / person (2015)


3. Taman Sari

Taman Sari is also a legacy of Kesultanan Jogjakarta (Kingdom of Jogjakarta), and used to be a place for princess to take a bath. The buildings are not too old comparing to the temples, but still, we can see the classic atmosphere in Taman Sari. Taman Sari is located near Keraton Jogjakarta (Palace). It is actually located within current people's houses and a traditional market. This place is always be visited by foreigners because it has a lot of mystery, marked by a former canal system, tunnel, etc.

The ticket to get here is very cheap, around IDR 3,000. Actually there are several gates that you can enter to the site besides the main gate that you must pay for entry ticket. You can enter through the bird market, or even from the aisle in society's housing.

Taman Sari, taken from my instagram

4. Gua Pindul

Gua Pindul is located in Gunung Kidul, in the southern Jogjakarta. It is a coastal and mountainous area with many beautiful places to see: beaches, caves, waterfalls, etc.
To go here, you will spend around 2 hours driving from the center of Jogjakarta in an up and down and slipper road.

Besides Goa Pindul, is a cave of stalactite and stalagmite with a river under it. The journey will be on a tire and will take around 25 minutes inside the cave. The scenery was really wonderful inside and we could hear different sound of stalactite that our guide hit on. To enjoy this, you must pay around IDR 35,000 each person. You can also hire a group photographer who will take pictures along with you during in a cave.

Goa Pindul (2015)

Not to forget, you must prepare another suit for changing if you want to take this adventure because you will definitely get wet during the trip.

TOURIST OBJECTS IN BANDUNG

I live in Karawang, a developing city in West Java which is quite near to Bandung. Karawang to Bandung can be reached 1.5 - 2 hours by car, not a very long trip here. However, if you want to travel to Bandung, you need to pay more attention to the peak hour and peak season. In weekend, traffic jam can be much worse. The traffic jam is not only caused by many visitors come from outside Bandung but also a very long queue time of the traffic light (may take 5-10 minutes I guess).

Therefore, if you want to enjoy Bandung more, you need to travel in early morning and not in a weekend period.

Last time, I went to Bandung, Lembang and Ciwidey (in a different time) during Ramadhan. Ramadhan is the month of fasting for Moslems. As many Moslem people were fasting during that month, many of them chose to stay at home instead of spending time in public places. Therefore, it can be an option to enjoy your time: no traffic jam, no queue for entry tickets, no crowd in the tourist objects. 

Here, are several places I offer you to visit, and most of them are not artificial.

1. KAWAH PUTIH (White Crater)

Kawah Putih is located in a high land of Ciwidey area, 50 KM in a south Bandung. This crater is still in the area of volcanic Patuha Mountain, therefore we can easily smell sulfur comes out from its lake. As the colour of the water and the sand is white, this object is very attractive for photography. However, you may not get too close to the crater because it is very dangerous.

To get to the site, it may be somehow difficult to use public transportation as there are not so many "angkot" or public cars to get there. Kawah Putih opens everyday from 7AM to 5PM, with an entry ticket of averagely IDR 18,000 (weekend and weekdays in 2015). The expensive one is for those who drive cars and want to park their cars near to the site. You must pay IDR 150,000 just only to park in the uphills (it is considered for environmental maintenance fee). To deal with it, you may join with other tourists in one car, or get "Ontang-Anting", a public car provided to get to the uphills, with much cheaper price.

White Crater / Kawah Putih

Note that it is best not to go to Kawah Putih in a rainy season (Dec-April) since the road can be very slippery and not comfortable for sightseeing. It is also important to notice that if you arrive here in early morning (7AM), the weather will be very cold. Don't worry, there are many street vendors that sell various warming things such as coat, hat, gloves, even mask.

2. KEBUN TEH CIWIDEY (Ciwidey Tea Garden)

Near Kawah Putih, there will be another interesting spot to go, Ranca Bali Tea Garden. You just need to drive uphills around 15 minutes to the direction of Situ Patenggang and you will see a beautiful scenery of tea garden that will surround you. Amazing. Everything seems planted in a very well-organized way and everything is green!

If you want to take a picture, you can stop by, park your vehicle and CHEESE! It's free!

RancaBali Tea Garden in Ciwidey

In Ciwidey, actually you will not only find tea plantation but also strawberry plantation. There are a lot of places offering you opportunity to grab strawberries from its tree in a quite cheap price.

3. SITU PATENGGANG

Just right behind the Ranca Bali Tea Garden is Situ Patenggang. Situ in Sundanese means Lake. Initially, Situ Patenggang was a national park managed by Perhutani (Indonesian Government Forestry) and now is turned into tourist object, with many surrounding facilities such as cafetaria, hotels, etc. The lake itself is not very large. In the middle of it there is a small island and people can get across there by a boat. I think there is no something special in that island.

Entry ticket is around IDR 18,000 in weekdays and IDR 20,000 in weekend. To enjoy the scenery, you may take a short down walk near the lake, you can sit on the natural rocks or even sit under the trees.

Situ Patenggang

4. TANGKUBAN PERAHU

Tangkuban Perahu is located 20KM to the north of Bandung, it is one of tourist objects combined with the local myth of how it is formed, the same with Situ Patenggang. It is also difficult to get in the spot using public transportation. You can go with "angkot" until the gate of Tangkuban Perahu to buy ticket, but still you need another vehicle to go uphills that is quite far. Here, there is no public transportation provided just like in Kawah Putih. Therefore, it is much better to drive your own if you want to go to Tangkuban Perahu.

For the ticket, it is almost the same with the previous ones, around IDR 15,000/person. You need to be careful because the wind is very strong and sometimes it is foggy and cold. Around, if you are hungry you can find meatballs, traditional roasted corn, tape uli (traditional food made from sticky rice).

Tangkuban Perahu, 2014

There are still other interesting and beautiful natural places in Bandung that are worth to visit like Maribaya, Lembang, etc. One thing for sure, Bandung is not only a city for shopping and doing culinary but also for enjoying its natural beauty.

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