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kawah putih. nestled amongst the hilly area of mountain patuha, here is … the infamous kawah putih or translated as the white crater in english.

actually, it’s a nice place to be visited. nice countryside of ciwidey district, with picking your own strawberry signboard along the way to the top and secondary forest with gigantic fern, karri look-alike [based on my experience in visiting western australia, i found these quite same] trees and pinewood.

but wait … in the weekend and school holiday, it can be disaster! non-stop visitors with every single minutes ‘announcement’ from them, “excuse me, could you move out from my camera? you’re in frame of mine!” oh yeah and just a simple answer i can give, “no way … i am earlier than you. so, pay a respect please.”

sounds strange words, uh? but it works

apart of the massive visitors who ‘hit’ this nice crater, i wonder if they pay attention towards someone.

a man named franz wilhelm junghuhn. a german botanist who found this nice crater with turquoise lake. a person who against his insanity after served his country as a soldier who fought throughout europe. a person who passed away in bandung, the capital city of west java and asking the doctor to open the windows so he can say goodbye to the mountains that he loves so much.

things to do:

* visit kawah putih a.k.a the white crater

being here means white crater is the main destination. a fancy but quite small white crater with a turquoise lake and breezy weather.

avoid weekend and school holiday. if you have chance to visit early morning can be seen the mist rolling out above its lake [it used to be crater from a stratovulcano of mount patuha].

another additional destinations are:

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- picking strawberry activity in the district of ciwidey
- ranca upas, another crater rims just like kawah putih but less spectacular in my humble opinion
- lake situ patenggang with so-so scenery
- tea plantation. it’s nice since there’s a tea laboratory so if you are interesting with kind of tea, can get some useful info

* enjoy the sunset
surrounded by mountainous range made sunset in bandung can be enjoyed more. since the contour of the hills can create colour gradation as you can see through my picture here. once you get a chance to see bandung in evening from a high elevation, just try it to enjoy. it’s cool!

fondest memory:

where else of the destination that jakartans can have within 2 – 3 hours drive? bandung is the most popular answer compared other cities nearby jakarta. not as close as bogor [for safari zoo and botanical garden] but not too far just like other cities in west java.

and must admit, bandung becomes ‘overload’ in the weekend. hotels and hostels are hard to be found and will be double difficulties whenever school holiday has came. and hectic traffic jam can be created easily. especially along the main streets with cafes, restaurants and factory outlets [f.o] and distribution outlets [distro] which always booming and add up in bandung.

fine dining, having meals and shopping are the normal perspective for those who decided to visit this capital city of west java.

to avoid all of these madness, there are several options can be tried. to lembang for rain forest and old dutch cave or further away to the ciwidey district. okay, it’s touristy. but fresh air and nice scenery can be taken as something rewarding after spend about 2 hours more to reach the white crater

people said, if not bring your family here, this place also popular for pre-wedding shots. but i am not find them as mandatory hunting pictures can be done here without any human object. or in other words for the nature itself.

shopping activity:

well, actually picking strawberry is a nice recreation for those who likes to feel a farming daily activities once awhile in ciwidey. but don’t blame me, whenever i turn into  lazy mood after a light walk to the crater [only 100 m from the entrance gate!!! ]. i decided to find the strawberries that provided by local sellers.

here can be found various size of strawberries. from the biggest until smallest. from unripe to ripe. and several already put in a plastic box, so the costumers doesn’t need to pick them out from the baskets. you can practice your ability to do bargain. it’s fun 2 big boxes of strawberries cost idr 20,000 or about usd2.5

getting to/around:

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the measurement about ‘how far’ sometimes created ambiguity result. said so close but practically quite far. this happened if we ask to villagers. the definition how to get there is not far. but we find it “far” of “quite far”.

so, for visitors, the distance can be said far from bandung. about 2 hours drive. take the public transport or your own or can be rent a car also.

enroute as follows: bandung city [entry point bandung] to direction soekarno hatta boulevard, cibaduyut, soreang, ciwidey, pasir jambu, kawah putih.

if you prefer to go by mass transportation, there’s a small semi-open public car to drive you to the top. just hail from the road of pasir jambu and ask if the route is to kawah putih.

accommodation:

became one of the most busiest city in indonesia during weekend, bandung provided accommodation in many ranges. from budget to top notch. but should be noticed, find a place to stay in bandung can be tiring sometimes. especially in school holiday.

several places to stay have a ‘unique’ request in the name to keep the fair play amongst the customers. just like announcement must be booking in advance [about 2 weeks notice ahead] or another request “should be booking in person, can not used telephone facility.”

and another classic statement is: more closer to to the downtown it will be more expensive and hard to find.

so my choice is … find a small place for my own and my beloved teddybear, closer access to ciwidey –since i want to visit kawah putih–, budget condition or not expensive and of course clean and bedbugs-free.

my choice goes to this newly opened hostel. minimalist style, spotlessly clean and practically easy to navigate [yes since small simple room only]. there’s no big or huge dining room. the bellboy will ring the bell to send the breakfast to my room. there’s no bathtub but only shower with 24 hours hot water. this place is remind me to my stay in kowloon about 2 years ago