Tangkuban Perahu Mount

Have you ever been hear the legend of Sangkuring before? Maybe for the sundanese etchnic it is not foreign anymore even to the all Indonesian. The legend of Sangkuriang is a history that linked to the creature of Tangkuban Perahu mount. Tangkuban perahu translate roughly upturning of a boat in Sundanese refers to the legend there. The story tells about a Beautiful woman name Dayang Sumbi who has a child. She casts away her son “Sangkuring” for disobedience. Because of this she really so sad but in her sadness she was granted the youth eternal power by the gods. After many years not meet each other, one-day Sangkuriang meet with his mom, he fallen love to her. He wants to marriage her but Dayang Sumbi recognized her son from birthmark of him. Dayang sumbi prevent the marriage by asking Sangkuriang to build a dam in Citarum River and a large boat to cross it for a night before the sunrise. Sangkuriang agrees, he begins meditated and summoned mythical ogre like green giant “Buta Ijo” (in Sundanese) to do his job. Dayang Sumbi saw the tasks were almost finished and called her workers to spread red silk cloths at eastern of the city, to give the impression of impending sunrise. Sangkuring was fooled even believe that he has failed; he kicks the dam and unfinished boat, resulting in severe flooding and creation of Tangkuban Perahu from the hull of the boat.

Tangkuban Perahu is an active volcano about 30 km northern of Kotamadya Bandung as the capital town of West Java province, Indonesia. It has 2084 meters height above the sea water level. The temperatures at top of mount about 10 degrees Celsius. In fact, nothing special with this place but for the mountaineer it will be give you new experience caused you could hike to the edge of the crater to view the hot water spring up closed and cooks the eggs at its hot surface. More over you could see and smell sulfur which spread at crater of it. Maybe for unusual men it is sometimes make you fell dizzy so you necessary to bring masker. As information, there is a crater is forbidden to visit caused the of sulfur content by toxin.

Tangkuban Parahu is a stratum volcano in Java Island and the last erupted in 1983, but in April 2005, the government of Indonesia out of alert and forbid the visitors going up to the volcano. In according to the sensor equipment and explanation of government volcanologist Syamsul Rijal that Tangkuban Parahu picked up an increase volcano activity and build up of gases.

Bosscha Observatory

Bosscha Observatory building is the oldest planets observatory in Indonesia. Bosscha observatorium was built on January 1st 1923 by the Community of Astronomy of Indies Netherlands at the colonialism era. The Bosscha name was taken from the name of the donator from this observatory building - Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha – the owner of the tea field in Malabar, Kabupaten Lembang, West Java, Indonesia. It’s about 15 km at the northern Bandung as the capital town of West Java. The land area is about 6 hectares on 1300 meters above the sea water level, makes this area as the best place to observe the stars, planets, milky ways, others galaxy parts and has beautiful scenery, fresh and pure air.

Bosscha is well known as the best observatorium in the Southeast Asia. This Obsevatorium have six big telescopes, such as: Multiple Zeiss Refractor Telescope, Milky Way Schmidt Telescope, Bamberg Refractor Telescope, GOTO Cassegrain Telescope, Unitron Refractor Telescope, and Real Time Solar Telescope as the newest there. Each of them are used for difference purposes. For example: The Real Time Solar Telescope is used to observe the out circle of sun, spectrum, and the cronospher. At about 60.000 person visits this place every year, most of them are students and the others are scientist or tourists from local and abroad. The visitors came to this place to see and learn the discovery science of our Galaxy. Since this place was built in 1923, at least 500 of worksheet of the research results have been produced.

Bandung Tourism part 2

“Lembang” How beautiful you are!

How beautiful the view is ! That’s the first impression which we should say about the wonderful scenery in Lembang. It’s very reasonable cause the condition of the area such as fresh air, strawberry field, villagers custom, silent and cozy area (so far from the noisy condition) are completed by the beautiful green views. Kabupaten Lembang is located in West Java Province at about 10 km from Kotamadya Bandung, Indonesia. It’s taken 30 minutes by bus from Bandung to Kabupaten Lembang and the cost only US$ 0.3 (if you go there by DAMRI bus). In the morning the temperature of this area is about 15 degrees Celsius and 10 degrees Celcius at night. It’s cold area so you must bring thick blanket to warm your self. According to the villagers history, in 2003, Lembang have ever been getting ice rain but it was no longer happened. The duration was about 5 to 10 minutes and at that time the temperature was about 3 degrees Celsius, but only happened once.

In fact this area is very famous as the producers of various vegetables and fruits e.g. cucumber, potatoes, cabbages, strawberry, corn, etc. These are supplied at the surrounding area and also distributed to Jakarta as the Capital town of Indonesia. Sometimes the fruit and vegetables were sold in traditional market but some others were sent to Supermarket. In Kabupaten Lembang, you could enjoy the delicious of strawberry juice, the price is very cheap, only US$ 0.5/glass and this is a special drinking of Kabupaten Lembang. Another special menu is roasted corn and the seller are spreading as long as the road to Lembang before getting Tangkuban Perahu area. Sunda ethnic, as the native speakers there, are very respectful and familiar men. They can make you stay longer. More over, in Lembang, you can enjoy the panorama by going around the area using the traditional transportation called Delman. Delman is a cart pulled by the horse and the tariff is very cheap, only about US$ 0.1/ person. By using it you can go around of Lembang area where ever and when ever you want.

If you want to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Kabupaten Lembang clearly, you can rent a villa or hotel at the mountain slope. From that area you can see the beautiful sight there, such as : the spread out of strawberry fields, the misty hills which exposed the dew in the morning, feel the fresh air and the blowing wind. I’m sure you will get very great experiences there. A little information that, the hotel’s tariff at about US$ 25/night for the standard facilities.