Losmen Anisa

hot water holiday

by global_explorer

Cipanas are in effect a part of the larger town of Garut. What attracts people here, are hot water, and a lot of it, pluss some relaxing. The area have several hot springs, and every hotel, as far as i know, also every room, have their own pool with hot springwater regurlary replaced via tubes. I had one of the cheapest rooms in town, still the pool was over a meter deep, long enough to stretch. On the side there was a shallow step. Cipanas are popular among foreign and indonesian tourists alike, the couple in the neighbouring room enjoyed (sometimes very loudly) their honeymoon in the water, witch also is said to have healing properties (witch hot spring aren’t?). The pools are the perfect place to digest your experiences after a long trip trough indonesia, because in Cipanas it is not to mutch going on. The hotelstreet are peacefull, and ends in a plaza surrounded by cheap eateries of witch most seems to serve sate and similar food. This is also a fine place to while away some hours.

Kawa ljen

by global_explorer

Due to its position on the rift between the australian and the asiatic tectonic plates, Indonesia are full of active volcanoes (around 220), 22 of them lie on Java. Kawa Ljen are one of the most seeworthy, despite its relative remoteness and lack of transportation. The natural strartpoint are the friendly, and unusual clean city of Bondowoso, from there it take 2 hours by bemo through farmlamd and some beautifull naturalforest before arriving at Sempol village. From here you must ride on a motorbike through more scenic landscape, after some VERY essential pricenegotiations. Also be prepared for some neckbreaking driving. I got my worst ride EVER here. At Pos Paltuding you have to pay an entrancefee (RP 50.000 when i visited) before walking uphill for, let’s say one hour. Most of it goes through forest, only close to the volcano the barren landscape of crumbling lava lies exposed. The crater iself looks like it is drilled-circular, absolutely vertical and mostly with smoot surface. At the bottom there is a beautifull turqoise lake, complete with some small beaches with black sand. The water holds a pleasant temperature, but a lot of stuff is dissolved in it, like sulphur acid and hydrochloric acid. A good place to while away some time watching the surrounding area and the lake is the edge to the right of the trail to the craterbottom, used by the sulphurcollectors (see next tip). Be carefull here, one french tourist fell to his death here some years ago. It also must be said, you will probably see only parts of the lake, there is a constant flow of thick sulphursmoke from the crater. How mutch you see, depends on the winddirection.

Java - Pulau Jawa

by SLLiew

Java is the most important island and with the highest population density island of Indonesia.

Although Bahasa Indonesia is the official language, Javanese is widely spoken together with other major languages and dialects.

I travelled overland from Jakarta to the eastern tipe of Java to take a boat across the Sunda Straits to Bali.

Java is a fascinating and culturally diverse islands with volcano tops, forested hills and beautiful beaches.

You have not been to Indonesia if you have not visit Java. Bali is like Hawaii whereas Java is like California and New York.

Do visit this fascinating land and island of Java.

The Prambanan Temples

by kyoub

Today, Prambanan is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the largest Hindu temples in south-east Asia. It is characterised by its tall and pointed architecture, typical for the hindu temple architecture, and by the 47m high central building inside a large complex of individual temples

The Shiva shrine is the tallest building. At the center contains four chambers, one in every cardinal direction. While the first contains a three meter high statue of Shiva, the other three contain smaller statues of Durga, his wife, Agastya, his teacher, and Ganesha, his son.

In front of each main temple is a smaller candis on the east side, dedicated to the mounts of the respective god - the bull Nandi for Shiva, the gander Angsa for Brahma, and Vishnus Eagle Garuda, which serves as the national symbol of Indonesia