Tankuban Perahu Volcano, Bandung, Indonesia - As close as you can get

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Initially, I was wondering what we were going to do in yet another volcano! We've seen quite a number already. But this experience in Banding was a whole lot different - we actually got really close to the crater. And the view was fantastic!

We went unto a point by car and then took the "okeks" ( bikes that ferry people around in the back seat). We got to beat a lot of the traffic by doing this.

The view was totally fantastic and mid blowing. We also felt really close to the crater which was steaming. We had seen most of the other volcanoes from a distance but we got really close to this one.

As Danny and Diar ( our local friends from the hotel now) told us, legend has it that the Sun God fell in love with his mother without knowing that she was his mother. His mother told him that if he were able to build a ship/boat in a day she would accept his love. She thought he wouldn't be able to do that. However, he completed the task successfully. The lady still refused him and in his anger, the Sun God kicked the ship and it overturned to form the Tankuban Perahu ( means overturned boat in Bahass). The mountains surrounding the krater actually look like an overturned boat. Check out the pictures.

After this, we went over to the hot springs. Since the area was really crowded, we didn't go to the public springs but instead to a privately owned resort which had it's own hot springs. We expected to see some spring and what we saw was a fabulous pool filled with hot spring water.

The dip in the hot spring pool was super relaxing! I felt so weak while I was inside and didn't even want to move an inch. Very refreshing and relaxing.

Remember to take your own towels to these places as they didn't have any on rent.

We had our dinner at the same spa/hotel and then got back to the city. I also got a bottle of Bintang here. That's the local Indonesian beer and it's pretty good.

It was actually nice to see Bandung's roads empty while we were getting back. Danny pointed it out to me that this was how Bandung normally was.

On the way back, I even got to visit a mosque. This is the first mosque I'm entering in my life ( yep, I haven't entered any in India). Was a nice experience.

With this, our grand Indonesia trip comes close to it's end. I will summarize our itinerary in a separate post to help travelers planning a 15 day trip to Indonesia.

Bandung, West Java, Indonesia - Cozy hill city

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We're now at Bandung which is a small hill station in West Java Indonesia. Since it's New Years day there were absolutely no hotels with rooms available. We called close to 50 of them on our bus journey from the Jakarta airport to Bandung.

We finally found that there was a room available at a hotel called Hotel Provence which was closer to being a 2 star kinda hotel. And the only room that they had was a family room which coated around (USD 75). Since we didn't have any other option for the night, we took the room this making it the most expensive of our rooms in Indonesia. However, the room was huge and very cozy. The hotel itself was set a little away from the city and had a very cozy atmosphere. Check out the pics of our family room.

We however got to find a smaller room in the same hotel today. A delux room costing 350,000 IDR ( around 35USD). The people in the hotel are very friendly and it's a family running the entire place.

We tried booking a car in the vicinity and most of the travel services were already booked. The hotel owner's brother however offered to take us around for about 250,000 IDR ( USD 25) if we would put in some fuel.

We food that our wheels for the day was an old Merc! How awesome is that! He he.

He took us to the famous "Jeans Street" which loving up to it's name is filled with stores selling branded clothes at discounted rates. These are mostly factor outlets. I managed to pick up a pair of Armani Jeans for around 250,000 IDR ( USD 25 approx). I also got a nice bow and arrows set to hang on the walls! There were so many guys selling air guns too here. One of them let me take a shot at a plastic bottle hanging high up. I managed to hit it. Yay! These guns cost around 50 USD.

The interesting thing in this street is that all the shops have huge lifelike statues of Rambo, spiderman, batman and the likes. Also, the prices here are already discounted and mostly are fixed price stores. Shopping here is a pleasure as compared to Bali or thee places where one needs to haggle.

There was also a Levis factory outlet here with a poster of Kangana Ranaut ( Indian actress/model). One of the stores also had an old vintage Morris Minor standing inside. And an old scooter. These guys are very creative with their store decorations. Nothing fancy, but they have these huge models outside or nice stuff inside.

We're now on our way to the hot springs here in Bandung. It's at a place called Cheeatar here. We may drop by to see another volcano too here ( I know what you're thinking! Another one? He he. Indonesia is filled with volcanoes). This one is called Tankuban Perahu.

Will update further by end of day.

The Holy Spring temple and the Cliff temple, Bali, Indonesia

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Day 3 in Bali was reserves for visiting the must-see sites in Bali. We were still yet to see the Holy Spring temple ( Tirta Empul) and the Cliff temple ( In Uluwatu).

As we spoke to the driver, he told us that the places we wanted to visit were at opposite ends of the island and that would hence have a long travel time. He renegotiated the price to 350000 ( around 35 USD).

The holy spring temple was nice and resembled one of our Indian temples with holy water. The difference here was that you are allowed to dive into the water. And it was super clean! Other than the spring, the temple once again resembled the other temples.

On the other hand, the Cliff Temple was fabulous. As in mind- blowing. The temple is at the edge of a cliff with a view dripping down into the ocean at about 100 feet. Really amazing. Watch te pics. Really awesome.

They also had a Fire and Dance show showing a few scenes from the Ramayana. This was much better than the Barong dance that we saw earlier. Costs around USD 7 per person of I remember right. A little overpriced I thought. However, the temple is a MUST SEE destination. Don't miss it for anything. Be careful of the monkeys though. So many of them arous and they're out to grab your stuff. So secure everything.

We got caught in a lot of traffic heading to the temple and back. Each journey took us close to 2 hours. We were so tired by the time we got back!

The shops around the temples sell some amazing souvenirs. Bargain heavily to get a good deal.

We leave tomorrow for Jakarta to get to Bandung. I really don't have any regrets for leaving Bali. I think it is highly over rated and filled with too many tourists. However, it's worth traveling to Bali during the off peak season to immerse in the culture filled with Hinduism and Buddhism. And for people traveling to Bali for the beaches, I would advise you to think again. You may as well make a trip to the Philippines for that - Boracay or Palawan. For starters, most Filipinos speak English and they're also a polite bunch.

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia - Eat, Pray, Love

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Right as I start punching in this information, you must know that Ubud is an absolutely MUST VISIT city in Bali. Not only because the movie Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts was shot here but for the fact that there's something about this town/city that makes you feel warm and comfortable. Ubud was voted the number 1 city in Asia and the number 5 city in the world by readers of the travelers magazine.

We visited the temple here which was nice. However as I mentioned earlier, each temple was beginning to increasingly look like the other now!

We then took some time to walk into the Ubud market which instantly transports you into a novel with cobblestone roads and prim and proper stores. The whole area felt like you were out in some European tiny village street with small cafes and book stores.

We wanted to go back there again but we never did get the time to manage it. Put aside a minimum of 2 hours for
Ubud and I would recommend half a day to walk around the place.

Definitely worth your time. If you're really not interested in hitting the parties and clubs at Kuta and Legian, you may consider staying in Ubud.