Every time when I think about the wonderfull trip we did last year, one of the most impressive things we did was visiting PAPANDAYAN VULCANO. This is a sleeping vulcano – active, but on standby. It’s located near Bandung, Indonesia. My hopes were quit high for this toxic breathing thing and I was already looking forward to this kick ass moment when we were planning this trip.
Yet, getting there was not that easy… In our opinion all the tourguides asked way to much of a fee, so we decided to go there ourselves. Wich means pulling cabs over down the road and try to negotiate a decent price for the ride. We pulled over about 10 cabs, and they all turned us down. After talking through a cabs’ speakerphone, waving to cabs for an hour and becoming a real life soap for the locals we finally found this cab guy that had the courage enough to take us there.
It took at least a 3 hour ride, a visit to the police office to buy our permission to go ‘behind borders’ and a bumpy off the road experience (wich the cab was NOT build for) to get there but it was all worth it!
Imagine a huge mountain, smoke everywhere and beautifull colors surrounding you. You feel like you’re the size of a jacket button. And you are getting chased by bees (they were freaking all over the place!).
Anyway… I did not know where to start taking pictures, everything was evenly beautifull. The stones were bright yellow and sort of crystalized but when you tried to touch them, you immediately broke them.. The water was pretty blue, but around the corner it was red as blood and a few steps ahead it turned greenish again… The smell of the smoke was disgusting but it made the moment mysterious and intimidating. Our guide was about the same age we are and he told us the best stories about the vulcano. Like he was right there when the vulcano erupted a few years ago. He just sat there with a reporter, praying for his life.. and saw everything from up close. How awesome is that?!
We walked around for 3 hours and then we headed back to our cab guy, but I could have stayed there for hours and hours exploring this impressing piece of earth!
PAPANDAYAN VULCANO is an absolute must see when you visit Bandung. You can go by tourguide or by yourself. Do not climb the mountain without a guide. You can arrange a local guide at the parkinglawn when you arrive at the vulcano. There is also the opportunity to stay camping on top of the vulcano.