Alas Purwo National Park

A Park On Java'S South Eastern Tip Whose Name Means First Forest; Held In Javanese Belief To Be Where The Earth Began, And Home To The G Land Surf Break · Banyuwangi, East Java

ALAS PURWO MEANS FIRST FOREST, and in Javanese belief this is where the earth began - the oldest land, the place the world emerged from. That is not a marketing line; THE PARK HAS A GENUINE MYSTICAL STANDING IN JAVA, and people come to meditate in its caves on particular nights of the Javanese calendar, particularly around Suro, in numbers that have nothing to do with wildlife tourism. THE SECOND THING HERE IS COMPLETELY UNRELATED AND EQUALLY SERIOUS: PLENGKUNG, KNOWN TO SURFERS AS G-LAND, is one of the great left-hand barrels on earth, a long fast reef wave that draws a dedicated camp-based crowd from around the world. AND THE THIRD IS THE SADENGAN GRAZING FIELD, where banteng and deer come out morning and evening much as they do at Baluran up the coast. Three parks in one, sharing a single gate, and most visitors never discover that the other two exist at all, and drive the two hours from Banyuwangi for only one of them.

Alas Purwo, Banyuwangi Regency, East Java, Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia

OPEN IN DAYLIGHT with a park entry fee and a separate vehicle charge, FOREIGNER AND WEEKEND RATES HIGHER, collected at the PASIR PUTIH gate near Tegaldlimo. THE ROADS INSIDE ARE ROUGH and the park is large - SADENGAN GRAZING FIELD is manageable in an ordinary car, while G-LAND IS EFFECTIVELY REACHED BY BOAT FROM GRAJAGAN OR BY A LONG ROUGH TRACK, and most surfers arrive on a package to one of the camps. WILDLIFE IS AT DAWN AND IN THE LAST HOUR OF LIGHT; midday sees very little. THE CAVES ARE USED FOR MEDITATION and visitor numbers rise sharply around the Javanese month of SURO - this is religious practice and should be left alone. SIMPLE PARK ACCOMMODATION EXISTS. It is about two hours from Banyuwangi, which puts it on the Ijen circuit.

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