Tangkuban Perahu

An Active Volcano North Of Bandung Whose Crater Rim Can Be Reached By Road; Its Silhouette Gives It The Name, The Upturned Boat Of The Sangkuriang Legend · Lembang, West Java

TANGKUBAN PERAHU MEANS UPTURNED BOAT, and the long flat ridge does look like a hull capsized on the horizon north of Bandung. THE LEGEND EXPLAINS IT: Sangkuriang, having unknowingly fallen in love with his own mother Dayang Sumbi, was set the impossible task of building a boat and a lake in one night, and when she tricked the dawn into breaking early he kicked the boat over in rage. WHAT MAKES IT UNUSUAL AMONG INDONESIAN VOLCANOES IS THAT YOU CAN DRIVE TO THE CRATER RIM - the road goes to a car park at the edge of KAWAH RATU, and you step out of the vehicle and look straight down into a steaming grey bowl. That access is also its problem: it is crowded, ringed with hawkers, and the calm of a volcano is entirely absent. IT ERUPTED IN 2019 and it closes whenever the alert level rises, so check before you drive up - and go at opening, before the cloud and the coach parties arrive together, and the hawkers around the car park are still half asleep.

Tangkuban Perahu, Subang and West Bandung Regencies, West Java, Lembang, West Java, Indonesia

OPEN IN DAYLIGHT with a park entry fee and a separate vehicle charge; FOREIGNER RATES ARE SEVERAL TIMES THE DOMESTIC ONES AND WEEKEND RATES ARE HIGHER AGAIN. THE ROAD RUNS TO A CAR PARK ON THE RIM OF KAWAH RATU, the main crater, which is what makes this volcano unusual. KAWAH DOMAS, the lower crater with hot springs where eggs are boiled in the ground, is a separate walk down and back. THE MOUNTAIN CLOSES WHEN VOLCANIC ACTIVITY RISES - it erupted in 2019 and has been shut for periods since; CHECK BEFORE TRAVELLING. SULPHUR FUMES VARY WITH WIND. GO EARLY: cloud closes in by mid-morning, weekends bring very large crowds from Bandung and Jakarta, and the hawkers are considerably less intense at opening.

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