Active Volcano, Tea Plantations, Sundanese Restaurant, Bandung, Java, Indonesia

http://www.neilhogan.com The best part was when we went to see the inside of a caldera of a volcano. It was still smoking sulfur but wasn't lava active the day we went. So not sure if this would be considered active or dormant, as I'm not a volcanologist. But it was pretty exciting to know that you're standing above a once active volcano. At the volcanic crater there were a number of peddlers trying to sell postcards, toys and other things. It was annoying as I only wanted to see the crater, not buy stuff while I was there. And the cards they were trying to sell were just plain photos of the crater stuck on postcard backing that had been taken at least twenty years previous, judging by the type of colours used in the images. Even though this was a public area, to enter we had to pay per person at a boom gate. Then pay for a piece of paper guide to it, if we wanted that. A common and repetitive situation was that just about everything cost money to see and there were different prices for tourists and natives. We paid $2.50 to see some small waterfalls later on, and had to pay another $2.50 if we wanted to see the large waterfall!!! We also went to a Sundanese restaurant as well as got to see Bandung at dusk. There was an opportunity to see bubbling mud, much like Rotorua, but it was over an hour round trip and cost about $6 each so we didn't have the time or the inclination to do it. One of the things I wanted to see on this trip was true cultural differences. Being able to go to a traditional Sundanese restaurant and visit an active volcano was definitely something I couldn't do in Sydney so I really enjoyed this part of the trip.