Many strawberry farms can be reached by public shuttle car (angkot) in Lembang. The angkot fare ranges from Rp 3.000 - Rp 5.000 (25-45 cents). I went to one of the largest strawberry farms near Cikole. The entrance ticket to pick strawberry was Rp 10.000 (90 cents). It was not my first strawberry picking nevertheless it was fun. I had some leftover chocolate pudding in the fridge. With additional freshly picked strawberry topping, it tasted like Christmas.
Domas crater is located 1.2 km down the valley of Tangkuban Perahu volcano. The small path that lead to the crater cut the tropical rainforest beautifully. There are several geysers in Domas crater. They flow into shallow pools in the lower ground. The funnest thing we did was boiling eggs in the geyser opening. It was so scary.
Tangkuban perahu (which means upturned boat in Sundanese) is a dormant stratovolcano which is located 20 km north of Bandung. It last erupted in 1983. Our hotel was only 7 km from the volcano. It was effortless to reach the top of the volcano because we could ride a car up to the brink of the caldera. The volcano summit was full of small stalls selling souvenirs and foods. It was not a pleasant sight because they were not well organized. But the small path that lead to Domas crater on the valley of Tangkuban Perahu volcano was so beautiful. It was a perfect hideaway.
After taking a tour to see the angklung production, we watched angklung orchestra performed by the Mang Udjo students. It was a great performance. The best part of our visit, was learning to play the angklung. We learned to play it for about 5 minutes (yes, trust me) then we had to follow the hand gestures of the conductor. In no time at all, hundreds of us could play several songs with angklung.
I was very lucky I could go with my students to a famous angklung workshop in Bandung called Mang Udjo. Angklung is a Sundanese musical instrument made of two or four bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. In Mang Udjo, we could learn all about angklung from the production to the performance.
Penang tropical garden is around 15 km from the butterfly garden. We took a chartered car to go there from the 101 Rapid Penang bus stop in Teluk Bahang. I wasn't excited about going because I knew almost all of tropical fruit plants but we had nothing to do that day. The farm was small. The entrance fee was quite high (10$ or around Rp 100.000) At least it had various tropical fruit plants that we had never seen in my life. We were able to eat the freshly picked exotic fruits and the all you can eat fruits buffet too. So it was all worthed.
Penang butterfly garden can be reached by 101 Rapid Penang Bus from Komtar station. It is not far from the bus last stop in Teluk Bahang. (2 minutes walk). It is twice the size of the butterfly garden in Puncak, Indonesia and has almost similar butterfly collection. South East Asians are probably not impressed by butterflies here. They are commonly found in Indonesia too. I like the well maintained garden with a small creek in it though. It is quite relaxing. The multimedia room and wet/dry preserved creepy crawlies display are impressive though. It is very informative and interactive.
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