On Saturday 17th June, Chris & I asked some friends of ours to join us on a trip to Cibodas Park, in Puncak Area. I've gone to this place with some friends during Uni time & I still remembered the fresh air which I missed so much, especially living in dusty Jakarta.
The air is still unmistakeably fresh & the grass & plants were still nicely maintained. In Cibodas, there are actually 2 parks: The LIPI park (the more expensive one) & the other smaller park, which is actually entrance point to camping ground & gunung gede hiking trail (I hope I get the fact right). LIPI Park has a very large "padang" on a hilly terrain. There is quite a variation of trees there, some of them very old, like almost a century or maybe more. Walking down & up a little bit further, we can reach the Ciismun waterfall & by car we can also reach a smaller waterfall, Cibogo. The terrain is quite easy to manage, except when we took an alternative route back to the Park from Ciismun. We took what seemed to be a less slopy route at the beginning, but it ended up being quite steep at the end, cause our 6 year old village guide boy ended up taking a swerve to the steep hill on our left.
It's best to stuff some heavy food (eg for lunch) before we enter the park & then you can have a leisurely picnic in the Padang. Or alternatively, you can buy lunch packets in a warung inside the park, just like we did. Because we were hungry after our long walking trail, the food tasted delicious to me.
We all agreed that LIPI Park deserved more publicity & we could not figure out why this place is not much talked about in any Indo tourist book or local travel magazine. In fact, none of my friends in this trip had gone here before. The park is big, hilly, breezy & with the waterfalls, monkeys, rafflesia plant, and ponds, but still within a short distance to Jakarta, it's a getaway place & by the time you are there, you forget that Jakarta is just 1.5 hour from here. Actually, on our way back, Puncak was MACET! but hey, what can you expect. Maybe that's why this place is not as famous as it should be. but we still think this is a worthit trip & anytime I'm sick of Jakarta air, I will go here again just to refresh my lungs!
http://asia.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/poerba_john/album?.dir=438bscd
or my photos
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