West Java,
a unique province with their
sundanese culture

West Java, the ancient kingdom of Sunda, with many wonderful mountain scenery, world famous botanical gardens and wildlife reserves like Ujung Kulon.

It's here where you can find the hottest coastline, the mountainous area and agricultural with green valleys.

Rice paddy fields around Bandung, West Java

The home of the Sundanese people and their culture with the most extreme contrasts.

This is the place for the story of wayang Golek, wooden puppet.

The most other provinces in Indonesia have their capitals in coastal area, but the provincial capital of West Java is Bandung , located in a mountainous area, that makes this capital city cooler than the other cities of Indonesia.

But in these day, Bandung is not so cool as it's used to be. Maybe because too many trees are gone, or polution in the environment.

Busy traffic on jalan Pajajaran Bandung

But despite of that, this city has still it's charme, always crowded in the weekend by many people from Jakarta, who wants to escape from their busy life and spend their weekends in Bandung.

And especially... they want to boost their taste buds because Bandung is a food paradise.

And not to forget, there are enough attraction around Bandung worth of visiting like Tangkuban Perahu volcano.

Bandung is also easy to reach from Jakarta by driving 2 1/2 hour through the highway.

There are three routes that you can take from Jakarta to Bandung.

The fastest route : through highway, Jakarta- Cipularang-Cikampek-Purwakarta-Padalarang-Bandung

The second route, take longer than the highway : Jakarta-Ciawi-Sukabumi-Cianjur-Bandung. Through this route, you come through Sukabumi, where you can find Pelabuhan Ratu Beach.

If you don't have a hurry, take the route through Puncak.

The longest route but it's worth it. The scenery while you're on journey is beautiful. You will pass puncak with their magnificent view over the tea plantations.

The weather in Puncak is very pleasant. It's refreshing and sometimes is very cloudy that you can't see anything further than 100 meter.

This route can takes 5 hours to drive or maybe longer..including the sightseeing in Puncak? It's depend how long you will spend time to enjoying the view.

And near Puncak there is a place called Cibodas, people says that this place is so beautiful, like a paradise on earth, make a visit to this place is certainly worth it.

So, enough time? Choose this route.

It''s worth it, I can assure you.

You can also taste the excellent food of Rindu Alam restaurant. And they have a big window with irresistible view.

Puncak view from restaurant Rindu Alam

You can stop there to get your lunch or dinner or maybe buy some fruits or souvenirs while you take photo's of this picture.

The photo from Rindu Alam is taken while we're on lunch on sunday afternoon, back from the heat of Jakarta.

Volcano near Bandung, Tangkuban Perahu

Beside Bandung and Puncak, West Java has more to offer as a tourist destination.

Between Jakarta and Bandung there is a cool city, Bogor, worth of visiting.

Bogor is on the main road from Jakarta – Bandung over the Puncak Pass. It’s worth to spend a day in Bogor even if you are just passing through, because Bogor has several places you won’t miss to visit, especially if you are a nature lover.

And there is a lovely beach near Sukabumi, Pelabuhan Ratu that you can reach if you take the route Jakarta-Ciawi-Sukabumi-Cianjur-Bandung.

If you take the coastline from Anyer to Labuhan. About 3 hours driving from Jakarta and you'll find a lovely beach, Carita beach. The oldest seaside resort on the west coast. The center point of the village is the Krakatau Beach Hotel, overlooking a crescent-shaped bay with silver sand and safe swimming. The Krakatau Museum, just over the road from the hotel, has information on the volcano plus archaeological exhibits.

Visit also Ujung Kulon National park, one of the few areas of primary rainforest on Java, and the last place where a little population of Javan Rhinos exists.

Spend days in this province of West Java, it's really woth of visiting.

Take a look of this site, West Java hotels for more information. They can offer you a great places to stay in this province.

Have a great vacation.

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