Day 291 - Road Trip to Mt. Papandayan

When the guy at the reception told me about Mt. Papandayan he was hoping to sell me a tour but since I rather do things myself I decided to just rent the bike for another day and drive the 80km myself.

When someone tells me about a dangerous road and that it's too far to go here by bike, I am even more intrigued and keen to do this just to see what the fuss is about.

The first part of the road was a bit boring and simply lots of traffic with buses and trucks you had to overtake and squeeze past. But once I was off the main road it became more scenic and less traffic.

The dangerous road turned out not to be dangerous at all but just a very bad road before reaching the volcano so if you're a bit careful on driving through potholes, gravel and lots of loose rocks there is no danger at all but good fun to have even with a full automatic bike.

Now, if you thought Tangkuban Perahu was impressive as a volcano then this one will blow your mind. As a still active volcano and a much bigger one it looks amazing with all the smoke coming out and the noise is great.

You can also go hiking where you please so can really feel like you're on a different planet and just go take in any view you want.

I spent quite a lot of time taking photos and due to it taking me almost 4h to reach the volcano it was almost dark by the time I set on y way back to Bandung in darkness and some rain at times so the drive back was not the most pleasant but Mt. Papandayan was well worth the way there and back.

You can always sign up to a tour but doing it yourself is more fun as long as you don't mind riding a motorbike in Asia although if you just look not to drive into anyone or anything you'll be fine.