Road Travel to 'The Mountains of the Mist'

Bogor, West Java,
July 23'13:

Buckle-up your seat belts! And join me for a ride on the roads of West Java! Highway 11 was to be the main road for my adventure! Gunung Halimun - Salak, Sundanese for 'The Mountains of the Mist', was the mystical destination. Incredible, primary, lowland montane rainforest covers the volcanic mountain tops. It is the last primary rainforest in Java.

Javan Leopards, Silvery Gibbons and other exotic wildlife are in command of the mountaintop jungle while at night time mushrooms glow in the dark! Twenty million people swelter in the greater Jakarta area. It's miraculous that such flora and fauna flourishes in the midst of an island with the largest human population density on earth!

The trip from CIFOR at Bogor to the park follows Highway 11. The name of the highway changes name several times along the 16 km stretch from Bogor to the intersection with Jalan Mohnoh Nur. The SUV van turned south onto the narrow, single-lane, black-top (asphalt) surface.

Heavy traffic and countless pedestrians forced us to travel slowly. There was no side walk on both sides of the road. Houses and shops are built right to the edge of the road. Speed bumps every 25 meters along the road kept our speed to a maximum of 30 km/h. Countless scooters and motor cycles were on the narrow road already. Thus, our vehicle travelled very slowly.

Nevertheless, the trip to the Mountains of Mist was fascinating. Photo opportunities appeared all along the road. Some of the highlights were:

Exotic villages and towns along the way;
Street life;
Coffee and spice plantations;
Rice paddies;
School children waiting for transportation at 6:30 am to attend school during Ramadan;
Javanese citizens directing heavy traffic for a tip from vehicle drivers because there was no police;
Tea plantation in the middle of the national park;
Geothermal power stations on the volcanic peaks;
Conversations with Javanese along the way;
Tea pickers, and;
Conversations with my Muslim driver about his religious life during Ramadan.

Route from CIFOR at Bogor to the park headquarters for Gunung Halimun - Salak National Park. 

Whenever something interested me, I asked the driver to stop.
Usually, it was very difficult to find parking. Thus, the trip to the park headquarters took more time than I had imagined.

The best way to do photography is to travel alone with a vehicle and driver. Then I was free to tell the driver to do what ever was important to me. As a result, we arrived at the park headquarters at 10 AM. Thus, the trip took four hours.

At the park I bought tickets for me and the driver. The tickets were:
1. One international tourist ticket (Rp. 20.000)
2. One Indonesian tourist ticket for the driver (Rp. 2.500)
3. One car ticket (Rp. 6.000)
4. One handycam or camera ticket (Rp. 150.000 or Rp. 50.000; depending on the camera). Thus, the cost for me was 78, 500 rupiah or about CAN$8. Purchase and payment for the tickets online is not possible.

After a short stop, we left the headquarters. It took another 45 minutes to travel to the Cikiniki Research Station. Finally, we arrived at 11 AM. All in all, it took me five hours to travel 56 km from Bogor! Normally it takes 3-4 hours of non-stop driving for the trip according to the driver from the CIFOR motor pool.

Comments

  1. Monika PatelOctober 5, 2013 at 9:50 PM

    Please post some of the photo's from your list of highlights!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Larry JosephOctober 6, 2013 at 8:12 AM

    Sure, I will post some during the coming week!

    ReplyDelete

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