Magnificent Scenic Natural View Wulingyuan, Zhangjiajie

In Sep 2018, my friends, my mom and myself created our own group of 15 people to go to Zhangjiajie which is famous for its unique natural scenery and abundant tourism resources. It's a long way to reach there from Surabaya, we went using CX transit in HK, continued flying to Guangzho. The next day took a 3 hours bullet train to Changsha. Bullet train was very lovely, very clean toilets, that you seldom find in China :-) Hot water was available free for passengers to make your own tea/coffee or instant noodle, an electricity plug also put at each passenger seat to charge your smartphone, with it's convenience soft chair to sit. Although the train speed was up to 350kms/hour, we didn't feel the movement at all, it's very stabil and punctual, more convenience than flight :-)

Zhangjiajie is located in the northwest of Hunan province, about 400 kilometers away from Changsha, capital of Hunan, covering a total area of 9,563 square kilometers most of them are mountainous area. Total population of 1.62 million, 72% is minority ethnic minority tribes e.g. Tujia, Bai and Miao nationalities. After lunch we went to Yuanjiajie, the bus driver drop us near to the market. We walked a few blocks to the beautiful gate with high tower and mountain background. Based on our local guide info, our bus could not go inside the area, we had to queue to ride on their shuttle transportation.

I sat at the back of the shuttle, along the way we could see beautiful scenery, I would like to record it, but difficult to take from the middle seat, so I swapped seat with my mom in the middle of the trip. Lucky the car's window could be opened, so I could take some pictures well although the car moved quite fast. We dropped at the 1st stop, the view was amazing, we passed by a bridge with clean water called golden whip stream. The scenery was amazing, the bridge, river, a valley of freestanding, shrub-and-tree-clad towers surrounded by a wall of massive sandstone blocks.

There was a wide open space where we took a photo group of Yuanjiajie which became more popular as the Southern Sky Pillar inspired the floating mountains in the Hollywood blockbuster Avatar. We still liked to stay longer there, but our tour leader mentioned that there would be better scenery from above. We had to wait for the other shuttle bus to bring us to the place where we could take the lift to the top of the mountain.

To take the lift, it's quite a long queue, we often experienced local people tried to overcut our lane, it seemed that they were not discipline enough in queueing. Bailong lift space was quite big, all of our group could go in together. As it's very crowded and I was the last, I could not get a good picture during the movement, as the glasses area facing to the lift's door. It was the highest and fastest elevator with the maximum loading capacity, only took around 2 minutes to reach the top with 326 meters height. The lift looked like a giant dragon which is built onto the side of a huge cliff. Open in 2002, then Guinness World Records recognized as the world’s tallest outdoor lift in 2015.

Exit from the lift, we could see amazing views, peaks and pillars there are nearly at the same height, which makes Yuanjiajie Scenic Area a great mountain platform. Fields and gardens in the Air will come into view, the mountain trail invited us to walk around the area and taking pictures. All of us were shocked at the sights before eyes. All the mountains you have seen at the foot of them stand in arrays at your feet at the moment. Lucky it's not cloudy, so we could enjoy the scenery well.

Our tour leader was tired reminding us to continue the tracking, as my friends still took picture around lift area while others already waiting including my mom who sat on the wood bench near a souvenir shop. We kept walking through the path, we saw amazing scenery along the way. Our tour leader was kind enough to help us taking picture, we took a beautiful picture on the stairs with the marvelous background of the pillars karst stone garden.

Walking further we found the Hallelujah pillar or the “Southern Sky Column, which was stretched 3,544 feet into the air. Avatar, the famous Hollywood movie, used photographs of the pinnacle as inspiration for the floating Hallelujah Mountains of Pandora. It's one of the successful attempt to bring more tourists into the national park to discover the real world of Pandora.

Some food stalls were available on the way, then we crossed a bridge that enable us walking on the cliff and seeing the scenery from different angle. People was very crowded, so it's not easy to take picture in the middle of the bridge. I also wonder why Chinese people often open their shirt showing their stomach in public area, even they didn't feel ashamed about it although they didn't have a six pack stomach :-). The track was going up and down, it's tiring, but worthy with the views we could enjoy. Finally we reach the end of the path, waiting for the shuttle to bring us to the next destination.

Helong park our next destination, the only huge human landscape of the whole Wulingyuan area, we had to go down the stairs for around 15 minutes, my mom was tired already. One of our friend decided not to go, so I asked her to take care of my mom. Lucky that my mom didn't join us to explore it, I almost could not breath well, very tired climbing on the track. We could see the bronze statue of He Long (a militarist and the marshal of the republic of China). Tourist floods here to recall the history and great feats of the elder proletarian revolutionist.

Our tour leader showed the original steep path of the stairs before they built the shortcut, it took more than 4 hours to reach the place using the track. Continue following the track to Yunqing Rock, it's also stunning, to go back the stairs were very challenging. I had to stop to get more energy and take a deep breath. The Imperial Writing Brush Peaks covering 4,810 ha, one of several national parks within the Wulingyuan Scenic Area. Zhangjiajie is a green treasure house, the forest coverage rate is above 98%. Within the park, there are altogether more than 8,000 cliff mountains, towering into the sky like a dancing group, with various physical appearance and grand force of character.

Finally, we took the bus again to the last destination, the Tianzi Mountain Cable Car, located in the center of Wulingyuan. The queue was not too long anymore, because it's already 17:15, it's almost close. We still have to climb more stairs to the cable car station. Inside the cable car could contain up to 6 persons, low at four sides and high in the center. The view, a large forest and spectacular scenery was very amazing from the cable car, it's not too long but it's very impressive. Looking from the top, the magnificent view stretches with distinct layers, so that it is an ideal spot for viewing Wulingyuan peak forest.

I'm very satisfied with the most beautiful scenic view, you should visit the magnificent Zhangjiajie. Its unique geographical features make it as popular tourist destination. You should be ready wearing comfortable shoes to walk and prepare a good stamina to explore quite challenging track path.

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Natural Tegenungan Waterfall, Gianyar

I went to Bali at the last week of May 2018 unplanned, I took a leave as there were 2 national holiday in the week. Lucky I had a friend in Bali who kind enough to lend me his HRV car same as mine in Surabaya. Frankly speaking I never drove in Bali previously, so I was quite worry of getting lost. Few days before departure, I asked some friends who know Bali about the tourism places that would be visited. I would like to ensure to get the best and most effective route. All of my friends were kind enough to help me arranging the itinerary, so I could book the hotel based on the route arrangement.

My mom and her friend were accompanying me, none of us knew Bali a lot, I used google maps in my smartphone to show the way. Arriving Ngurah Rai airport at noon, we decided to find lunch first nearby airport, also bought water and snacks in a mini market to prepare for the journey. Our hotel that night would be in Ubud, we would stop to Tegenungan waterfall before check in.

From lunch place, I set my google map to Tegenungan, Gianyar, I didn't know the way at all, just follow google map direction. I was worried getting lost, but it didn't happen at all, I could reach the destination smoothly. There was no traffic jam, arriving at the destination, we saw many stalls along the alley to the waterfall, selling food, souvenirs and others. The entrance ticket cost IDR 15.000/person. the weather was quite mild.

Passing through the entrance gate, we walked few steps only, where we could find a couple Balinese statue welcome us, with the waterfall far behind them. "Bale bengong" or small hut to sit was available for people to enjoy the scenery. We took some pictures here, we had to wait for others taking picture to enable getting good picture. As I forgot to bring my selfie stick, I asked another visitor to take our picture then I helped him taking picture in return.

We continued going down through stairs to go nearer to the waterfall. Along the way we met with people who went up after visiting the waterfall, most of them were struggle and having a deep breath, sometimes stop a while to rest. We were afraid of continue our steps, but our desire to see the waterfall encouraged us to go on. After around a hundred steps, I saw a nest on the tree that could be used for photo spot. I challenged my mom's friend to climb to the nest, she took the challenge. After taking her pictures, she struggled to go down as there was no stairs or rope to support her body, finally she could succeed to get out from the nest, but her finger were hurt caused by the sharp tree branches.

Kept walking down the stairs, we stopped resting on the a small hut where we could see a tiny waterfall, there was a heart frame as photo spot. While my mom and her friend sitting there, I took some pictures of the stairs, tiny waterfall and the heart frame. After few minutes we walked again through the stairs, we met a temple with some water fountain that enable people to pray and soak their body. I didn't go inside it, just peeping from its gate. From there you also could see the river stream from the waterfall.

I was interested in the river, my mom's friend and I went down to the river, my mom preferred to stay there and took some pictures of us from above. What made me amazed, there were many rock balancing arranged along the river, I loved seeing that arts. I heard it previously in the television and news, but that was the 1st time I saw by myself.

Finish exploring rock balancing, we went down through some stairs, no more stairs anymore, only dirt road to the waterfall which's quite steep. We decided to stop there, as we didn't plan to get wet (wearing shoes), the path was too difficult, and it's getting late. We was quite satisfied taking picture from there as the waterfall looked much bigger than from above, it's around 4 meters height. I felt quite surprised as I still could upload my picture to social media from the place, the signal was good enough.

The tough part was going back up to the parking lot, around 700 stairs were waiting us to climb. We stopped many times before reaching the top. I'm quite proud that my mom and her friend which had >70 years old still could complete the trip. Before leaving the area, we bought some souvenirs on the shop, beautiful pink hat for me, and cute dress for my niece.

The first place to visit was accomplished perfectly, we continued to drive to our hotel in Ubud. If you love nature, you should visit it and prepare for clothes if you would like to get wet and play with the waterfall, I'm sure it would be fun.

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Playing water in Jungle Water Park Bogor

During fasting period 1 day before Idul Fitri at 14th Jun 2018, my youngest sister brought our niece and nephews to Bogor. We stayed in Aston Bogor which just next to the destination theme park, The Jungle Water Park with 4.8 hectares in a mild weather with greenish surrounding. We brought 2 cars as it's not enough for all of us and luggage inside a car, so we park one car full of luggage in Aston as we could not check in at that moment around 11:00, but we had registered to the front desk hotel. Jungle water voucher with 50% discount for 4 persons were given to us by the receptionist as we reserved 2 rooms (1 bedroom and 2 bedrooms) although the room capacity was for 6 guests.

With one car we went to the Jungle, the ticketing office at the 2nd floor while the entrance at the 1st floor opposite the ticketing office. The normal price ticket was Rp. 85.000,- discount 50% for elderly, and free for children below 80cm height, a locker facility provided inside the park cost Rp. 20.000,- They gave you smart tag, we have to deposit Rp. 25.000,- for warranty. The smart tag was used for our entrance, it could be used to pay any expenses inside the park too by deposit more money. As it's fasting period, we had brought lunch from Jakarta, unfortunately it's not allowed to bring inside, lucky there was sofa next to the entrance, so we had lunch first before entering the park while the children were not patient enough to finish the lunch, they would like to go inside soon.

After the entrance we went through the bridge which lying on the above of kiddy pool, at the right side there was a bucket which would spill the water after it's full, some children were waiting for the flushed water under the bucket. We didn't rent the locker as our mom didn't want to play, she volunteered to guard our bags and stuffs at the food court area. After taking off their clothes, they run to the kiddy pool. My nephews played mini slides, while my niece preferred to play seesaw. Many visitors with their family were in the park, but it's not too crowded, there was still some space to move and play around.

From the kiddy pool, their daddy asked my nephews to go to the other area, the race slide with 8 meters height which had 4 lines to slide together. It's not too high, and you could slide without tube. You could compete to race for the fastest reaching the end of the slide. Funny my younger nephew would like to start again, but he tried to walk up from the finish end of the slide, lucky his father who had slide after him could brought him back and showed the right way. They did it twice, as they would like to try the more challenge one.

It's called "Tower Slide", you should rent a tube for sliding, it cost Rp. 40.000,- for 2 persons capacity/3 hours usage. You had to climb the stairs to reach the start point with 12 meters height. There were 2 spiral lines, open and closed channel. My nephews loved it very much, they did it many times, even the elder one did it 8 times. They didn't mind going up through many stairs to go to the start carrying the big tube, even bigger than his body. He's 11 years old, but he could carry the tube by himself :-)

Wave pool located below other area was playing "dangdut" music when we were there, it's only occurred once per hour, so we had to be there on time to enjoy the wave as if on the beach. The wave flowed following the music played. Actually you could see both Pangrango & Salak Mountain at the background, unfortunately it's cloudy at that time, so we could not see it. It's very crowded as people gathered there at the specific time which only happened around 10 minutes.

After playing tower slide again, my eldest nephew and his father enjoyed the lazy river, they sat on the tube followed the current. They were floating on the river under the bridge showered water, passed by giant aquarium, some statues on the edge of the river also sprayed water, even there was a mini waterfall to pass through. My niece was excited to follow them from the land, she ran on the bridge and alley to go ahead of them. She's waiting at the edge of the river welcome and gave them spirit to go to the finish, she's very cute, I'm quite tired running chasing her :-)

If you would like to lay down and enjoy the environment, you also could rent a cabana. It's a gazebo with 3m x 3m cost Rp. 200.000,- per 3 hours. Anyway if you don't want to pay for it, there were some benches available at each area if you would like to sit free of charge, just racing with other visitors to sit on it.

There were still some areas we didn't visit such as "Kawah Ratu" a hot water pool with 40 degree Celcius, bird park, giant aquarium and 4D movie theaters. Water activities in the Jungle Water Park made the perfect family day out especially for children. It's cloudy and all of us were tired, so we went back to the hotel to take a rest. Lucky not long time from check in to the hotel, it's raining hard. Bogor is popular as a rain city, so it's true :-)

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Greenish Pine Tree Forest at The Lodge Maribaya, Lembang, Bandung

Bandung has many leisure places, one of them is The Lodge Maribaya (Jalan Maribaya No.149/252, RT03/RW15 Kp Babakan Gentong - Cibodas Lembang 40391, phone: 022-2323432) which has many natural photo spots, restaurant and place to stay overnight either room or glamping (in a tent). I've been there once with my mom and sister, only one day trip from Bandung to visit it and other places. I like the scenery, so during our team quarterly meeting, I proposed to stay there and it's approved by management.

We decided to have the meeting there, and stayed one night to enable doing activity in the morning with its fresh air and nice scenery. Some of us from Jakarta and Karawang, we thought they would reach the place later than us from Surabaya using flight. In fact they were faster than us as our flight was slightly delayed for landing, we flew round and round many times above Bandung. The traffic in Bandung was also very bad at that time as they build street infrastructure, so we arrived quite late in Maribaya, it's around 16:00 o'clock.

A restaurant without windows surrounding by the trees was the place to have the meeting. It's nice with different ambience, when getting late, the weather became very cold until we had to wear jacket or sweater. We slept in the tent at that night, it contained 1-2 persons for each tent. It's clean, but you had to close the tent if you would like to avoid any insect. There was electricity power inside the tent, so we could charge our mobile phone, sleeping bag and blanket were provided on the bed. Toiletry and towel were provided, you could use bathroom outside sharing with others, hot water was available too as the weather was very cold at night. It's quite clean, and you could put your wet towel on the hanger outside your tent.

At night when we slept in the tent, I felt very cold although I had worn blanket and jacket, it made me difficult to sleep tightly, maybe I should use the sleeping bag pack provided. Morning view was very nice, we had breakfast first before starting activities. There were 3 activities (best group photo, archery, trekking)planned to have a more solid team and engagement, the team divided into 3 groups. First activities going to the photo spots, there were 6 different photo spots with beautiful scenery on the height. At that time sky tree, zip bike, mountain swing and hot air balloon cost IDR 20.000/person, while gantole and hammock cost IDR 35.000/person, no matter you took individual or group picture. Some of our friends were afraid of height, we're quite impressed with their willingness to fight their fear to try some of the spots.

As we stayed overnight, we had a privilege to start earlier, getting picture an hour before the locket would be open for other visitors, unfortunately the crews were not ready at the time, so we had to wait for around 20 minutes. All groups went to the same spot, e.g. skytree, it took quite some time to take picture one by one, as we had to wear the safety belt first. Based on this experience, we decided to split the group to different spot to save time. You could ask your friend to take your picture by your own camera or mobile phone, the crews were using SLR to take a good quality one. If you're interested in it, you could buy IDR 10.000,- per picture when you would go home next to the exit gate.

My group took a group picture at the hot air balloon, I thought it's hanging in the air. In fact we were just standing on the board surrounding by walls as if we were in the basket while the balloon hanging above us. I also rode zip bike and mountain swing, some of my friends skipped it. To go from one spot to another spot you had to climb or go down the hill to reach the place, it's quite heavy for us who seldom having sport activity. When going to the zip bike, the queue was getting longer as the locket had been opened for outside visitors, although it's not as long as during the weekend.

Gantole spot was the last spot we visited, most of my friends skipped it as the queue was quite long and they were tired. Most of us could not sleep well because it's very cold at night, so our physic was not in a good condition. We decided to skip trekking activity although the boots had been prepared based on our size by the host. Walking up and down from one photospot to others already very tiring, we could not imagine to walk through the pine forest to go to the river for around an hour.

We continued the activity with archery, the winner was the highest score total from each member's score in the group. We could practice first, the archer was quite heavy and big, I never experienced it before. As the archer was limited, I didn't get a chance to try for a long time, just around two shoots. I was failed to reach the target. When the competition had started we had Maribaya's staff as the jury, my group got the second turn. I could get quite a good score although one of the arrow was landing on the roof of the house :-) my group total score was higher than the first group. Finally after the 3rd group finished, we were the winner.

Finally it's lunch time, as the "Omah Bambu Restaurant" was down the hill, I preferred to eat first before taking a bath. The restaurant decorated beautifully with bamboo, from wall, ceiling, chairs and tables. There were 2 parts of the restaurant, outdoor and indoor, I love the scenery. While waiting they served the food, we took some beautiful pictures in the restaurant surrounding by pine trees view. The food served privately for us, as I had selected the menu when ordered the package. It seemed that other visitors were interested in our menu instead of buffet provided for them :-) The ice dessert was very fresh and yummy.

I rushed to take a bath, then going directly to the lobby as most of my friends already gathered there. We took the complete group picture in front of the lobby with beautiful background of the forest. On the way out, some of us stopped by at the office to select their pictures. They would give you tablet PC contains of your pictures, then you must delete unwanted pictures. The remaining pictures were the ones you selected to buy. They would transfer it to your mobile phone, and you have to pay the total fee. I had difficulty to select as most of them were good, I spent almost IDR 200.000,- for the pictures (around 20 photos).

If you like scenery and photos, you must visit The Lodge Maribaya. It could be reached around 1.5 hour from Bandung, one day trip is possible as I did previously with my family. I still had a chance to visit other place too at that time.

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Fascinating Arosbaya limestone at Bangkalan, Madura

During long weekend holiday in Feb 2018, some of my elementary school friend met in Surabaya, they were from different city, Jakarta, Semarang and Kediri. On their last day in Surabaya, I asked them to go to Madura, visiting one of the tourism place there. I really would like to visit the place, unfortunately I didn't dare to drive alone as I heard some people would force us to give them money illegally.

Lucky my friends agreed to the plan, there were 13 of us including 1 driver with 2 cars departed to Madura through the popular new bridge, Suramadu, which was connected to Madura island from Surabaya with 5.438 m length and 30 width. It's divided for car and motor cycle at the edge of the bridge. It cost IDR 30.000 for car to pass by the bridge, the good scenery is the middle of the bridge with its 140 m twin tower strengthen with orange cabling as the foundation. Unfortunately we were not allowed to stop in the middle of the bridge to take picture. Some policemen always patrol around the area to ensure nobody stopped there. One of our friend who sat at the front could take a good picture & video, while I sat at the back could get from the rear windows.

Actually we would like to visit two places, Bukit Jeddih and Arosbaya. As we departed too late, we didn't have enough time to visit both places, so we decided to go directly to Arosbaya and dropped Bukit Jeddih. We heard that late afternoon at Bukit Jeddih, would be more people asking for money, it's not safe. The direction to Arosbaya quite easy to follow, but nearer to the location we had to pass by small road among the people's home. Only one car could go through, so the resident and some people there would ask for money to arrange the traffic. They use walkie talkie to communicate, so the car could go smoothly while they stopped another car from the other direction.

Arriving at the area, one of my friend and I rushed to find the toilet first before exploring the place. It cost IDR 2000/person for pee, the toilets were quite clean, anyway there was no tissue. From the parking lot we already could see the beautiful limestone, the parking fee was IDR 20.000/car, while entering the place cost IDR 5.000/person. The location is near to the religious tourism place of Bangkalan's Kings cemetery called "Air Mata Ibu". If you go by bus, you have to stop there, then continuing walking to the limestone.

The scenery was amazing, although it's very hot. The blue sky and colorful limestone which formed beautiful sculptures made us amazed and kept taking many pictures. It's a former limestone mine, the worker didn't realize that they created beautiful sculptures. Some green trees was available protected us from the shining sun in the middle of the day. I left my bag in the car, as our driver said it's safer to keep it in the car. I only brought some small amount of money in my pocket, cap and umbrella.

As we went to toilet first, we left behind our group, they already took some pictures together. The limestone as our background picture was quite high, carving with beautiful color under the sunshine. A circle hole made it like a frame created a beautiful combination. We missed it, so I took some pictures alone, the group had moved to another side. Some of our friends also took picture one by one.

A boy was around us, he suggested me to take a panorama picture to capture bigger view. Even he didn't mind taking my picture with one of my friend using my iPhone. I trusted him, I gave him my iPhone, and he helped to take some pictures. The results were excellent, he could capture the scenery well with us inside. Our group was already at different side, I told him that we had to go together with them, but on the way, he kept showing us the good angle. We climbed on some limestone to get better picture while he shoot.

Join with our group, our friend's husband was kind enough to take our picture one by one. His Samsung 8 could take better picture than my iPhone 6, so he preferred to use his smartphone. The color and picture is sharper comparing to mine. After taking some pictures under the shades, we continued walking toward some sculptures. There were 2 boys accompanying us. Our group also divided into 2 groups as the 1st group preferred to take picture fast avoiding the hot. I was joining the second group, who likes to take more pictures to record the nature beauty.

Some people were waiting for visitors at certain location, if anyone went there to take picture, they would ask them to pay. We didn't went there, just taking picture in front of the area, which had like a tall gate with beautiful carving. The boy took our picture using vertical panorama feature. Although the people kept teasing the boy, he ignored it, he focused to take our picture. The younger boy accompanied our 1st group, while Abdul the oldest was accompanying us. We were glad having Abdul, he's very helpful and talented. After around half an hour in the location, I felt thirsty, lucky there was a small hut selling water and snack, I bought 3 mineral waters (600 ml) cost IDR 3000/bottle.

In the middle of the area, we met our friend from 1st group going back to the parking lot, they said that we had to rush unless the Jakarta team would miss the plane. They have visited the cave, while we were still on the way to go there. We rushed, walking fast to the cave, we didn't want to miss it as we had taken quite a long journey from Surabaya. In the cave was colder than outside, some carving created holes which enabled sun shone through it illuminated the cave.

Abdul helped us to take some pictures and showed some good angle and position for getting the best picture. We also took some silhouette photo at the cave entrance. Outside the entrance we met with a group making pre-wed photos, the location was nice. Asking for their permission for us to take group picture there, lucky they had finished their photo session. I could not imagine how hot the couple felt with their complete wedding costumes and make up, as I had got wet although I wore casual clothes. At the end of the journey, Abdul took a beautiful panorama of us. He's very kind, he didn't ask for money, we were very satisfied with his service, so my friend didn't mind at all giving him tips.

Reaching the entrance we saw our friend from 1st group drinking ice fresh coconut in the small hut, the seller also sold fruit called "Kedondong", some of them already peeled. It tasted sweet, so my friends bought some of them to bring home. I still would like to take some pictures, my friend's husband was kind enough to help taking my picture at the entrance from his seat in the hut. I also saw beautiful scenery behind the parking lot, so I walked alone there to take some pictures while waiting for my friends taking break.

I felt starving as it's already 15:00 o'clock and we hadn't got any lunch, so we stopped by at a restaurant to have lunch. After full our driver brought us to a Madura batik shop to buy souvenirs. Although I didn't plan to buy any batik, I could not resist the temptation with many options and prices, so I bought 3 of them, while my friends bought much more than me. It's an original handmade batik, and it cost cheaper than in the shop in Surabaya.

I'm very satisfied with the trip, although I was not in good condition, got a very bad flu, but I insisted to go. I didn't regret it, I could get many good pictures, and also some batik. You should visit Arosbaya if you like scenery, prepare for hat or umbrella to protect from the sunshine, please wear a thin clothes as it's quite hot. It takes around 1.5 hours from Surabaya.

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