For those who want to see a volcano without actually having to climb up it, there is a drive-in volcano just outside Bandung called Tungkabun Prahu (meaning overturned boat). According to legend there was a beautiful queen in search of someone worthy to replace her beloved late husband. To make sure that the candidate was indeed worthy he had to build her a boat in a single night so that they could go sailing on the local lake. A handsome young stranger called Sangkuriang who had the gods on his side decided to have a go. He prayed to the gods to prevent the sun from rising until he'd finished his boatbuilding. When the queen came to see how he was getting on, she recognised by a scar on his shoulder that he was in fact her son who had been lost in the jungle as a child. In desperation she woke up a cockerel, which crowed and the sun came up. In a fit of temper the prince threw the boat he'd almost finished at the mountains. The boat broke one of the mountains which was damming up the lake so the lake drained away and the boat became a mountain in its place.
With a bit of imagination and from the right direction the mountain does look like an upside down Noah's ark. Some people say that the story is a folk memory of real geological events.
Anyway, be that as it may there is a road up to the lip of the volcano's crater so that you can go and have a look down into the volcano. Nothing very spectacular to see, just grey and yellow rocks and steam belching out in various places. The volcano did erupt in the 1970s but not much damage was done. There is a geyser where you can boil eggs, and a town in the valley below where you can bathe in hot springs. Very relaxing, once you get in there. Edge in cautiously because they are HOT.
My favourite volcano is Krakatau, which for USns' information is West of Java, in the Sunda straits between Java and Sumatra. This is the big one that erupted explosively in the 1880s causing multi-coloured sunsets all over the world, a small tidal wave in the English channel. The noise of the eruption was heard as far away as Singapore. To get to Anak Krakatau (child of Krakatoa, the original sank in the great eruption) you go by motor boat from Pantai Carita (the beach of stories). It takes about 3 or 4 hours. There's a little bit of vegetation round the edge of the island but the rest is just a gentle slope of black sand up to the crater. Lots of bits of pumice lying around, but not a lot happening (at least not while I was there -- I hear it's got a bit more active since). The beach of black sand is lovely and the water is very clear. It's a great place to have a swim before the boat takes you back to Carita.
Bingley
