Well, this one place can be your weekend choice if you love crystal clear water and pristine nature. Lembah Tepus is just situated about 3 hours drive from Jakarta and to reach this natural pool can walk about 10 minutes trough forest.

Lembah Tepus in Halimun Salak National Park, with altitude approximately 900 meters above sea level, and its main attraction is the mini waterfall and the natural pool. There are two pools where you can swim or just soak your feet with range of depth from 1 meters to 4 meters.

As this places is popular among young people, it is relatively crowded during weekend and holiday season. If you want to have more quiet visit, come during weekdays and non public holidays. I arrived on Wednesday, and it was quiet. Just another couple enjoying the place.

I did not carry food, there are food sellers here selling Indomie for us to have lunch.

Mount Semeru in East Java Indonesia erupted again, yester day (4/12/2022) exactly one year after eruption last year (4/12/2021). The eruption destructed Gladak Perak bridge located in Sumberwuluh Village, Candipuro, Lumajang. This cuts the main route of Malang-Lumajang via south route. Therefore Pronijowo area, where Tumpak Sewu Waterfall, situated can not be accessed via Curah Koboan Route.

Volcanology and Deology Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) recorded grey ash cloud from Mt Semeru crater on 02.46 AM and soared as high as 1,500 meters above the summit. The hot could was stemmed from material at the crater rim and they fell continuously until 06.00 am spread over 7 km from the summit heading Besik Kobokan. Since 00.00 till 06.00 , volcanic 8 quake activities are recorded and one quake with the hot ash.

Almost 2000 people were refuge after the eruption and government raise the alert status of Mt Semeru.

Hampir 2.000 warga mengungsi menyusul meletusnya Gunung Semeru di Jawa Timur, hari Minggu (04/12/2022), yang mengeluarkan awan panas dan lava ke kawasan-kawasan di sekitarnya. People are not allowed to do any activities within 5 KM radius from the Mt Semeru summit.

Way Kambas National Park is situated in Lampung, and lies alongside Way Kambas River. The 1,200 Km2 area has been conservation center and training center for Sumatran Elephant. This is one of the oldest National Park of Indonesia, which was founded in 1937 and officially opened in 1985 as training center. The park was design like elephant natural habitat, with forest and other vegetations and we can see other wildlife in the area such as pigs and monkeys. The national park consists of swamp forest,savannah, bush and coastal forest.

Not just elephant, some endanger animals are also being conserved here such as Sumatran Badak, Sumatran Tiger, Sepit Crocodile, honey bear, sambas deer, golden cat. Elephants caught by villagers are also to be taken care here and they can live here. The elephant then trained and visitors can enjoy riding them during day time, while during night time they are herded to elephant house.

Beside riding elephant, visitors can see smart attraction of elephant, bathing elephant, elephant football, bird watchin, jungle trekking, animal observation at Resort Way Kanan and camping.

If you visit this national park, you can also visit other places of interest located nearby,:

LAKE WAY JEPARA is situated just 15 km from Way Kambas. This lake has lush vegetation and visitors can enjoy boating around the lake or just wishing and unwind.

KERANG MAS BEACH is located about 1 hour drive from Way Kambas National Park. If you are into swimming and enjoying the sun, you can visit this beach after visiting the National Park.

If you want to stay overnight, the national parks has 6 rooms to be rented. And there are also other accommodation situated not far from the national park.

We have Way Kambas National Park Day Tour or stay overnight tour, let us know, our tour specialists are ready to send you best quotations.

As enthusiast i love trying trying local foods. And Bali has some special foods that are just too delicious to be missed. The special food can be found in small warung to fancy restaurants. Here are some of of recommendations. Below list are very subjective based on my taste. 🙂

SATE LILIT, is definitely one of my favorite. The real sate lilit is made out of mince pork. However as markets more diverse and many moslems visitors, now there are sate lilit made out of chicken, fish or beef. Unlike other satay, the meat are attached around lemon grass, not bamboo skewers. This what makes sate lilit so unique and tasty. If you are moslem looking for authentic satay lilit i recommend visit Kusamba, for fish satay lilit.

CHICKEN BETUTU was used on the old times for Balinese ritual. It was a chicken or duck carcass cooked using Balinese spices, Base Genep. It was originally from Gianyar Bali and then spread over Bali to Jembrana and Gilimanuk. In the past the carcass was wrapped in pinang leaves and then buried in rice paddy skin and then grill for 10 hours.

SAMBAL MATAH is raw sambal made out sliced tomatoes, chilly, shallot, with coconut oil, sugar, salt, lemon grass and lime. As sambal lover, i find this is perfect to be eaten with chicken, beef, or event satay.

MUJAIR NYAT NYAT is special cuisine from Kintamani area, especially around Lake Batur. The fish, Mujair fish are from Lake Batur and then cooked with Balinese spices. Other special cuisine from Kintamani is black peanut soup. Both Mujair Nyat Nyat and Black Peanut Soup can be enjoyed while relishing the panorama of Lake and Mount Batur

KAKUL SATAY is satay made out of blood clam (Anandara granosa), that can be found in Bali. This tastes super yummy and it can lower blood pressure / hypertension and also high protein and low cholesterol.

JUKUT ARES is mainly made out of young banana stem and then served with bones soup that it is delicious to be enjoyed on rainy season hen it is hot. Jukut means vegetables/ cuisine and Ares means banana stems. This menu can be found easily in warung in Bali.

JUKUT UNDIS is black peanut soup. The black peanut is black pigeon peas and the soup tastes delicious and also healthy. Locals believe that black peas also cure fever, herpes, cough and worm infections. This cuisine is Buleleng region special menu.

PLECING SATAY is special menu from Singaraja, north Bali. The meats are mixed with plecing spices, that it has taste of hot, sour, tasty, sweet.

LAWAR is mixed of some vegetables with pork or chicken cooked with Balinese special spices. Lawar can be mixed with the animal blood of chicken/ pig to make it more tasty. If the ingredient is made out of jackfruit, it is called Lawar Nangka , if it is made out of pork it is called Lawar Babi. For muslem, there is halal lawar made without pork and pork blood.

BABI GOLING is grilled pork special from Bali. You can find on the streets which offers tasty babi guling. Definitely for for muslim. Guling means rolled over, as when it was grilled it was rolled over to make the whole pig done at the same time. There is not much change in cooking babi guling for centuries in Bali. Except for the skewer, now using metal skewer. The whole pig was cleaned and then complete Balinese spices called basa gede stuffed inside the body and then started to be grilled above fire and rolled. The most popular babi guling in Bali is Babi Guling Bu Oka.

RUJAK BULUNG is Balinese salad made out of seaweed. It is mixed with fish soup, chilly pepper, grilled grated coconut, and lengkuas. Usually it is served with ketupat or tipat gulung.

This national park is not as popular as other national parks in Sulawesi, yet as one of regions passed by Wallace line, it is rich of wildlife and vegetations. Administratively Gandang Dewata National Park is situated in Mamasa Regency, Mamuju Regency, Central mamuju Regency and North mamuju Regency. Gandang Dewata Mountain is the core of the national park, the second highest mountain in Sulawesi, along Quarles mountain range. There are two routes to reach the national park, via Polewali and via Mamuju.

Gandang means tambourine, while dewata means gods. This sue to mysterious sound of tambourine from the mountain that can be heard by locals.

According to research conducted by LIPI in 2016, the national park is home to 417 birds species and 116 of them are endemic birds. The endemic birds here are similar to those of Central Sulawesi and South East Sulawesi. From the altitude of 700 till 2000 meters, the national park has 45 species and 70 percent is endemics. Anoa, hornbills, Sulawesi eagle and monkeys are easily found. Vegetations grow here are: rattan, orchids, uruh, and kalpataru

Mount Gandang Dewata Summit as two trails, via Paku and via Pongko Mamasa. Both has 10 camp and the most favorite route for hikers is via Mamasa, as the trail is easy, clear, shorter and safer. The trail is quiet extreme, with moss forest (after 2000 meters asl) that looks like ancient forest straight out of saga books.

From generations to generations, Gandang Dewata has become important to support natural resources especially water supply, and forest produce. Even there is no rain for months, springs in Mamasa never run out of water.