The Scenery of Kawah Putih is Good Enough

The scenery of Kawah Putih at Ciwidey is good enough for young people to take their pictures in there. With a soft mist around and a little rain, the crater seems to be very quiet and calm with its sulphuric smell and cold sulphuric water that is in the form of the lake. The unique feature of the crater or the lake of the White Crater is there are still some trees live around the lake of White Crater. This is possible as the water at the lake of White Crater is not hot and in the rain even become colder than usual, during the hot day where the rain doesn't fall. It is for visitors own good also if they are not very long to stay around the lake or turn down to the lake of White Crater. This is because the smell and the smoke of sulphur gas is still very strong enough and in a longer time might be unsafe for visitors safety and health. This is especially in front of the cave where the sulphur mining had been done in the past. Although currently the entrance hole to the cave has been blocked with crossing woods and there are also a warning that it could be dangerous for people to stay longer in front of the entrance hole to the cave.

What is our activity at White Crater

While we are visiting White Crater a lot of activities could be done in there by us as the visitors. Most of the people did sight seeing when they came there and have a look to the crater. They even turn down to the crater to see it closer rather than just standing in the upland area of the White Crater. Most important activity in there is also taking pictures for our memory that is as an evidence that we have visited the place in our life time. Some amateur photographers were also offering their service to take visitors photos with the compensation for a certain amount of Rupiah money. Neither the price was very expensive or to dear to the pocket of the visitors, some of the visitors prefered to take photos themselves as they can freely arrange their own pose or style. Some young peoples also make their pose or style in a pre-wedding photo style. The secenery of the crater also gave some beneficial for this purpose.

Visitors of Kawah Putih

Visitors who come to Kawah Putih or White Crater at Ciwidey have various background and origin. They may come from Bandung and Jakarta, and even from places that are more far than those two cities. They may also have a different social status since they might be students, domestic tourists, employees of some companies, or even those who want to enjoy their leisure time escaping from the routinity schedule of everyday life. It is not very strange to us if we see many different kinds of people coming to Kawah Putih, but one thing for sure they've just want to enjoy their spare time or holiday by going back to see the nature. It is also important to note that regarding the age range of its visitors, Kawah Putih has a span of age range which is very wide. From the children until old aged people will also come to enjoy the scenery and the beauty environment of Kawah Putih.

The Lake of White Crater

The lake of White Crater or Kawah Putih looked like abundant with sulphur although the water is not hot enough when we touch it. While in the rainy season the vision of the crater is not very clear and when the rain stopped, the vision toward the crater a little bit clear so we can see it now. With its strong smell of sulphur, the crater looked quiet and calm and the color of sulphur which is also yellow still can be seen in this picture. There are still some trees around the crater live and mostly the highland trees. The stone which mostly small stone is also surrounding the crater, so visitors can turn down safely to the crater without having slippery when they walk down or climb up to the surface of the crater.

White Crater in the Background

During the rainy days we can not see White Crater clearly as there were so many mists around and the rain water. Therefore, to have a clear vision we need to come to this place in clear weather and especially during dry season. Although not very clear some visitors still enjoyed their time in there by walking down to the crater area which is almost like a lake with its strong sulphuric smell and white water contained sulphur as well. Near the lake there is also a cave for people in the past time to mine the sulphur, but now it is closed for visitors with the crossing block from the woods prohibited visitors to enter. Even in front of the cave there is a warning sign which warn visitors not to stand in front of the cave as it can be dangerous for human life. We must obey this warning as it is for our safety while we visit the place.

Kawah Putih Ciwidey During the Rainy Season

Visiting Kawah Putih or White Crater at Ciwidey in the rainy season is almost inevitably to encounter us with rain and mist. Either it was a little rain or a hard rain, it will actually make the weather become colder than the other days when there was no rain presence. Although it was rain and cold visitors from Jakarta or Bandung, two large cities in Java island, still flooded the crater area. We can not get clear vision about the crater in the situation when there was mist or rain in there, therefore it is our luck if we come there the weather is clear and no rain or mist. Umbrella is still useful when we visit the place, although there was also hard wind sometimes came to blow us. Wearing rain coat or leather jacket was also useful to protect our body from wet. One thing which we can not separate although it seems not really interrelated. It is about strawberry and white crater. Strawberry is a unique souvenir from white crater beside sulphur for skin diseases. Why strawberry is also sold in there as a souvenir in the form of fooods or gifts- like cushion? This is because a lot of strawberry farms around Ciwidey cold and highland area and the farmers sell its produce to the tourist market around the White Crater. That's why we see a lot of peoples selling strawberry on the way to or around the White Crater and this is typical of the area.

White Crater at Ciwidey

White Crater or Kawah Putih is one of tourist destination place in West Java or Bandung Regency area. This place is located on the hill of Ciwidey, where a lot of strawberry farms are cultivated by the local peoples. This crater is almost all look white as the sulphuric phenomenon is very strong presence in there with its smell and vision. The crater is almost like a lake with misty weather and little rain in most of the day during this rainy season. Most of the visitors are domestic tourist and not many foreign visitors in there when I came to visit the place. Before coming to the crater we will enter the gate and a climbing street with a lot of pine trees and steep along the street. When we want to enter the crater there were also many food stalls offering foods and drinks, as well as strawberry and chocolate fudge as its skin. There were also some souvenirs shops selling balaclava, hand gloves, sweater, dolls, slayers to protect from cold weather. Since the dutch colonization from Jung Huhn era and Japanese occupation in Indonesia, this place had been expolited for its sulphuric resources.

Floating Clinic

Living in bay area is not very easy, especially if it should be related to health matters. One of the solution to this problem is to cater people needs for health service through the use of floating clinic. With this clinic people from bay area or between island can get their own health service from doctor and other medical practitioners. With this kind of clinic sometimes even the doctor itself should be able to drive this boat when he needs to visit the patients. Bad weather is the main constraint for the use of this type of clinic. But depend on the situation the doctor or medical practitioners who help him should be able to judge the situation too when his or their service is in need.

Long Boat

Long boat is a well known term for the boat that are being used by fishermen and people in Papua area. This kind of boat has length about eight meters and its width is about one meter. Fishermen use this boat to catch fish, shrimp, squid, and sometimes jelly fish. Another kind of use for this type of boat is for transportation between places or islands in there. Some or even most of the long boat currently use engine, so that it becomes well known as the boat. In the past times before the use of machine the boat was just driven by using the hand row. That's why it will take too long in the past to reach another places compared to nowadays. What you see here is the long boat that was sailing near Babo District, Bintuni Bay, West Papua. The river is going to the sea or the bay, but this long boat sailed in reverse direction against the sea, which meant that the boat sailed to upper reaches of river.

Son of Bintuni Bay

Son of Bintuni Bay actually is the name of a boat that always laid-of on the old jetty at Irarutu 3 Village, Babo District. However, this term can be used to call the son or the little boy in Bintuni Bay as they were growing into a little boy. Son of Bintuni Bay can be a mixed child or boy from many ethnic groups as there are not only Papua children or boys in there, but also the inmigrants children or boys who live in there too. They do not only have dark skin color, but also clear skin color because the inmigrants are usually not only from Papua itself. They may come from another islands either those islands close to Papua or not. They may come from Sulawesi, Tual, or another Maluku Islands. Therefore son of bintuni bay is a mixed ethnicity who lives in Bintuni like what you can see in this picture.