For your information, Mount Gede is within the scope of Gede Pangrango National Park with 2.958 mdpl high. It also has many attractions like Telaga Biru, Air Terjun Cibereum and hot springs area. For those who doesn’t want to camp, you can visit all of that tourist spots. Nature will help you relax from our daily routine. This journey took 2 days and 1 night, started from Cibodas. These are the highlight route : Cibodas – Telaga Biru – Kandang Badak – Summit – Alun2 Suryakencana – Gunung Putri.

I went to hike Mount Gede on Friday and Saturday. On Thursday night, we started from office at Jakarta with a chartered car. Before we went to Cibodas, we had to take some camping things like tent, fly sheet and nesting at Depok. We didn’t use porters services so we had to bring all the equipments by ourselves. We also bought our foods, bread biscuits and popmie. It was really not recommended at all. Please bring some high calories foods if you want to go hike and camp at the mountain. Don’t follow us or you will be starving. I arrived at Cibodas entrance at 2 am. No sleep at all. We planned to start hiking at 5 am, therefore we ate fried rice for breakfast at 4 am. I don’t know but that fried rice was a bomb!

Last point before we started our hike, check our own bags. What you have to bring to hike a mountain? You have to bring your sleeping bag, jacket or wind breaker, socks, and hiking shoes. Please please check your hiking shoes condition. It already happened to me many times. My shoe soles were off just after I started to hike. It was really embarassing HAHA. Remind me of my Mount Batur’s journey few years ago. So please check it before you go. Then, about logistic. Don’t just bring biscuits or instant noodles. If you can bring any high calories food, it is better than starving in the mountain. Water is also important. There are some “dry” mountain, that means no source of water at all. So you have to bring many of water. By any chance, Mount Gede has a lot of water sources and it is a bless for us!

At 4.45 am, we started to go up. It was dark and absolutely really colddddd. It was freezingggg. I used headlamp for my light source, way more easier than flashlight. Our first destination was Telaga Biru,  a lake with blue colour because of the blue algae. Located 1,5 km from the entrance point. Don’t hope for an easy roads, it is going up all the way to Telaga Biru with rocks and roots that shaped like a natural stairs. We took photos and rested for a bit while enjoying Telaga Biru’s view.

So now, our next stop was Rawa Denok. Usually, hikers really love to take photos here. It really nice here, don’t miss it. Take many photos for your documentation J Actually before Rawa Denok, there is an intersection that will lead us to Cibereum waterfall. Unfortunately, we didn’t go there, maybe next time. Rawa Denok’s road was made from concrete so it easier for us to walk. However, some parts are broken so becareful. Take as many photos as you can because after this, it will be a hard trail road J

At this point, we could rest for a bit longer. Relax and enjoy yourself by soaking your feet to the hot water. From here, we continued our walk to Kandang Batu. It is not too far. Usually people camp here to because this place is huge. However, people love to camp at Kandang Badak more because it is near with the water source. Kandang Badak is the last post before we go to the summit. It can contain dozens of tents here. Ideally, we camp here first before we go summit attack at dawn. But, we had other plan that really went wrong LOL. We planned to go straightly to the summit and camp at Alun-alun Suryakencana.

We rested for a while at Kandang Badak. It was approximately 2 pm, we also refilled our water and ate some biscuits. If you are a professional hikers maybe it will take about 2 hours to the summit. However, for me it took more than that. The trail contains of rocks and large roots. No bonus road. After a while, there are 2 intersections. One will bring us going around and one will bring us to “ghost climb”. It called “ghost climb” because the climb is really steep. You have to hold the ropes. You can say it is semi rock climbing. After that steep climb, we thought it nearly summit already. The top if the trees were already seen. But it was not as we thought as will be. It was nearly dark and impossible to continue our walk. So we decided to find some area to camp, althought a little slope.

That night, we literally just ate Pop Mie and going to sleep. At dawn, many people went up to the summit. Actually, we are not allow to camp at summit route. Around 6 am in the morning, we woke up, ate some breads and went up to the summit. After a while, we arrived at “Tanjakan Rante”. It means the summit is near! The trail is made of rocks and sands. It safe enough because they put a rope along side the route. Sun rose already. And finally! We got to the top at 9 or 10 am. We were really near with the cloud, it was really beautiful. Just take a look at the photos. We also borrowed a flag with other hiker to take photos.

And thats all my story from Mount Gede J It really worth to visit if you want to enjoy nature and going away a little bit from city life.

Hello, I’m back after a long time no-post period on my blog. Finally, I can finish this story continuing my Korea Holiday seriesJ. Anyway, I got a job (FINALLY), so yes probably I couldn’t write stories as often as last year. This post will be about Ihwa Mural Village, an area in Ilhwa-dong. Before, Ihwa Village was not as pretty as now. However, there were some new developments going on in this area. And these days, Ihwa Mural Village becomes one of the most artistic places in Seoul.

Ihwa Mural Village is located at the top of Mount Naksan. Can you believe it? There is an artistic mural village at the top of a mountain and it is in the center of a metropolitan city. If you want to visit this village, there are some ways, either by subway or public buses. As usual, I recommend subway for Korea first-timer tourist. It is easier to ride a subway because the routes are very clear to understand. I will give you the detail information later below.

From its name, you can clearly guess what an area Ihwa Mural Village is. This area, located at the top of Mt. Naksan, is fully packed with mural paintins on their wall and art installations. Other than eye catching mural paintings, you can find many art museums, art centers, and also cute cafes around this neighborhood. Do you know that you can see one of the most famous mural paintings? And it often becomes a background setting on Korean drama. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take the photos because that famous mural painting was under construction when I went there. But don’t worry; there are still many pretty paintings and art installations. Plus, it is instagramable J

For those who enjoy art and craft, you should come to Ihwa Mural Village. I really love the atmosphere there. It was so artsyyyy. I went there when cool air of springs hit your nose. Time to enjoy an afternoon walk while hunting some artsy photos. You can also see some art crafts like leather goods or wood crafts in many art centers. Or maybe you can simply enjoying your time in a cute little coffee shop. The locals were really friendly; you can interact and socialize with them.

How to get there :

1. Subway

Nearest Station : Hyehwadong Station, exit 2