Lessons from the White Crater

This is just one of my adventures in volcano land. At some point, I found myself in the most surreal place I had ever seen - the white crater or Kawah Puti located in West Java. This was during my 2-month adventure in this country starting from the north in Sumatra ending up in the beautiful island of Bali. Before I arrived in one of the most touristic places in the world, I was able to visit some beautiful and underrated places in the country.

I was staying with my couchsurfing hosts, the university students in this city called Jatinanggor. The Uni boys were the most fun hosts and they really went out of their way to help me despite their busy school stuff. This was really one of the great things about the couchsurfing community. Indonesians are my favorite people in the world aside from Brazilians. Perhaps because Indonesians are kind and helpful people and they can understand what I'm talking about. It is nice to have a good reputation and to be known as kind people in this world, isn't it? Anyway, my friends here recommended me this place so I decided to go on a day trip to the countryside.

My host rode his motorbike and took me up to the bus station. The bus just dropped me at the main entrance of the park. It was still around 5km more up to the crater and I believe you need to have some private transportation to go up. I got here late in the afternoon and I was still on a long solitary walk up to the crater. But it was the nicest feeling I had here, enjoying solitude while marveling at this natural wonder. At some point, I got some free ride along the way which helped me get to the crater before it got dark.

This sulfur lake is part of Mount Patuha, just one of the many volcanoes in Java. This stunning crater lake shows a stable volcanic system that has been inactive since the 1600s. The lake is 2,340 meters above sea level so it was quite chilly around here. It was quite a change after being in the very humid lowland. This is a highly acidic lake and the color changes from bluish to white green. It depends on the oxidation temperature and concentration of sulfur.

I had only seen local tourists around here which was not quite surprising because most of the foreign tourists flock to Bali. It was all fine so to keep this amazing place unspoiled. So it was just quite difficult for me to understand the signs as everything is in Bahasa or the local language. If only I had stayed in this country longer, I would probably have learned another language. It was not too difficult to learn as the grammar structure is pretty easy.

The crater is surrounded by forest and there is amazing wildlife to be seen around here too. It is possible to go on little trekking to witness the heavenly landscape around the crater. Just the smell of sulfur was quite strong as you can see the sulfurous gas bubbling from the lake.

The crowd finally left and you can just imagine my happiness of being here. It was pretty insane to have this natural beauty all to myself for a moment. Sometimes, I couldn't believe myself whenever I get stuck in a moment with myself. Like, am I really here right now? Or is this just a dream? Well, it is a good place to be stuck in a moment alone. Spiritual revelations happen when you are on a solitary journey. I guess if you stop waiting around for life to happen and if you stop waiting for people to make life happen for you, you will be rewarded with some of the most amazing moments in your life. A life well spent.

The silence, the fog and all that mysterious scene I had never seen in my life. It was hard to worry if I should leave soon to catch the bus back to the city. It was too tempting to stick around for a little longer. Overall, it was a great experience to be in this crater lake and I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to see a unique natural place in the country.