Fiona Petite Traveler: Conquering Papandayan Mountain

October 16th - 18th 2015

HA! Its been over a month and I just started writing this post 😅 sorry in advance..

So lets just dig deep into the story

Travel partners

1. Anes

2. Michelle

3. Cinyu

4. Kinkin

5. Rafa

6. Sena

7. Putu

8. Venco

9. Leo

Papandayan is a volcano located in Garut, West Java. Its standing tall at 2665 meters above sea level.

Day 1 (Oct 16th)

Our meeting point was in our so-called beloved campus at 10 PM. But as always, not everyone arrived on time. It was because first Sena and Rafa was still on a guiding trip from Bandung. While me, cinyu and kin2 went to borrow a car from Riandi haha. 3 of us went to eat dinner first at Kwetiau 78 Gading Serpong (not as good as Seroja Baru doe) then to Benton and waited for like an hour for Riandi to arrive. Then at about 09.30 PM Riandi arrived and 3 of us went to our campus. FYI Riandi is going to Papandayan but he's with his own group.

At about 10 PM us 3 arrived in the campus. Then we waited for Rafa and Sena to arrive. At about 11 PM those 2 finally arrived and then we prayed together and started the trip! :D

1st car : Cinyu, Kinkin, Fiona, Michelle, Anes, Leo

2nd car : Venco, Putu, Rafa, Sena

It took us about 5 hours to finally arrive at the parking lot of Papandayan Mountain.

Me, Anes and Leo didnt sleep at all on the road. So us 3 only slept an hour in the parking lot before we started hiking.

Day 2 (Oct 17th)

After we met Kang Dede, the one who rented us 3 tents. We gathered and prayed together again to really hope we nailed this trip. After the pray finished, the journey starts!!!

9 of us never hiked before while Leo is a member of a hiking community. It kinda showed that he was the only one we can rely on :')

After about 10 steps, Michelle already had her nose bleed hahaha. Well according to her boyfriend, Anes, she never worked out and lets just assumed that shes weak (sorry chelle hehe) In order to keep going, her carrier was carried by Kin2 and Venco carried 2 backpacks, so Michelle didnt carry anything. After about an hour all of us started to feel tired, I was sweating crazy like a pig, my shirt was drenched and I was smelly af haha. We regretted going there at first hahaha. There was only uphill road and really tho I was not enjoying it. I carried 45L drybag (which I constantly watching if any brach ripped my bag) that contained 3 stoves, 3 gases and I still carried one tent. It was tiring but at least the cold breeze cooled me down.

We took rest like every 10 minutes hahaha. Then after 4 hours we finally reached the base camp. We just laid under the tree and took rest, some of us were already having lunch. Then we looked after a place to build our tent in, we didnt want a super crowded area because there were more than 150 hikers at that time whuttt. Then we finally found a perfect place right in the middle of the forest with no other tents near us. People could barely see us. Then we built our tents, set up my hammock. After a while, Riandi came (somehow knew where we were) then he took us to Dead Forest with his group. Us 9 ended up going, except Leo because he already been to Papandayan before and he decided to look after our tents. It took us 20 minutes or so to get to the Dead Forest. I was totally in a bad mood back then because some of Riandi's friend was very rude and so not welcoming, we decided to seperate. The hell with those guys. We didnt continue to Tegal Alun (about 30 minutes more from where we were). Then we went back to our tents to prepare for dinner. We took a lot of photos and videos along the walk. I was sad but Venco was cheering me up constantly, xiexie Nen.

Then we arrived at our camp and starting to prepare for dinner. After a struggle to cook the rice properly and cook in a very small pot hahah, we finally ate. The menu was veggie soup, fried saussage and rice. It was simple but really good. Then we all chit chatted and I ended up sleeping in my hammock because I was tired. I woke up with Riandi shaking my hammock, I smiled instatly hehe. I insisted that he has to sleep with us and he really came yey.

Day 3 (Oct 18th)

Then we set up our bonfire and continue to chit chat. It was really nice just having a good talk with friends. Then we went to our tents and slept. We slept at about 8 PM hahaha, we were all very tired thats why we slept early. I couldnt sleep well, I woke up more than 5 times and I heard many weird noises, I heard Michelle sleep talking, footsteps and many more. It was pretty spooky! I kept going down because we set up our tent on an uneven land. I kept trying to reach Riandi's hand to hold on so I sleep in place but he didnt budge -_- until finally at about 1 AM he woke up me and gave his hand (finally duhh) Then I slept until the morning came..

Venco Rafa Sena Putu woke up at 4 to see the sunrise while the others including me just continued sleeping hehe. Then at 6 AM me and Riandi went back to Dead Forest because we didnt have quality time together since yesterday. Then we went and took lots of pictures and videos together. We didnt took much time, we came back after an hour. Riandi then went back to his base camp while the rest of us was cooking breakfast. The menu was, coconut milk rice, fried tempeh and scrambled egg. After we finished eating, we all cleaning up and preparing to go back to the parking lot. Riandi's group went first. My group went an hour later. The downhill road was not bad, I didnt feel tired as yesterday. It only took us an hour and half to arrive back at the parking lot. We enjoyed a nice fresh coconut water and then we went back home. Along the way, we ate lunch at a restaurant (forgot the name) and then we continued to go back home. We arrived at about 10 PM in the campus.

We bid farewell there. While me, Cinyu and Kinkin still had to get the car back to Riandi. We went to Karawaci and met Riandi. Then we went to Cinyu house. Then Riandi drove us to search for taxi for me and Kinkin. But Thank God there was a person going off from a bus that can take us back. I yelled out to Kinkin that was talking to a taxi driver, he ran into the car and we drove to catch the bus hahaha. Then me and Kinkin went back to campus and our journey was finally over <3

Was totally awesome, definitely want to hike some other mountain (but I prefer to set base camp near other tents! For sure haha)

Each of us spent IDR 225.000 (not included the last lunch at the restaurant)

Here are some pictures :)