Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Juanda Forest Park, Bandung

July 8th, 2009.

It is a nice, lush, and historic forest park, located on the north of Bandung city. Nice for its narrow trail among tall pine trees with sound of water trickling and flowing from a nearby waterfall (Curug Dago / Dago Waterfall) and a river down below (Cikapundung River). It's lush with vegetation, you can tell by how damp and slippery the ground is as the groundwater keeps it moist all the time. Historic because it hosts two tunnels, or "cave" as the locals call it, built by Dutch and Japanese army to store their ammunition during their occupations in Indonesia in 1940's (part of World War II).

The official name of the park is Ir. H. Juanda Forest Park (or Taman Hutan Raya Ir. H. Juanda). This park is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Juanda, the last Prime Minister of Indonesia in 1957, who was a native son of West Java. "Ir", short form of "insinyur" means "engineer", is the old way to describe a title for Bachelor Degree. "H", short form of "haji" means "haj", indicates that he had gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Some interesting fact to learn.

Here's some photos from the trip.


Tall pine trees with angel's trumpets and mimosa trees
in between at the entrance of the park
(entering from Ir. H. Juanda Street).

Cikapundung River down below viewed from the park.
You can hear its water trickles while walking along the park.

Local farmer's vegetable gardens
on the hills of north Bandung.

The crop supplies to Bandung's main produce market.

The trail is guarded by lush vegetation.
Horse back riding for children is available.

Coming out of Japan Cave (Gua Jepang),
the tunnel built by Japan army.

The entrance to Dutch Cave (Gua Belanda)
the tunnel built by Dutch army.

Poinsettia

Mimosa tree

White-flowered mimosa tree

Angel's Trumpet trees are abundant here.
They grow all year round thus the height (some reaches 10 ft / 3 m).

A row of Angel's Trumpet trees.

A local delight, roast corn,
by the entrance to Dutch Cave.


Lonely Planet's notes about this place:

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