We didn't end up leaving until around Noon. One of the Chinese teachers, Fanita, slept for so long! I couldn't believe how much she slept on the trip. I think she may have been the last one to get ready for the day. Our first stop on our adventure for the day was the volcano! I was told before we left for Bandung that the volcano was due to erupt anytime. Awesome, but they were still letting people up to view it. I am glad that I didn't have to hike up to the top of this one like we did in Bali. We were actually able to drive all the way to the top. When we got up there, we got out of the van and walked around. There was so much steam coming out of the volcano. It probably was going to erupt at any time! Right when we got out, there were guys trying to sell us stuff. You just kind of have to ignore them and shoo them away.
The view was so amazing. I had never seen anything like it before, but I was looking down into the volcano. I guess you are able to walk down into the crater of the volcano, but I think they had it closed off so people couldn't do that. Amber, the Chinese girls and Eduardo all rode on horses for a bit around the volcano. I didn't really want to, so I just waited for them and took some pictures. They had a Lady Gaga horse! Haha, the horse had pink hair and her name was actually Gaga. Of course we just had to get pictures taken with her. We took a lot of pictures together and then walked around to all the little shops that they had up on the volcano. They had some interesting little shops with things that you could buy like carvings and paintings.
It was starting to get dark, so we decided we should probably get going. We asked our driver in the best Bahasa that we could if he recommended another place for us to go. The other place that we wanted to go to was closed. He recommended going to the hot springs, so we all agreed. We had been wanting to see the hot springs anyway, but the ones that we wanted to go to were closed. He knew another place that would still be open.
We got to the place and we paid the entry fee. We walked past an area that looked like a locker room, and we all just kind of looked at each other. I guess people actually came there to swim in the hot springs. We didn't really think anything of it, but when we got out there, all we saw was a pool! We walked around a little more and we didn't see anything else. We were so confused. We asked the other people at the pool, "di mana hot springs?" They pointed to the pool. What!? Yep, that's what we went to see. We were a little disappointed at first, but then we walked over by the pool and dipped our feet in. Wowzers, was it hot! Haha. It took me awhile to be able to put my legs in all the way. I don't know how some people were bathing in it completely? It was actually quite relaxing, and we learned that it is one of the nicest hot springs in Bandung, because they have turned it into a pool. They are able to take care of it.
After the hot springs, we had the driver take us to this restaurant called Kampung Daun. We had heard it was in the valley of the mountains and that it was very nice. Well, they were right. I loved the place. We got there and it was a lit driveway up to the restaurant. It was so pretty. When we got there, they showed us to our little hut where we would be eating. You ate outside in a little hut that was dimly lit. The food prices were decent and it was really good. Amber ordered some sate that was delicious! I had some strawberry tea, pasta and of course some cheesecake for dessert. Our driver actually ate with us too, because we had to pay for his meal. Usually the cost of your driver doesn't include their meal so you have to provide one. He didn't really seem to want to sit with us, but we wanted him to. They probably aren't used to people asking them to eat with them. We really enjoyed the meal and the conversation. We even included the driver and asked him some questions in Bahasa using our phrasebook. He was a very nice guy, and he seemed to enjoy himself.
After we were finished eating, it was time to go back to the hotel. The drive was about an hour or so to get back. That was the end of our little mini trip.
The next morning we all got up, and checked out of our hotel. We decided to check out a little restaurant called Nannys Pavillon for breakfast. It was recommended by another teacher from the school. It was a pancake house, so they had a ton of different types of pancakes that you could get, but it seemed to all be served with ice cream. They did have some pasta and appetizers that you could order too, so I ordered some food and shared it with Eduardo.
We went to the mall where our transportation would be picking us up to go back to Jakarta. It took us forever to get back. We came upon an accident where a truck had been completely crushed. Then we came upon another one on the side of the road. We think that because of the rain, there were accidents. Then when we got closer to Jakarta, the traffic got bad. I slept most of the time, so it went by quickly.
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