AOE: "Fool or Clever" at Mount Tampomas, Indonesia.

Hola again ! How's everything going? Haha.. Here I am (again), an amateur blogger who likes to share whatever I feel I want to share. The previous AOE posting was about my travel experience to Singapore, different from the first two AOEs which described about India. I tried to distinguish every story sequentially even though I still have many stories about India that I haven't posted yet. It's kinda boring if you post same things (in this case is the same country) sequentially, isn't it? Currently, it's mount Tampomas turn.

Mount Tampomas is located in North Sumedang, Indonesia. It has about 1684 meters height. This Stravolcano has hot springs that came out in the area around the foot of the mountain. Its forest has some floras (jamuju, rasamala, and saninten) and faunas (mouse deer, lutung, wild boar, and some kind of birds). Tampomas summit is called "Sangiang Taraje". You can see the whole of Sumedang city from there. 200 meters to the north of "Sangiang Taraje", can be found a shrine named "Pasarean". Legend says that it was  a place of Prabu Siliwangi and Dalam Samaji in old Padjajaran kingdom era. (http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunung_Tampomas). I went to mount Tampomas with my friends (Deden, Wilan, Dhery, and Jodi) on December 2010.

Map of Mount Tampomas in West Java, Indonesia.

Went there by bikes from Subang to Sumedang city, we stayed one night at our friend's flat (D-1). In the morning, we used angkot (public transportation) and rode a truck to mountain's feet. Here is the video that we made when we were riding a truck (My first exeperience haha).

"Truck"-ing

On our way to Tampomas summit

Tampomas trip with COTAS (our community)

Releasing a leech from Jodi's feet

Hikers !!

Tampomas summit with fog

Had a rest and got some foods

 Trying to be photogenic LOL

Tampomas summit

We got through some hilarious experience that could have never been forgotten. Here they are:

• Jodi got a leech on his feet. Leech is known as a bloodsucker which means that if we pull it, it's going to suck your blood much more stronger. So, we decided to release it with a knife by dragging it out.
• We thought that we could get some fresh water to drink from its headwaters. So, we just brought 2 1,5L-bottles of water for 5 persons. But the fact is we didn't find the headwaters, if we did, it's difficult to be reached. Fortunately, Dhery brought his own 600mL-bottle of water without told us. It saved us LOL.
• Once we reached the summit, we couldn't enjoy the view over there because of the fog.
•  It's an unfortunate we got all wet on our way down to the city because it rained torrential. We tried to protect our important stuffs from getting wet and we did it.

So, that's all of my Tampomas experience. Maybe Tampomas was just like my media to get those experience. It could happen in every mountains. I hope you'all enjoy it. And hopefully it gives you who are planning to hike a mountain some lessons.

• Prepare a multi-tool and find some information about the area.(flora, fauna, weather, track, and so on)
• Bring a 1,5L-bottle of water each person. (Don't bring to many because it'll be a heavy load)
• Check the weather first before you hike.
• Bring a raincoat and prepare to face the rain like put your important stuffs to plastic and find something to help you get through a slippery field.

Let yourself free by seeing the world !!

Terima kasih. (Thank you)