Malabar mountain

Malabar mountain

The first thing you see when you enter the Cisangkuy valley from the north is the mountain. Malabar The name only conveys something exotic; It is quite possible that the mountain bears the name of the Malabar coast in India. Given that West Java was one of the strongholds of Indian Hindu culture, this would not be surprising. It is a beautiful natural work at over 2300 m altitude. Dominates the horizon of Bandung, Mt. Malabar is the visible mountain north of Bandung. The huge explosion crater that opens to the northwest shows that it is one of the old volcanoes of the West Java family.

Follow the previous instructions in Banjaran. 5 km after Banjaran there is another detour on the left leading to a camp frequented by Indonesians. This narrow but well-paved road winds ever higher through the rice terraces and offers a magnificent view of the Bandung Basin.

The campsite near the old tea plantation is also a good starting point for good excursions, for example to a higher waterfall. Ambitious souls might consider attacking a mountain top. Malabar, that is not easy and needs to be planned carefully. Evening rain is more common here than in Bandung, so remember.

The huge crack in the mountainside in front of you comes from a prehistoric eruption. It was also the location of the world famous radio station Malabar Radio. At that time, no other colony of such economic importance was as far from home as the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch have therefore made great efforts to install mysteriously disguised ferns and pines ruins: all that remains is the former Malabar tea plantation. A radio station that allows direct communication between Holland and Java.

After Marconi was able to send radio signals across the Atlantic in 1906, the technology was quickly perfected and intercontinental radio communication became possible. For the Dutch project, huge wired antennas should be suspended between two peaks. The huge jump in the side of the mountain. Malabar offered the ideal natural conditions for such an installation. Antennas could be hung directly in front of the gorge, the Lamajan hydroelectric power station, further down the valley, assuming power can be transmitted and everything is not far from Bandung. On 5 May 1923, Radio Malabar went on air with the strongest transmitter in the world (up to 1,800 kW). A telecommunications connection was established with the Netherlands 12 000 km away. When the Dutch government collapsed, the plant deteriorated and was never restored. The foundation of the antenna masts would still be somewhere in the jungle.

Even the houses where once the administrative staff of the tea plantation resided, are in ruins. These are located on the western slope of the mountain at 1300 m altitude, about 35 km or about an hour's drive from Bandung. Strangely enough, with a strange mixture of pines and huge tropical ferns, they still carry the names of the former inhabitants, mainly Dutch and Chinese. A little further up are the remains of a water-filled basin filled with silt. It must have been a nice place, but something cold for swimming. That's all that's left of the old colonial plants. Today there are food stalls, a tennis court, an information booth (probably not open when you are there) and a number of trails that invite the forest.

Another destination in Java
Tourist attractions of Karimunjawa National Park Islands
Carita Anyer Banten Beach Tourism
Mount Kelud charms Kediri's natural beauty
The beauty of Mount Bromo and surrounds it
History of Borobudur Temple