Kawah Putih

Kawah Putih is a crater on Mount Patuha, an hour or two south of Bandung, filled with a shallow lake whose colour shifts between milky white, pale green and a strong turquoise depending on the light and the mineral content. The name means white crater, and it comes from the bleached rock and sand around the shore. The setting is high enough to be genuinely cold, with mist drifting in and out and bare tree trunks standing at the water's edge, which is why it turns up so often in photographs and, increasingly, wedding shoots. Boardwalks run along part of the shore. The water is acidic and sulphurous, and the smell is not subtle.

History

The lake is said to have been first documented in the West in 1837 by the German botanist Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn, at a time when local stories held that birds would not fly near it. The crater has had no significant activity since around 1600; it was opened to visitors in 1987, and from 1991 the state forestry firm Perhutani developed it as a tourist site (Wikipedia, Kawah Putih).

What's there

• The crater lake - shallow water that changes between white, green and turquoise.
• The white shore - bleached mineral sand and rock around the edge of the water.
• The dead trees - bare trunks standing in and around the lake, killed by the fumes.
• The tea plantations - the hillsides of clipped tea bushes on the drive up from Bandung.

When to go

Arrive early. The crater is often clear first thing and then fills with cloud, and the car park is full by mid-morning at weekends. May to September is drier. Weekdays are far quieter than Saturdays and Sundays, when Bandung and Jakarta empty into the highlands. Bring a jacket: it is cold at this altitude.

Good to know

Sulphur fumes make long visits uncomfortable and staff limit time at the shore; anyone with breathing problems should think twice. On busy days the boardwalk is a queue of people waiting for the same photograph, complete with props and costume rental. The road from Bandung is slow and jams badly at weekends. Foreign visitors pay noticeably more than locals.

Nearby

The Rancabali tea estates and the Situ Patenggang lake are minutes away.

Key facts