The reason to stay in Cipanas was to enjoy the hot springs. We decided to have another night of luxury and stayed in a lovely hotel where the showers were powered by the springs.

I needed to get some money and use the internet so went off in search of them. According to the hotel it was only 15 minutes away. I think they meant by bus. I walked for about three quarters of an hour and could not find where they meant. People were calling out at me, like at the beach, but instead of 'missus' I became male and they yelled out 'mister'. Normally I can deal with this by just ignoring it but it was extremely irritating especailly with the amount of laughter. It also started to rain. I stopped under some shelter for a second to check the map the hotel gave me and this woman just appeared. She stopped a bus for me and hustled me on. The buses run up and down the streets, you call they stop and then they drop you where you want. If you can communicate with them that is. They dropped me off somewhere similar to the map. I could not see an ATM so tried asking a policeman. For some unknown reason he did not know what an ATM is, even though that is what they are called in Indonesia. A massive group gathered and the men started trying to take me there. Put off by the fact they were intimidating and I did not want to get money out with them there, I apologised and caught a bus back to the hotel. It was the most frustrating experience I have had. Luckily the lovely shower soothed my soul, only for it be upset again when we realised we were staying in a tee-total town!!!

After a lovely dinner, we went for a swim in the pool, filled by the hot springs. It was very strange to get into something so naturally warm. As silly as it sounds the water felt very clean and soothing. We went to try and get in another pool nearby but the water was roasting. I could only put a toe in and only for a second!

The next day we decided to see an essential Indonesian site- a volcano. There was one near Bandung but was very touristy so we decided to stick near Cipanas and go to the Gunug Papandayan volcano. A clapped out minibus took us up there and I can see why it was clapped out. The road was atrocious, we bounced up and down for about an hour.

The volcano is a stratovolcano and normally when it erupts it explodes. It erupted with catastrophic consequences in 1772 when 3000 people died. It last erupted in 2002, luckily no one died. Factually- it has four large summit craters, the youngest of which was breached by a collapse during a brief eruption in 1772 and contains active fumarole fields. The broad 1.1-km-wide, flat-floored Alun-Alun crater truncates the summit of Papandayan, and Gunung Puntang to the north gives the volcano a twin-peaked appearance. Several episodes of collapse have given the volcano an irregular profile and produced debris avalanches that have impacted lowland areas beyond the volcano. Knowing this we approached with some trepidation.

We hired a local guide as we could not have found our way otherwise. The last eruption destroyed the road leading up to the volcano so we had to clamber up the debris to see the sights. Our guide pointed out sulphur desposits along the way and as we climbed higher you could steams of hot air bursting from the ground. It also got a lot hotter. We then started walking past little pools of bubbling water, a sign of the activity of the volcano.

We finally reached one of the first bursts of steam. The smell of sulphur was intense and if the wind blew the steam towards us it was impossible to breath. We saw bubbling lava (not red but like mud) a metre away from us and massive rocks- either stained with sulphur or sulphur deposits, which were bright yellow. The noise was immense, at one point it sounded like we were stood by a jet plane engine. It was a very surreal sight, a dead land. Further up were skeletons of trees that had been destroyed by the eruption making the sight even more desolete. It is a sight I will not forget.

We talked to our guide about the 2002 eruption. He was working that day and just heard the loud bang as it blew. All he remembers is running in the opposition direction and living to tell the tale. He said that there was now an observation station there but we saw no sign of it.

Wandering round, we suddenly realised how high we had climbed and that we would have to scramble down the debris to get back. At this point my flip flop decided to break, making it a harder climb down! I would recommend to anyone to see this volcano, it reminds you of the power of nature and how much we are at her mercy.

From the volcano we headed back to Jakarta via a local bus. Initally packed, it eventually lessened and we were able to have some space. However, the bus played Indonesian music at full volume. I am all for local music but this was awful, pure pain. They also did a rendition of Celine Dion's Titanic song which hurt my ears. It was certainly an experience!